Coaches in hot water?
A couple of college coaches have made waves these past two weeks.
Will it doom them?
You can listen to my latest video commentary or read here:
Kelvin Sampson is at it again.
The former Oklahoma men’s basketball coach left Norman amid dark clouds of recruiting misconduct. Too many phone calls to recruits. The NCAA slapped him with one-year sanctions on recruiting.
Now, after a little more than a year at Indiana, Sampson is back in the recruiting doghouse. Indiana announced over the weekend that the coach broke his one-year penalty phase by participating in three-way recruiting calls on 10 occasions.
Indiana took away a scholarship for 2008-2009 and a $500,000 bonus for Sampson.
Ouch.
Many a Hoosier fan expressed outrage on internet message boards. Some even demanded that Sampson be fired. No doubt some would be angry regardless, but the truth is, as long as Sampson keeps winning, he’ll keep his job.
Winning is priority one, two, three and probably even four for a coach.
Look at Dennis Franchione. The Texas A&M coach is in hot water for providing an exclusive newsletter to a select group of boosters. For $1,200 a year, those boosters could buy the service, which included inside info on injuries as well as candid, and sometimes not-so-nice, assessments of players.
Texas A&M knew nothing of the newsletter.
Athletic director Bill Byrne talked last week of the embarrassment that the school felt over this incident.
I don’t doubt their embarrassment, but the significance of the situation depends solely on how Coach Fran’s teams do on Saturdays. For example, if the Aggies win the Big 12 South this season, go to the Big 12 Championship Game, maybe even play in a BCS bowl and turn around what has been an otherwise abysmal stretch for Texas A&M, the newsletter will be a footnote to the season. But if last week’s four-touchdown loss to Texas Tech is the start of an ugly slide that ends with a so-so season, the newsletter will be a much bigger deal.
The same goes for Sampson.
His Hoosiers made the NCAA Tournament a year ago, and if there’s more of the same or something even better this season, the recruiting issues won’t seem so bad to even the most incensed Indiana fan today.
It used to be that coaching college athletics was about more than winning. Graduating a high percentage players and running a clean program were important. Now, those things are nice, not necessary.
Bad for college athletics.
Good for coaches like Kelvin and Fran.
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Good thoughts. These coaches are great at making the public feel like they are in control and a “proper authority” on the practices of “their” team. But, really they are cheats like a t.v. evangalist. All of them…ask me I’m 40…I am a Mannnn. LOL…I hoped you laughed at that crap. I am a former player and love your articals and think you should dig dig on players and coaches…how else would we know which players and coaches are cheating, smoking weed, and hurting the good at heart. keep up the good work.