Guest column: NCAA should make an example, shut down LSU football and basketball!

[LSUDad]

BY EDWARD ASHWORTH

Mar 14, 2022 - 2:45 pm

 

Scott Rabalais’ column, "Amid Will Wade mess, however bad you think it is for LSU, it might be worse" closes with “It’s Will Wade’s mess. Now it’s left for LSU to clean up and try to move forward.” Those two lines neatly encapsulate LSU’s and Louisiana’s ongoing problems, continued high ranking on the bad lists and low ranking on the good lists, and lack of progress in fundamental areas such as education, personal income, health, jobs, the list goes on. The problem? Failure to take responsibility.
 

LSU’s NCAA problems are not Will Wade’s. They are LSU’s and Louisiana’s. Once Wade’s problems and those of the football and basketball programs came to light, it was LSU’s responsibility to investigate and take action, not wait for a slow-moving NCAA to determine LSU’s and Louisiana’s response. LSU’s response to the sexual assault and sexual harassment scandals, the recruiting violations, and the failure to oversee the athletic department has been woefully inadequate. Not one senior LSU official has faced serious repercussions. Not one! The former LSU officials that were punished, King Alexander and Les Miles, were punished by other schools after they had moved on from LSU.

It is general knowledge that college recruits and student athletes in the “money sports” of football and basketball are being paid. Big-time college sports is a known cesspool of inappropriate activities, with recruits and players, as well as their families, receiving under-the-table payments from boosters and agents. This is not a criticism of the athletes and their families. They have a right to earn money from their talents.
 

It is the system that is rotten. And college administrators, athletic directors, coaches, governors and legislators have been turning a blind eye to that rotten system for decades. College presidents and athletic directors ignore the corruption and remain willfully ignorant, if that, hoping their programs won’t get caught. If caught, they do nothing or take minimal actions to give the appearance of doing “something,” while ensuring the programs continue to function as usual.

Why? Because big-time college sports is a multi-billion-dollar business, with big players like LSU receiving tens of millions of dollars in revenue annually. And nothing can be allowed to interfere with this flow of money. But that money has come at a high cost — the loss of personal and academic integrity. And the collateral damage includes a long list of sexually abused and harassed women and corrupted athletes, coaches, athletic department officials, college administrators, and government officials.

There will never be a more clear case of “lack of institutional control” than LSU’s. The NCAA should make an example of LSU and shut down its football and basketball programs.

Edward Ashworth of Baton Rouge is a retired lawyer.

 

[LSUDad]

I know the date, but I was looking for something else and found this one. Thought some would enjoy. 

[houtiger]

How could anyone enjoy that?

But, I don't believe that any one school should be "made an example of".  That would mean that not everyone is being treated fairly.  Nothing was done to Baylor by the NCAA a few years back, so why should they do something severe to LSU?  Treat everyone the same.  Part of the problem is that justice is expensive.  How big of an increase in investigative resources would be required to effectively police even the FBS schools?  My guess is a lot, X10, X 100?

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/12/1027070133/ncaa-baylor-sexual-assault-claims-failure-to-report

The problem is that with the current system, so much corruption is under the table because the NCAA rules force it under the table.  They don't allow for an open and fair exchange of services for the value delivered.  And the universities benefit from the huge TV revenue and they don't even have to pay the players who generate it.

This from 2019:
 

Quote

 

"An Athletic Department policy that transfers $7.2 million annually to the LSU General Fund is being reevaluated, according to first-year athletic director Scott Woodward.

The policy, implemented by LSU athletic director Joe Alleva at the height of the University’s financial squeeze in 2012, created a partnership between the athletic and academic departments to ensure the success of public service, research and campus development, as well as student athletic facilities. The Athletic Department has transferred about $66 million through this policy since 2012."

 

LSU athletics gives 7 million to the admin, AFTER football supports all of the other sports on campus, save for maybe basketball, and baseball has good support.

If you are going to clean things up, it seems you have to bring things into the open.  Let the university pay the players on a contract basis, like the NFL.  Set a salary cap, perhaps by position or just make them all the same.  Allow NIL deals, and the stars can earn more there.  Increase enforcement spending.  Demand annual compliance reports.  If you are found lying, whoever signed the compliance report is fired and banned from working in any athletic dept across the NCAA.

Just a few quick thoughts on cleaning up the system.

But LSU should be treated just like any other school.  But, for all the wrongs that occurred at LSU, and for NO BIGSHOTS in the athletic dept. to lose their jobs, that is pathetic internal accountability.  That goes to Woodward.  Shame on Scott!

[Herb]

2 hours ago, LSUDad said:

Thought some would enjoy.

Not something I'd call enjoyment, but...  

[LSUDad]

4 hours ago, LSUDad said:

 

Edward Ashworth of Baton Rouge is a retired lawyer.

 

Don’t know this guy, but will ask around with a few of my friends, a good friend of mine, a judge in BTR, want to ask him if he know Ashworth. 
 

SMU got the Death Penalty years ago, they still haven’t recovered. Once they started back up football, Phil Bennett was a Head Coach up there for a few years, a number of my friends were on his staff. SMU’s higher ups, just wanted football, but didn’t put a lot of effort and money into it. They had June Jones as a HC for a while, but that one was another story.