David Marsh No. 1 Share Posted July 16, 2023 Volunteers avoid bowl ban as NCAA finds over 200 violations - ESPN WWW.ESPN.COM Tennessee avoided a bowl ban but has been fined more than $8 million by the NCAA Division I Committee... Tennessee will finally be punished for McDonald's bags of cash to recruits. For the record this would still be illegal under today's rules as well, as this was coaches giving money directly to recruits. And even if these had been players on the roster at the time it would have been illegal regardless because at the very core of the matter here is that an institution and entities attached with an institution, namely anyone on the institution's payroll, cannot pay players. So yeah this is a a big fine and the article says it equates to a bowl ban financially and Tenn has self imposed some scholarship reductions. And for this "good behavior" it still really looks like Tennessee got off easy. We all know what happened to USC when they were hit with the NCAA's ban hammer over paying players. And we can all imagine what would have happened if this was Oregon or some other pac-12 school that was caught doing this. The ASU case for on campus visits, paid for my the previous coaching staff, during the 2020 season is still floating around. So we'll see eventually how ASU is treated by the NCAA.. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph No. 2 Share Posted July 16, 2023 Oregon in record time was dinged for using a 'runner' to help with recruiting, something that never happened in Dixie except for Cam's father shopping him, right? Ole Miss ran a pay-for-play program and received nothing close to the penalties laid on SC. And the cheating coach behind it all is back coaching in the SEC at Auburn. UNC athletes benefited from phony classwork for two decades, crickets. Ohio State guys swapped gear for Tats and suffered the loss of a bowl game. It's a double if not a triple standard. Unfortunately, money at least the love of money, has made it impossible for the Pac-10 before CU and Utah and the B1G before Nebraska, Maryland, and Rutgers to stay above and out of the fray. To keep the eye on the Rose Bowl prize and let other conferences cheat their way to success. The $cam continues. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh Author No. 3 Share Posted July 16, 2023 On 7/16/2023 at 10:13 AM, Jon Joseph said: Oregon in record time was dinged for using a 'runner' to help with recruiting, something that never happened in Dixie except for Cam's father shopping him, right? I know many would poo-poo the severity of the sanctions Oregon received but they really did hurt recruiting. Loss of scholarships hurt... But what really hurt was loss of official visits. Oregon had always been dependant on official visits where they can get kids on campus to see the facilities. So the sanctions took the 35 official visits (laughably small by today's rules that allow something like 70 official visits) and reduced Oregon's officials down to like 27 if I recall. That's barely enough for one per commit. That really hurt Oregon's recruiting and it changed the mentality from giving official visits out to long shots that may be interested to really only giving official visits to sure fire commits. The recruiting classes suffered a bit. It's amazing how small things like that can change everything. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A Moderator No. 4 Share Posted July 16, 2023 On 7/16/2023 at 8:07 AM, David Marsh said: We all know what happened to USC when they were hit with the NCAA's ban hammer over paying players. I was Ok with that . . . 1) It was $c 2) They flipped double birds at the ncaa with their attitude and I think that added to the penalties. 3) See No. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh Author No. 5 Share Posted July 16, 2023 On 7/16/2023 at 11:37 AM, Steven A said: I was Ok with that . . . 1) It was $c 2) They flipped double birds at the ncaa with their attitude and I think that added to the penalties. 3) See No. 1 I hate USC as much as any other Duck fan... And I think their punishment was fine. But there should be a standard. The only reason why their punishment is disproportionate is because they keep letting everyone else off easy by comparison. Lots of schools have learned to punish themselves early before the NCAA is even started the investigation and the NCAA will often go... "That's good enough... Good on you to punish yourself" where that's not how this should work at all. Self punishment should not be considered apart of the NCAA punishment... If a university wants to punish their programs for acting badly they should do that but it shouldn't make a later punishment lesser. