As much as we tend to rant about the NCAA in these parts, you can’t lay all the blame for what sucks about collegiate athletics on its doorstep. I mean, there’s a 94-page report it issued on a number of serious infractions committed over an eight-year period at Syracuse…
In its report, the NCAA placed Syracuse on probation for five years for breaking with the “most fundamental core values of the NCAA.” Athletic department officials interfered with academics, making sure star players stayed eligible, the report said.
… concerning a program that’s been severely penalized before, whose coach harbored and defended a pedophile on his staff, and what’s the school’s response?
He’s getting three more years to coach there. I guess that’s what being “the embodiment of Orange pride” gets you.
If there’s a message there beyond just win, baby, I’m not hearing it. Maybe somebody from North Carolina can explain it to me.
Get The Picture 
I think I’m going to find a nice Division III school to start following.
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Sooo…Syracuse institutionally did basically the same things in basketball that State Penn did in football, including covering up an assistant coach molesting young boys, and what punishment does Syracuse get? If I were the President of State Penn I would be all over the NCAA and filing a new lawsuit.
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“State Penn” First time I’ve seen that. Pretty funny Mayor. Mind if I use it when referring to PSU?
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I stole it from Mac. Use it all you want as far as I am concerned.
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I’ll defend Boeheim on the Bernie Fine situation, as he can’t be expected to know everything his assistants are doing in their personal lives outside of work. Heck, even Fine’s own wife said Fine’s behavior was weird at times, but she didn’t know the full extent of what he was involved in.
With that said, people have told me for many years that Boeheim runs a shady operation up there, including a particular ‘Cuse grad that I’m good friends with. For those who have never had the displeasure of visiting Syracuse, its a cold, run down, depressing place (same goes for the Carrier Dome); thus Syracuse is at a competitive disadvantage compared to many other schools.
The fact that Syracuse pulled themselves out of the NCAA tournament when they had little chance of getting in anyway says quite a bit. Yet, sadly but not surprisingly, the NCAA went along with it, and sure enough they can participate again starting next year. Their punishment also was a slap on the wrist, as the loss of two schollys is no big deal at a place like that in which many of their players leave early anyway.
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I agree he didn’t know about Fine’s behavior, which makes his aggressive defense of him all the more stupid/obnoxious.
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No doubt, but that’s just Boeheim’s personality. He’s mean and, frankly, downright cantankerous. The media (both local and national) despise him for his constant, immature name calling as reaction to articles written about him and his program. Youtube just a few of his press conferences and you’ll see what I’m talking about. He regularly calls people idiots for no reason whatsoever, and only displays a lukewarm at best personality only after you shower him with constant praise.
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To your point though about the disadvantages there, I wonder if that played into the 3 year thinking. That covers the majority of the probation period. In other words, if Boeheim stepped aside now, who in their right minds would want to take over the program now? Not only are you replacing a legend, which usually doesn’t work out, but you have the additional issue of dealing with 4 years of probation in addition to the disadvantages already mentioned. In other words, anyone who took over now would pretty much be guaranteed to fail. Even the assistant who is supposedly designated to be the next head coach probably wouldn’t want it right now.
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The fact that the AD was forced to step down while Boeheim kept his job is completely and totally asinine. After all, anyone who knows anything about Syracuse knows full well that Boeheim runs the show up there, in which the AD most certainly is not his boss.
Yep, apparently longtime assistant coach Mike Hopkins will be taking over in three years. I’m sure he’ll want the job for the money if nothing else. Either way, I see Syracuse sliding into irrelevancy soon.
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They have a coach in waiting who would have taken it. Now he gets it in three years.
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Totally Off topic,
Senator you think that the UGA president would ever say anything nearly as harsh as the UVa President’s statement about Martese Johnson?
Only ask because you know more about UVa than I do, but her actions seem very different than I would think Morehead would react. Certainly dont think that Adams would have lifted a finger or expended the capital to call the governor and ask for anything.
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Well, you’ve got to remember it’s been a pretty strange past few months in Charlottesville. The school took a big hit over that frat rape story that turned out to be false, but it’s been sensitive about things as a result.
That being said, as somebody who has concerns about police power abuse wherever it happens, I applaud her stance in this case.
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I thought that the rape story might be playing into it. I also think that her stance should be applauded. Thanks for the insight.
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I think the prior VABC transgressions here in Cville are what really caused her to jump on this; the rape ordeal was a minor factor. In my experience, Cville/Albemarle police are a solid group, but the VABC agents are a totally different story.
Here’s a link to the story I mentioned below. There have been a litany of such events like this over the years here.
http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/bottled-water-purchase-leads-to-night-in-jail-for-uva/article_b5ab5f62-df9b-11e2-81c4-0019bb30f31a.html
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No. As a Cville resident who will soon begin the EMBA program at Darden, I can attest that he culture is totally different up here; much more liberal and sensitive to such social issues.
Besides, UVa has gone through quite a bit over the past year, so Sullivan certainly felt the need to be proactive in this case. That, and the VABC agents here have a really bad reputation along with questionable prior incidents with UVa students; including a case last year.where a UVA student was arrested outside of a grocery store because VABC agents thought she had just purchased beer underage, when in fact it ended up being soda/bottled water.
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Has North Carolina been penalized yet? Or did I miss that?
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For what was known prior to the Wainstein Report, yes. For what additional issues were uncovered in the Wainstein Report, no.
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Not trying to defend Bernie Fine, but there were allegations against him that turned out not to hold weight. One guy even admitted to fabricating the whole story. After an investigation, federal prosecutors couldn’t find evidence to charge Fine.
We will never know what happened, and you can argue either side all day. But you are certainly feeding a narrative that was never proven by writing that Syracuse harbored a pedophile. That type of writing is something you’d find at ESPN.
http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=823401
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I saw part of the punishment was to vacate appx 300 wins. What I an curious about is when they do that do they also vacate the losses?
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The NCAA is like all governing bodies, given to uneven application of the rules (laws). This is usually due to the massive number of rules (laws) that the enforcers are trying to enforce. So it becomes almost impossible to not break some of the rules (laws). So you now have created selective enforcement. Selective enforcement eventually brings the rules and the enforcers into wide spread contempt. I know, I was an IRS agent in my early years and we selectively enforced the hell out of the Code. The “Voluntary Tax System” like the NCAA self-reporting system is a joke. We always referred to the tax audit system as the Audit Lottery. The NCAA enforcement is just as bad. The NCAA loves for the school to bring it’s own rope and build its own scaffold. The NCAA will then throw the lever and hang you.
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I can validate what you state about your experiences while in the IRS. I dated an IRS agent in Ca who said almost verbatim what you stated. They have now ironed that out and are picking on the rich GOP backers. 🙂
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Did you see his pitiful press conference today? OMG! Nothing but excuses and deflecting blame. Sounded like Hillary last week.
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I’ll tell Hillary that she has another listener.
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