I promised a year ago when I returned that I wouldn't post much AND I've been away with the family, so forgive me for being late to the party. I-L-L...hello Jeremiah...Jordan, your seat next to him is waiting...and great job to Groce and staff!
I was reading about this in an old thread, so thought I'd chime in while we're waiting for some good news from a certain 4-star kid in Belleville...
EDIT: PUTTING THIS IN CAPS AND BOLD SO THAT IT CAN'T BE MISSED NOR MISINTERPRETED. IN NO WAY AM I SUGGESTING OUR CURRENT STAFF HAS DONE ANYTHING WRONG IN THEIR RECRUITING.
TO REPEAT THE LINE DIRECTLY ABOVE, THIS IS IN RESPONSE TO ANOTHER THREAD IN WHICH MY OPINION WAS ASKED FOR. I WAS AWAY FROM THE BOARD AND UNABLE TO REPLY AT THAT TIME.
The main problem with the lack of news reports of NCAA violations - you have to have proof or at least find someone who will go on the record and point the finger. Both are hard to come by.
Here's an example: years ago, I got a call from a very very reliable somebody who is a college assistant basketball coach who had heard 2nd hand about how an NCAA championship team returned from the Final Four to find their apartments filled with brand new electronics...video games, large TVs, cellphones, personal music players, etc. This same source later told me that the players who returned he following season were seen driving brand new cars from a local dealership and would swap out for a new car every couple of weeks to avoid detection...going so far as to hide in the service area bathroom until the new car was brought around.
He asked me if I could do a story on it. I asked "will your source talk to me?" He said "probably not...he's friends with one of the offending players and doesn't want to get him in trouble."
I asked "does he know of anyone on campus or who has ties to the team who will talk?" Again, no.
I asked "does he know the dealership name or any hint of where the electronics came from?" Again...no.
Now I couldn't go to CNN and say 'take me off the air so I can go undercover for a month on said campus to see what's going on'...they would have laughed at me. The sports department didn't have an investigative unit. However I almost convinced my station in Cincinnati to let me pose as a UK student in Lexington to see what I could find out...that would have been fun.
So with no proof or collaboration, I'm left with a story that's probably true but I can't go with and be hit with a lawsuit for slander.
Same holds for local reporters. Most big-time programs are NOT located in large media centers...meaning they are short staffed. AND - more importantly - depend on those programs to give them access. If a Channel 3 reporter broke a story on Malcolm Hill receiving illegal payments, you think Groce and the SID staff would welcome that reporter to practices and games - or anyone from that station - with open arms? It's a slippery slope. Yes, it's our job to uncover those stories, but without an ironclad source who is willing to go to the mat with you, it's just rumor and it gets you blackballed immediately.
Most of the stories that DO get reported is because somebody screwed up. Money falling out of a postal envelope, or a football player taking money from several different agents while in college and stiffing all but one of them, or a coach failing to pay a handler. Again, someone still had to step up and tell what was happening.
To top it off, the NCAA has little staff and it seems at times even less of a desire to chase this stuff down. And when it does come out, it's years later when offending players and sometimes staff are gone.
This is why I would love for coaches AND programs to be put on automatic 3-yr show-cause for violations - reduced scholarships, no cut of TV and tourney money, and no tournaments. It will never happen, but I can dream.
I was reading about this in an old thread, so thought I'd chime in while we're waiting for some good news from a certain 4-star kid in Belleville...
EDIT: PUTTING THIS IN CAPS AND BOLD SO THAT IT CAN'T BE MISSED NOR MISINTERPRETED. IN NO WAY AM I SUGGESTING OUR CURRENT STAFF HAS DONE ANYTHING WRONG IN THEIR RECRUITING.
TO REPEAT THE LINE DIRECTLY ABOVE, THIS IS IN RESPONSE TO ANOTHER THREAD IN WHICH MY OPINION WAS ASKED FOR. I WAS AWAY FROM THE BOARD AND UNABLE TO REPLY AT THAT TIME.
The main problem with the lack of news reports of NCAA violations - you have to have proof or at least find someone who will go on the record and point the finger. Both are hard to come by.
Here's an example: years ago, I got a call from a very very reliable somebody who is a college assistant basketball coach who had heard 2nd hand about how an NCAA championship team returned from the Final Four to find their apartments filled with brand new electronics...video games, large TVs, cellphones, personal music players, etc. This same source later told me that the players who returned he following season were seen driving brand new cars from a local dealership and would swap out for a new car every couple of weeks to avoid detection...going so far as to hide in the service area bathroom until the new car was brought around.
He asked me if I could do a story on it. I asked "will your source talk to me?" He said "probably not...he's friends with one of the offending players and doesn't want to get him in trouble."
I asked "does he know of anyone on campus or who has ties to the team who will talk?" Again, no.
I asked "does he know the dealership name or any hint of where the electronics came from?" Again...no.
Now I couldn't go to CNN and say 'take me off the air so I can go undercover for a month on said campus to see what's going on'...they would have laughed at me. The sports department didn't have an investigative unit. However I almost convinced my station in Cincinnati to let me pose as a UK student in Lexington to see what I could find out...that would have been fun.
So with no proof or collaboration, I'm left with a story that's probably true but I can't go with and be hit with a lawsuit for slander.
Same holds for local reporters. Most big-time programs are NOT located in large media centers...meaning they are short staffed. AND - more importantly - depend on those programs to give them access. If a Channel 3 reporter broke a story on Malcolm Hill receiving illegal payments, you think Groce and the SID staff would welcome that reporter to practices and games - or anyone from that station - with open arms? It's a slippery slope. Yes, it's our job to uncover those stories, but without an ironclad source who is willing to go to the mat with you, it's just rumor and it gets you blackballed immediately.
Most of the stories that DO get reported is because somebody screwed up. Money falling out of a postal envelope, or a football player taking money from several different agents while in college and stiffing all but one of them, or a coach failing to pay a handler. Again, someone still had to step up and tell what was happening.
To top it off, the NCAA has little staff and it seems at times even less of a desire to chase this stuff down. And when it does come out, it's years later when offending players and sometimes staff are gone.
This is why I would love for coaches AND programs to be put on automatic 3-yr show-cause for violations - reduced scholarships, no cut of TV and tourney money, and no tournaments. It will never happen, but I can dream.
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