NCAA shows it’s out for blood
At long last, nearly three years after the FBI started poking around in the underground business that fuels college basketball, we’re starting to see some accountability from the NCAA.
And if the early returns are any indication, the NCAA is done messing around.
The penalties levied against Oklahoma State on Friday were fairly severe: A postseason ban for 2020-21, three years of probation, loss of a scholarship for three years and other various recruiting restrictions.
Given the details of the case, which involved former assistant Lamont Evans taking between $18,150 and $22,000 in bribes to steer athletes toward financial advisers, a postseason ban was surprising.
But the more interesting discussion is what that punishment portends for others who are waiting for their number to be called in the NCAA’S infractions process. We’re talking about schools like Southern Cal and Auburn, where the situation with former assistant Chuck Person looks similar, and obviously schools like Louisville, LSU, Arizona and Kansas where the underlying infractions are likely far more expansive than what Oklahoma State is dealing with.
Oklahoma State, of course, is going to both appeal the sanctions and play the public outrage card. The school issued a statement saying they’re “stunned by the severity of the penalties” and calling the ruling “an arbitrary decision … applied to the institution for the egregious actions committed by a former coach that did not result in any benefit for the University."
And maybe that’s true, to a certain extent. Evans, the former assistant, is long gone from the program. He wasn’t buying players, he was wheeling and dealing to profit for himself. And by getting hit with a postseason ban now, Oklahoma State’s one season with incoming recruit Cade Cunningham, who has a chance to be the No. 1 overall NBA draft pick in 2021, is likely ruined. You can understand how the school and its fans might view that penalty as very unfair.
But if you care at all about the best interests of college basketball, you can’t have it both ways this time. Either you want the NCAA to make a legitimate attempt to clean up the sport, which may include some really tough penalties, or what’s the point of even trying?
The NCAA has no choice here.
While the FBI investigation was largely a waste of government money and resources – after all the bluster, only a couple of shoe company executives and anonymous assistant coaches got popped – it exposed college basketball as a laughably corrupt enterprise in which Hall of Fame coaches like Bill Self have to rely on relationships with bag men and agent wannabes to help get them players.
College basketball is exactly as slimy as lots of us thought it was, and the only way to even start fixing it is by making some of the penalties so severe that coaches reassess the risk-reward equation that has long suggested that cheating pays.
Until now, the NCAA has been perceived as too weak and ineffective to really police any of this stuff, but nobody really counted on the FBI being able to tap phones and use undercover agents to lure basketball coaches and shoe company executives into a scheme.
While the FBI’S return on investment may have been small, their work gave the NCAA a road map to wield as a hammer. And hammer they will.
Oklahoma State was only accused of one Level 1 violation, yet that didn’t save their 2020-21 season Friday. Kansas, by contrast, has been accused of three Level 1 violations in men’s basketball and a head coach responsibility charge against Self.
LSU’S inevitable Notice of Allegations, which could include some incriminating wiretaps of head coach Will Wade, hasn’t arrived. Auburn has refused to say one way or the other whether theirs is in hand. Arizona is still bracing for impact.
Based on the precedent set Friday, they should all be very concerned.