Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/79325
A shock to 'the system' E very year, as bowl season hits its peak, I eagerly point out to any- one who will listen that college football is right there with boxing and horse racing as the most un- apologetically corrupt of all organized sports. Anybody with even a cursory knowledge of the NCAA's bowl sys- tem, from its massive payouts and perfectly legal bribery, to the bowls' status as charitable, tax-exempt or- ganizations, can recognize how shameless "the system" is. But no matter how much the public complains, the cash continues to flow and the people in power refuse to act as agents of change on behalf of stu- dent-athletes. It's the system we have, and it's too big to fail. And, to a certain extent, I've secretly admired the sheer arrogance and thinly veiled intentions of the powers that be. As an organization, the NCAA does- n't even attempt to hide its ethical transgressions. Its handling of trans- fer rules for Penn State football play- ers – and the programs that were en- couraged to recruit them – only fur- thers the notion, edging out even Olympic badminton in its absurdity. Under the guise of minimizing the collateral damage arising from its heavy sanctions against Penn State – sanctions levied without regard for its own bylaws – the NCAA instead put a target on players. With every opportunity to amend its ruling following the stampede of op- posing coaches to the Lasch Building and the apartments and classrooms of Penn State players, the NCAA has once again shown its disregard for players' welfare. At this point, nothing less would be expected. Of course, the colleagues of new Penn State head coach Bill O'Brien had a completely separate opportuni- ty to acknowledge the NCAA's flawed logic and work for the betterment of the sport. Aware of how damaging similar sanctions would be to their own programs, coaches should have known better than to attempt to pil- lage the Nittany Lions' depth chart. In an interview with a Philadelphia TV station, O'Brien responded to concerns about opposing coaches ac- tively recruiting Penn State players. "Those coaches were playing under the rules," he explained. "The only thing I would say is, if those coaches could give me a call and let me know that they're coming or that they're re- cruiting our kids, that's all I ask. But that's not part of the rules. They're doing what the rules say, and I un- derstand that. I respect the profes- sion." Certainly, the rules encourage the free agent bonanza we've seen, but any coach with a moral compass that extends beyond the direction of win- ning at all costs can see how unethi- cal this has been. And yet, Southern Cal coach Lane Kiffin described his recruitment of Silas Redd with all the shameless self-righteousness observers have come to expect. "We had looked through our situa- tion, our roster, their situation, and it really [was clear] that there was only one guy who would really fit that we felt could come in and really help us, and that was Silas," Kiffin told ESPN Radio. "We reached out to his high school coach just to tell him, hey, if there was any interest, know that we would have a potential inter- est." Of course, Kiffin also used the bully pulpit of the Pac-12 Media Days to publicly solicit Redd's services in front of a national audience, over and over and over again. Two years after facing his own set of NCAA sanctions, which granted Trojans players "free agency," Kiffin took the opportunity to engage in the same behavior he had previously de- cried. The sentiment was absurd then, and, with Redd enrolled at Southern Cal, it's even more absurd now. "They lifted those restrictions to help the coaches, really to help these players to have the choices that they wanted them to," he said. "We picked up the phone in true SC fashion and called one of our great donors, Ted Jones from Fletcher-Jones Mercedes. I called him. We were at the SoHo House for the Pac-12 dinner and he said, 'Let me guess, you're calling about Silas. Where are you at?' "So he sent his big old Mercedes jet, which was in Vegas, to pick us up in L.A. We got done with the Pac-12 meetings and flew to – I don't even know – White Plains, N.Y." Charming, indeed, that the gener- ous Ted Jones of Fletcher-Jones Mercedes in Newport Beach could help facilitate the completely unso- licited needs of a student-athlete. Only the NCAA, an organization de- signed to protect the academic inter- ests of its member institutions, would view this type of behavior as responsible. The good news for Penn State fans, many of whom are no doubt clinging to hope that the program can rise above the cesspool environment cre- ated by the NCAA, is that O'Brien ap- pears eager to hold the Lions to a higher standard. Asked in the same TV interview whether or not he would be on cam- pus recruiting players if the roles were reversed, O'Brien's answer was resolute: "Hell no." He probably would have liked to say more, laced with a few choice words unsuitable for this column. But he still managed to set the tone of moral authority Penn State fans have been desperate to hear. Said O'Brien, "That's not the right thing to do. In my opinion."