Will Lyles and Patrick Peterson: Another Drop in the NCAA's Pool of Depravity
By Ty Duffy
Here is Malone’s money quotation from the ESPN piece.
" “A few days after the kid’s visit, Will calls and says, ‘If you want this kid, there are other schools that want this kid as well. They’re willing to pay a certain amount of money, around the $80,000 mark,'” Malone said. “He said that was something we were going to have to beat as a university to be able to obtain the services of this kid.” "
This is a partial story. More accurately, it’s the one part of a major story ESPN could verify on the record. The obvious subtext is that someone probably did pay Lyles for Peterson, who originally committed to Miami but ended up playing for LSU. The school made a $6,000 payment to Lyles’ Complete Scouting Services last year. Peterson told a Miami radio show he left Miami to start his own legacy. He “just wanted to do what Patrick wanted to do.”
The Peterson case wasn’t Lyles’ first scandal. It’s not even his first scandal this month. Oregon paid his Complete Scouting Services $25,000 for the 2009-10 fiscal year. The payment arouses suspicion since Lyles reportedly had relationships with Texas-native tailbacks LaMichael James and Lache Seastrunk who ended up at Oregon. There initially was no $25,000 service available on Lyles’ hastily assembled website. Now, conveniently, there’s a high-school national package for $25,000.
Lyles’ alleged malfeasances are only part of this scandalous offseason for college football.
National Champions Auburn were already under NCAA investigation relating to Cecil Newton’s attempts to get money for Cam. The awkward, last-minute switch to Auburn at Cecil’s behest still defies explanation. Now, four former Auburn players revealed to HBO’s Real Sports Auburn paid them during recruitment and while they played at the school. Two played within the period still punishable. This should not surprise anyone, since Auburn has been hit repeatedly for this by the NCAA since the 1950’s. It’s not as though the boosters left. They play on Pat Dye field.
One of the players, Stanley McClover also claimed he was handed money on recruiting trips to LSU and Michigan State and provided with “sexual favors” during his trip to Ohio State, where he initially committed.
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel also faces unethical conduct charges for failure to report NCAA violations after receiving notice his players were selling and exchanging memorabilia in exchange for tattoos. He embarrassed himself further with increasingly convoluted and lame defenses, befitting neither a legend nor a leader.
We also had the Fiesta Bowl revelations this week, confirming that, yes, the seven-figure sums extorted from schools were being frittered away on lavish personal expenses, trips to the strip club and political corruption. Fortunately, seeing the smiles on the young kids faces every year as they embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be toasted by Scottsdale for a week will mollify any concerns about how the millions in taxpayer-subsidized money was spent.
Almost weekly, investigative reporters such as Charles Robinson notch their shillelaghs and we get a further glimpse into college football’s fetid layer of fat. As the revelations keep piling up, we’re left with the sinking suspicion we’re viewing the tip of the iceberg from a distance through smudged binoculars. Throwing in the USC scandal and ongoing issues with Tennessee and North Carolina, the NCAA might be better off holding a Truth and Reconciliation Commission than a Committee on Infractions.
A lot of people are making a lot of money from college football and they are willing to contort their consciousness to protect that.
The NCAA should choose which battle it wants to fight. Going after kids for taking trips and selling memorabilia is easy, but that seems far less pressing and sinister than schools (or boosters) bidding for kids and buying their signatures. Regardless of whether their status as “amateurs” or “student-athletes,” the market for elite college recruiting resembles employment. Incentives will be offered. It’s all an economic transaction. There may have never been a time when “money handshakes” weren’t rampant. Even at purportedly “clean programs,” selling the “Michigan degree” is really selling access to Michigan alumni who will eventually hire you at their investment firm because you played football. Shady third parties selling kids is far more detrimental than kids receiving preferential treatment.
NCAA must make punishments harsher. There’s strong incentive to violate the rules. There’s an incredibly low risk of getting caught. Even when coaches are caught, the punishments have no teeth. Vacated games are irrelevant (worked out terrible for Nick Saban). We don’t stare at missing banners. No one owns a record book or cares strongly that what they saw is recorded in one. What do minor scholarship restrictions matter? If you’re at LSU that’s two more players you have to grayshirt or kick off the team.
If a coach suspects boosters might have paid a street agent for his star player, does he investigate it? Or, does he turn a blind eye, maintain plausible deniability, hope the story never emerges, win with the kid and sign a $4 million-per-year extension?
College football forgives moral failings. It doesn’t forgive losing. You can win and make millions, or you can be honest, be blamed for your team’s mediocre performance and risk being fired. The expected utility of ignoring the rules is greater than following them. Punishments need to be harsh, forward-looking and stick to head coaches. They are by nature obsessive, control freaks. If they think they’re at risk for a huge financial hit and a show-cause penalty, they will be the NCAA’s biggest enforcers.
[Photo via Getty]