Category: Michigan Football

If the last few years in college sports have been anything, they have been interesting. Actually, maybe disturbing is the better choice of words. The last few year have been riddled with scandals. There is no doubt I will miss a few, but in recent memory I recall the following:

Ohio State (2003): Remember Maurice Clarett? Unfortunately, so do I. As a freshman, Clarett scored the game winning touchdown for Ohio State in the 2002 National Championship game. In 2003, Clarett was suspended for falsifying a police report. When the heat was turned up (hey nice cars, guns and Vodka) Clarett dropped out of school and sued to t be in the 2004 NFL draft. Because the rules applied to everyone back then, Clarett was denied entry to the NFL. The rest of his story doesn’t matter, but he spent 3 years in prison before recently returning to Ohio State for his education. Needless to say, had the Ohio State administration paid even a little attention to what was happening, theY probably could avoided the Jim Tressel led Tyrelle Pryor issues years later.

2003 (see below):

USC (2010): USC and Reggie Bush plead ignorance regarding the rule prohibiting payments to student athletes. Using its typical punish someone else policy, in 2010 the NCAA suspended USC from post season play for two years. None of the players serving the suspension were involved and none are named Reggie Bush. Further, although current USC coach Lane Kiffin is no angel, he was not involved in the Bush scandal. The only thing Bush had to do was open the door for the Heisman repo man. Unfortunately, that punishes the rest of us as we will be denied the opportunity to bid on the trophy in 15 years when Bush would have sold it on Ebay.

Michigan Practice (2010): Considering the real scandals that have occurred, the fact Michigan football practiced a few extra minutes is less than minor. It was ridiculous at the time and is even more so now. The NCAA wasted a lot of time on this non issue. If it helped lead to the dismissal of Rich Rod, Michigan fan should be glad it happened.

Auburn (2010-11): Cam Newton was declared ineligible after it was determined an agent shopped him around to colleges. Incredibly, Auburn, the top payer (oops, I mean the college of his choice), was able to get Newton reinstated before the SEC championship game. The buzz with this story calmed down, when other scandals started to hit. However, apparently the higher ups believe Cam Newton’s dad and buddy shopped Cam around to every school but Auburn. Auburn can thank Ohio State, Miami and Penn State for taking the heat off.

Miami Hurricanes (2011): It seems like forever ago we learned about how, the worlds largest hanger on, Nevin Shapiro, supplied drugs, women, parties and cash to Miami football and basketball players. In exchange, the U allowed Shaprio to hang out on the field, involved him in coaching decisions and basically gave him anything he wanted. No problems there.

Ohio State (2011): This time around, the Buckeyes stepped up their game. Free tattoos, cars and, well, the investigation apparently stopped there. However, I doubt the cheating did. This time there was no Maurice Clarett to be Jim Tressel’s scapegoat. Despite valiant efforts by the President of the University and unexplainable support from B1G Ten Commissioner, Jim Delaney, Jim Tressel was forced to resign. Ohio State lost their coach and it looked like they would be set back a bit. However, they hired Urban Meyer, who has not been caught cheating yet, but certainly runs in the gray areas. It appears Ohio State’s down time may be limited. The one year bowl and championship game ban was merely a slap on the wrist.

Penn State / Syracuse (2011): Penn State and Syracuse did not get caught cheating per se, but they got caught employee terrible human beings who (allegedly) did terrible things. In the case of Penn State, the cover up / inaction, may run deeper than we will know for awhile. We do know Penn State allowed a suspected child molester to have access to facilities with children and permitted him to gallivant around campus as if he were a member of the program. That’s what happens when you let a senile old man (sorry JoePa, it’s true) run a program for 10-15 years longer then he should have. In retrospect, it seems odd that Jerry Sandusky, a top tier defensive coordinator, retired in the prime of his career (after undisclosed molestation allegations were made) never to be heard from again. This is not supposed to be about those perverts, so I will move on.

John Calipari (continuous): Really, this guy is still around? He must have some serious dirt on someone.

I am sure I forgot some scandals and a few secondary violations. Among other things, I know players at the University of Toledo took money from bookies sometime during the above time frame. But the point of this is not necessarily to dwell on what happened, it is to figure out what’s next? I am not Nostradamus. In fact, I am not even sure what a quatrain is. Nonetheless, I am going to make an educated guess, a prediction, on what’s next.

Disclaimer: I excluded all SEC schools from this prediction as picking one of those programs would be like shooting fish in a barrel. I also excluded Kentucky Basketball. Considering Calipari is their coach, saying they will have a scandal in the near future is to easy.

Without further adieu, there is only one school left, Baylor. Before you call me out, I realize Baylor is somewhat of an easy target as it is coming off of one of the only recent scandals on par with Penn State and Syracuse. In case you forgot, Carlton Dotson, a Baylor basketball player, plead guilty to the 2003 murder of his teammate Patrick Dennehy. After Dennehy’s murder, the NCAA began investigating improper benefits and drugs allegations regarding the Baylor basketball team. Turns out, Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss, who was out of scholarships, paid Dennehy’s tuition as well as the tuition for another player. During the investigation, Bliss pretended to be the father of the other player he paid for, but whom was still alive, in an attempt to learn what information the NCAA discovered. In one last pathetic act, Bliss instructed players to lie and tell investigators that Dennehy paid his tuition by selling drugs. That’s not the whole story, but I think you get the point, even though it is not talked about much the happenings at Baylor were kind of a big deal.

It seems like such actions would keep a program and a school down, at least for awhile. I am not sure how long I was asleep, but when I woke up Baylor had strong football and basketball programs. I even heard a rumor that Baylor now has a Heisman winner and that its basketball team is in the top 15. When the hell did this happen and, more importantly, how?

Baylor, located in Waco, Texas, is a private baptist school with only 12,500 undergrad students. Certainly, Baylor is one of the top small, private baptist colleges, which is located in a town known primarily for blowing up a cult compound. Throw in a teammate on teammate murder and a completely reprehensible basketball coach and Baylor is in a category all its own. The question is not so much how Baylor got to where it is. The question is how Baylor got there after where it was. Unfortunately for Baylor fans, it seems impossible to accomplish that type of comeback while playing by all the rules.

If Baylor runs a clean program, more power to them. However, in an era where it seems everyone is playing fast and loose with the rules, Baylor’s return (or better stated arrival on) the national scene is too remarkable not to question (sorry, it’s the Barry Bonds effect). My belief, Baylor was to far in the hole not to get out so fast. I maybe wrong about Baylor, but I am sure another major college scandal is just around corner.