U of O football scandal moving faster than offense
Well, you knew it was going to happen, but who knew that it would go down so quickly? No sooner did the Oregon Ducks football team crack the national title game that they were placed under a cloud of suspicion by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for apparent recruiting violations. The story being told is that they paid a street agent $25,000 to help influence high school athletes to attend the U of O, and did so in such a clumsy way that they were easily caught. Then the Ducks allegedly covered up what occurred to make it look as though they were paying the guy for services that didn't break the rules.
Now they're hiring a Kansas law firm at $330 an hour to help fight the NCAA charges, and apparently they're also hiring someone to follow the jocks around and make sure they stay out of trouble.
It looks to us as though they're tailing the wrong guys. If there's anybody who ought to be shadowed at this point, it's the football coach and the athletic director, both of whom are an embarrassment to the state. We are not better off than we were when the Ducks stunk in football; instead, we've sacrificed what was left of our value system at the tainted altar of big-school sports. Phil Knight's legacy sure has a wicked odor to it.
| Posted at 1:17 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (9)
Get the governor involved with lying about his knowledge of this, and it's a nearly line-for-line copy of Southern Methodist's pay-for-play scandal from 25 years ago. The difference, of course, is that U of O game attendees wouldn't behave as beastly as SMU brats did when their team played the University of Texas, and put up signs reading "Our Maids Went To UT".
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | July 6, 2011 1:33 PM
Re: "Now they're hiring a Kansas law firm at $330 an hour to help fight the NCAA charges...."
At that modest rate, UO is not expecting to fight fiercely.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in pro sports scandals, the Clemens trial commenced today. He is most likely paying a lot more than $330/hr, although his former attorney is no longer beside him:
"Last spring [2009], [AG Eric] Holder tabbed Lanny Breuer, his former partner at the major D.C. firm Covington & Burling, to head the DOJ's Criminal Division. In 2008, Breuer represented Roger Clemens at Senate hearings when the big right-hander denied under oath using steroids or human growth hormones. If Clemens gets indicted for perjury, the next question would be whether Breuer suborned him."
http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-10-27/news/we-ve-bailed-out-the-banks-when-do-we-go-after-the-crooks-behind-our-financial-collapse/2/
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | July 6, 2011 2:02 PM
Somebody peed in the whisky.
Posted by David E Gilmore | July 6, 2011 2:47 PM
Whose value system? I value being able to go to big time sports on Saturdays.
Posted by andy | July 6, 2011 3:16 PM
I value consistent updates on the Welches Con Man.
Posted by Terry Tate | July 6, 2011 11:20 PM
Jack, JoeBob and Mikey just read your O post. They think you are a bozo for saying "sacrificed what was left of our value system". They think if you conducted a Jay Leno sketch asking the commoners at Pioneer Square what they though about the Duck Incident, they'd reply "What, are you asking about how ducklings are pooping all over our parks?" They might also question what is a "value system".
Posted by lw | July 7, 2011 9:22 AM
Meanwhile on the other team: super-star Cam Newton steals another student's laptop, indelibly writes his name on the case, ham-handedly tries to dispose of the evidence, gets caught, and then ... nothing.
He played all season, and won the national championship game. Why was Cam Newton not suspended? Even the Ducks discipline players who pull this sort of thing. Maybe because he's one of the "made" people who bring in the big bucks for the NCAA?
Posted by Downtown Denizen | July 7, 2011 1:24 PM
Downtown Denizen, it's not Cam Fignewton, per se; it's the SEC. You know the "Screw Everything and Cheat" conference.
Posted by LucsAdvo | July 7, 2011 8:26 PM
The consequences of apparently minor infractions can be severe:
"The Ohio State football program self-imposed two years of probation and vacated all 12 wins from its 2010 season, including its victory over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, in Friday's response to the NCAA's letter of allegations.
In an effort to show the program is now headed in the right direction, Ohio State made it clear that it has been making a vast effort to improve the university's extensive monitoring of its student athletes in addition to implementing a bigger emphasis on its education process within the compliance department.
Jim Tressel's final season with the Bucks will now be vacated.
The program fell subject to scandal when it became public that six prominent football players had sold memorabilia given to them by Ohio State in exchange for money and extra benefits.
Things got exponentially worse months later when proof surfaced that Jim Tressel had previous knowledge of violations being committed by prominent athletes and decided not to come forward with the information."
http://ohiostate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1238412
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | July 8, 2011 1:12 PM