Boise State Is Not Ohio State... Wait, What?

“The NCAA was so mad at Kentucky it will probably slap another two years of probation on Cleveland State”. Why punish a big program for massive violations when you can punish a little one and threaten the big program with the same later?

Unequal standards is how the NCAA has always worked.

Lack of Institutional Control is largely about the compliance department. Were the proper controls in place, and were they enforced? If the answer is yes, then there’s no LOIC. If no on either account, then there was a LOIC.

The NCAA determined that Ohio State’s compliance department had sufficient policies and procedures, and that the school enforced them properly. Put it this way: what could the OSU compliance department have done differently to catch Tressel? The only thing is reading all of his emails, something that is beyond what the NCAA requires. It would be cost prohibitive for every school to have staff to read every email that every coach sends.

By contrast, it’s hard to make the case that Boise State had both the right controls and proper execution of the controls. If a coach is playing someone who is not even enrolled, that’s as sure a sign as any. The rest of the women’s tennis violations are nearly as flagrant. If BSU didn’t have a lack of institutional control over its women’s tennis team, I don’t know what LOIC means anymore.

I agree that this looks like another case of hammering the little guy while letting the big guys skate, but based on the way that the NCAA rules are written, it’s the right call in both cases. Tressel personally should (and almost certainly will) get strung up by his toenails by the NCAA for lying, but I don’t think an entire athletic department is out of line if one coach goes rogue in a way that’s undetectable under reasonable compliance standards. On the other hand, I don’t know how an athletic department can’t have a lack of institutional control if everything reported about Boise women’s tennis is true.

Why, the non-BCS school, of course. I think it’s pretty realistic to infer that, had the schools committed the other’s violations, the school named “Boise State” still would have been the one slapped with the LOIC label. Much in the same way BSU players committing similar violations as those committed by tOSU players would never have been allowed by the NCAA to play in last season’s bowl games.

“We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day. So I think until a university runs through that gantlet that there’s some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to [be] in the big ballgame.”

FWIW.

But to piggyback minor (minor as in one account has a player be given $2.34, which was reimbursed) violations and call that a “lack of institutional control” is a bit of a reach. The NCAA found a total of almost $5000 of “illegal benefits” handed out to 63 players, in FOUR sports, OVER A 5 YEAR PERIOD. It’s ticky-tack at best. Especially in light of half the Ohio State offense selling memoribilia and autographs for thousands of dollars of tribal art. Nevermind the free vehicles from local dealerships and supposed “free” female companionship that is said to also have been given to buckeye players on a regular basis.

Remember too, Gordon Gee is one of the persons given the luxury golf outings and free benefits from the Fiesta Bowl. I believe he shared a room with Bill Hancock.

Film at 11

He should be ousted from college football for a year and then be allowed back on probation. The lack of institutional control is so blatant since Tressel is the freaking institution.

Can Texas quit the NCAA and start its own governing body? Independence from liars and cheats sounds like only a dream.

is pretty difficult to be the NCAA. To be faced with such evidence and have to come up with reasons, believable ones, not to punish people equitably would be a difficult proposition.

While the NCAA is woefully inconsistent, and standards such as “institutional control” are applied inconsistently – that is not the root cause of the issue. The issue is a LACK OF LEADERSHIP period. Leadership must define ethics as it primary core value. If the NCAA wants to end this program – it is so simple. It can be done in 2 steps -

1. Publish a code of ethics that every administrator and coach must sign and adhere to.
2. Communicate that if you violate these standards of ethics – you will not be allowed to earn a living as a coach or administrator after you have violated those rules.

I’m getting the sense that LOIC is simply about whether the compliance department exists in any meaningful sense as opposed to whether they’re actually doing their job in a competent and/or ethical manner.

In other words, it’s worse for Boise to not have known about the violations because they had a small compliance department than it is for Ohio St to have had a large compliance department that is either incompetent (didn’t find Tressel violations at any point, including during the investigation of the Tattoo Five) or corrupt (if they actually HAD found the violations and chose to ignore them).

To say it even more cynically, the only thing that apparently matters is how much money you’re wasting on compliance bureaucrats as opposed to how bad the violations are.