"I have never knowingly violated NCAA rules while serving as head coach of this great program." -Sean Miller, University of Arizona basketball head coach
Another week in collegiate sports, another scandal. ESPN broke a story early on Feb. 25 that claims an FBI wiretap has Arizona head coach Sean Miller on the phone with Christian Dawkins about a $100,000 payment to ensure preps prospect Deandre Ayton became a Wildcat.
While these charges would be incredibly damaging for both Arizona and the NCAA at large, there have been questions about the timeline in the ESPN report on when these alleged phone calls actually took place. ESPN made multiple corrections about when the conversations between Miller and Dawkins happened, which has many wondering if the calls even took place to begin with. Miller has gone on record to say that the reports are false and, at the moment, still has support from the university.
Regardless if anything comes from ESPN’s report, the larger story at hand is that the C in NCAA could as easily stand for “corruption” as it does for “collegiate.” Just days before the ESPN story broke, Yahoo Sports reported on documents that showed cash advances and entertainment expenditures for several top high school recruits and college athletes over the last two seasons. There are 25 players across 20 schools that include Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC and more.
The timing is brutal for the NCAA as it heads into one of the biggest months of the year under the shadow of not only FBI investigations, but criticism from some of the biggest names in basketball, with no less than Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy calling the NCAA “one of worst organizations,” LeBron James stating it’s a “corrupt” body, ESPN anchor Jay Williams calling on college players to boycott the Final Four. Even Barack Obama put his weight behind the NBA’s G League “so that the NCAA is not serving as a farm system for the NBA with a bunch of kids who are unpaid but are under enormous financial pressure.”
Mark Emmert is saying that the NCAA’s relationship with agents needs to change, but the NCAA couldn’t be further from a solution at the moment. Four assistant coaches were arrested back in September, and with the current FBI probe, there is potential for more charges to come.
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Post-Olympics relations between the Koreas - There are questions on if the Winter Games were the jumpstart to peace between North and South Korea. That said, there’s also the belief that North Korea will also start talking with the United States.
Russia reinstated by the IOC - After the suspension for a state-sanctioned doping program, Russia’s Olympic membership was restored by the International Olympic Committee. Of course, some ‘Olympic Athletes from Russia’ did bring home gold… but two were also busted for doping during the games.
Fight for gender equality paid off for USA women’s hockey - The Americans won hockey gold, but not without a different hard-fought victory over officials from USA Hockey itself for equal treatment with their male counterparts.
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Wisconsin guard targeted by Iowa Senator for not standing during anthem - Chuck Grassley, a Republican Senator for Iowa, encouraged some constituents to express outrage towards Marsha Howard, a junior guard for the University of Wisconsin, for not standing during the national anthem. She remains unbowed.
NFL gets new pizza sponsor - Papa John’s will no longer be a sponsor of the NFL after its former CEO and founder John Schattner claimed that the player protests during the national anthem affected the company’s business. Instead, the league will trade ‘better ingredients, better pizza’ for Pizza Hut’s breadsticks.
Seattle NHL group gets huge season ticket commitments - The Oak View Group more than tripled its goal of 10,000 season ticket deposits for a potential NHL team in Seattle. The bidders say that if they have favorable expansion rules that it would also make a play to bring the NBA back to the city. Regardless of who plays, games could be held in a revamped KeyArena.
College baseball coach fired over rejecting Colorado recruit - Texas Wesleyan dismissed its baseball coach for rejecting a recruit from Colorado because he played in a state with legalized marijuana.
Warriors’ DC visit was ‘Trump-less’ - The Golden State Warriors decided to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture with some students instead of being hosted at the White House to celebrate last year’s championship. Kevin Durant, who is from nearby Maryland, said that the team was “celebrating it how we want to celebrate it.”
Yawkey Way to become Jersey Street - In hoping to move past the history of a the team’s controversial owner, the Boston Red Sox have petitioned the city of Boston to change the name of Yawkey Way back to Jersey Street. The Yawkey Foundation was predictably disappointed with the move.
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American gymnasts detail abuse during Capitol Hill hearing - Jordyn Wieber, Jamie Dantzscher and Jeanette Antolin spoke to Congressional members about the sexual abuse suffered at the hands of former Team USA doctor Larry Nassar. It was recently revealed that the first male victim of the case has now filed a lawsuit against Nassar, USA Gymnastics, Michigan State University and others. As a result of the case, the president of US Olympic Committee has stepped down and several victims have sponsored new legislation.
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This week in sports and politics history: SMU faces NCAA 'Death Penalty'
"SMU taught the committee that the death penalty is too much like the nuclear bomb. It's like what happened after we dropped the [atom] bomb in World War II. The results were so catastrophic that now we'll do anything to avoid dropping another one." - John Lombardi, former president of the University of Florida
This week marks the 31st anniversary of Southern Methodist University's football program getting the so-called "death penalty" for repeatedly violating NCAA rules. Specifically, for ignoring those that pertain to not paying athletes.
On Feb. 25, 1987, the NCAA announced that it was canceling SMU's upcoming 1987 season, as well as prohibiting the school from hosting home games for the 1988. The punishment came after it was revealed that 13 SMU players had been paid a combined $61,000 – payments ranged between $50 to $725 a month – from a booster slush fund. Among those contributing to the player pot was none other than two-time Texas governor Bill Clements, an SMU alumnus and former chairman of the school's board.
SMU never really recovered. The school wouldn't make a postseason appearance until 2009, when the Mustangs were invited to play in the Hawai'i Bowl (which they won, beating Nevada 45-10). Once one of the most dominant teams in the historic Southwestern Conference, SMU was excluded from the Big 12 Conference when it formed in 1994, languishing instead in the Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA and, more recently, the American Athletic Conference.
Since then, the NCAA has refused to drop the death penalty on other programs, though it has come close to on multiple occasions (the most notable recent example is Penn State's punishment following the Jerry Sandusky scandal). However, the chances of doing it again seem more likely now that an FBI investigation into college basketball was confirmed by Yahoo Sports.
In 2010, ESPN aired “Pony Excess,” a documentary about the scandal and its aftermath, as part of its Peabody Award-winning “30 for 30” series, proving the lessons from the past still resonate today.
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