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennsylvania Duck Moderator No. 6 Share Posted July 16, 2023 Report: Tennessee Attorney General used NIL law to threaten NCAA to avoid bowl ban Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti cited NIL in helping the Volunteers football program avoid a postseason ban as part of the NCAA’s penalties for a years-long investigation into recruiting infractions during the Jeremy Pruitt tenure, stating that “NCAA rules cannot supersede Tennessee law,” per Adam Sparks of the Knoxville News Sentinel. Skrmetti argued that a NCAA postseason ban would violate the state’s newly-implemented NIL law as it would restrict the athlete’s capability to earn money via NIL to the rate they would otherwise. The law was purposefully amended during the investigation to help Tennessee leverage itself to “produce a favorable verdict” from the NCAA. “Tennessee law prohibits the NCAA from imposing such a sanction and I will not hesitate to vindicate the rights of UT students to enjoy the full measure of ther intercollegiate athletic opportunities,” Skrmetti wrote in a letter he penned to the NCAA Vice President of Legas Affairs Scott Bearby, via Sparks. “NCAA rules cannot supersede Tennessee law.” Report: Tennessee Attorney General used NIL law to threaten NCAA to avoid bowl ban - On3 WWW.ON3.COM The Tennessee attorney general aided the Volunteer football program in helping avoid a postseason ban from the NCAA. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph No. 7 Share Posted July 16, 2023 On 7/16/2023 at 2:37 PM, Steven A said: I was Ok with that . . . 1) It was $c 2) They flipped double birds at the ncaa with their attitude and I think that added to the penalties. 3) See No. 1 However, the NCAA in its official report noted full cooperation from SC. Pete Carroll was specifically cleared. Todd McNair, SC RB coach, was the only thin connection between Reggie and his agent. McNair sued and ultimately scored a big settlement from the NCAA that Oregon helped pay for along with the legal fees. Miami AD, Paul Dee's, house was a blazing inferno, and he and his friends put a campfire at SC with a ten-truck fire alarm. Bush and his family received extra benefits from an agent paid so that Reggie would not play for SC his senior season. Ole Miss and Tennessee were paying dozens of recruits to play for pay. Freeze and Pruitt both received NCAA Show Cause penalties. And this kind of cheating did not result in the loss of a bowl game. One booster will cover the $8M fine. It was a massive hose job and certainly did not help the fledgling Pac12 Network. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph No. 8 Share Posted July 16, 2023 On 7/16/2023 at 2:43 PM, David Marsh said: I hate USC as much as any other Duck fan... And I think their punishment was fine. But there should be a standard. The only reason why their punishment is disproportionate is because they keep letting everyone else off easy by comparison. Lots of schools have learned to punish themselves early before the NCAA is even started the investigation and the NCAA will often go... "That's good enough... Good on you to punish yourself" where that's not how this should work at all. Self punishment should not be considered apart of the NCAA punishment... If a university wants to punish their programs for acting badly they should do that but it shouldn't make a later punishment lesser. David, based on any precedent, other than for the Death Penalty handed to SMU, the penalties against SEC were way over the line. These penalties not only hurt SC they hurt the entire conference. There is no standard. The NCAA is a kangaroo court that makes it up as they go along. West Coast and Midwest schools have historically suffered disproportionate penalties. It's a $cam but it Ju$t Mean$ More, right? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph No. 9 Share Posted July 17, 2023 This is what happens when a regional sport goes national and is monetized. College football media days? If these happened at all once upon a time there were ink-stained wretches only in attendance. Today? SEC media days run for four days, covered by the uber-successful SEC network. 72 hours of coverage. The B1G media day coverage is not this big but it does run for 2 days on a watched B1G network. Pac-12 media days for a conference with 5 and perhaps 6 teams ranked in the preseason, 1 day on the 13M subscriber Pac-12 network. My conclusion. What Dan Lanning is doing on the recruiting trail in light of this and all of the flack being thrown at the Pacific conference is simply amazing. This also shows the power of the Oregon brand. The Ducks need to do all it can when it comes to getting Puddles in front of a national audience and I hope Oregon will do all it can to retain the services of a young, enthusiastic top-drawer recruiter. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
