What might stop the NCAA from imposing the Death Penalty is exactly why the NCAA should impose it. The Death Penalty would punish the enitre ACC, it would punish the 12 teams Miami is scheduled to play in 2011. It punishes the 5 teams that Miami was going to visit this year. It punishes other sports teams at the school, and the university as a whole. It even punishes the economy of southern Florida. Everyone suffers, from the rich owner of hotels near Sun Life Stadium to the cleaning crew picking up trash after the game.
All these people are not responsible for what Miami's football program has done. But from now on, they'll be watching that program. And so will the interest groups surrounding other big football programs across the country.
Currently, the NCAA tries to monitor and discipline all the schools and programs in the country. That's a tough task. That's over 10,000 D-IA scholarship football players to keep tabs on, plus over 4,000 scholarship basketball players in D-I. And that's just the big money making programs. With so many athletes at so many schools, there has to be a more effective system of supervision and discipline.
It's all about pressure. If Miami receives the Death Penalty, there'll be pressure on the football team to clean up. That pressure will come from the school's trustees, from the AD, from local politicians. And there'll be pressure to keep the program clean once it's resurrected.
Going forward, the NCAA needs to apply pressure to the conferences. When USC was banned from postseason play for 2 years, the then Pac-10 suffered by losing potential bowl revenue. However, the Pac-10 did not have to relinquish the ill-gotten bowl money that USC was paid for their 2005 Rose Bowl appearance. It might seem unfair to punish the whole conference for USC's transgressions, but isn't it also unfair to reward the whole conference for USC's transgressions?
If the NCAA fines conferences for what happens with individual programs, the conferences will suddenly become excellent watchdogs. The schools running clean programs will lean on those running dirty ones to straighten themselves out. The conferences will investigate their programs. And instead of the NCAA monitoring 120 football teams, each conference can focus on the 8 or 10 or 12 programs under their supervision. That's just so much more efficient.
No conference has been directly punished for the violations of a program under their authority. Not surprisingly, I can't recall a single time that a conference reported a violation to the NCAA. The conferences aren't being watchdogs, because there's no pressure on them to do so.
If the NCAA holds conferences more accountable for what goes on underneath their noses, the NCAA also needs to grant the conferences more power. Conferences should be allowed to withhold TV and bowl game revenues from teams that are violating the rules. And once Athletic Directors are threatened with that possibility, they're going to be watching their coaches like a hawk.
Once the ADs scare the coaches, the coaches will realize that their job depends on the players they coach obeying the rules. The coaches will no longer wait until there's an accusation of foul play until they get off their asses and investigate. They'll actively take an interest in the financial lives of the players under their charge. And when a defensive end suddenly has a new Lexus, they'll take notice.
If the NCAA applies pressure to the conferences, the conferences will apply pressure to their schools. The schools will apply pressure to their programs. The programs will then apply pressure on the coaches, who will apply pressure on the players.
A few weeks ago, Ohio State's football program went unpunished for the memorabilia violations of its players, and the failure of the head coach to report it. The NCAA claimed that the school didn't have knowledge of what was going on, and therefore should not be punished. That's bullshit. In my opinion, Ohio State's football program failed to sufficiently monitor its athletes. Isn't it the job of the program to ensure compliance with NCAA regulations?
As long as the NCAA continues to use passive and soft disciplinary inactions like that, there will be widespread violations of NCAA rules. OSU football was excused for not knowing what was going on in their own program. I believe that OSU, and every other program in the country, needs to be held responsible for what goes on under their supervision. That's the only way to make them actively monitor their athletes' behavior.
There's always going to be sketchy boosters and agents giving money, cars, and girls to athletes. But if the NCAA overhauls its disciplinary system, and holds conferences responsible for their schools, schools accountable for their programs, programs responsible for their athletes. then epidemics of corruption like that at Miami won't occur. There will be single, isolated incidents. But there won't be systems of negligence and abuse that go on for years and involve dozens of athletes and coaches.
It's all about applying pressure, and making people scared that they might lose some money.
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