Sanctiongate: Takedown USC

Bumped...P

More than two weeks have passed since the NCAA Committee on Infractions slammed USC football with the harshest penalties since the SMU death sentence. Our most fervent rivals declared the punishment inadequate, while the rest of the college football world gave smirking approval while expressing condolences and bemoaning the unfairness of it all.

In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, Mike Garrett poured gasoline on the fire when he blurted to an alumni group "I read between the lines and there was nothing but a lot of envy."  Up in Seattle, Pete Carroll produced a video statement and concluded that "the agenda of the NCAA infractions committee took them beyond the facts, and the facts don’t match the sanctions."

The media’s response to those pronouncements was immediate and emotional to the point of sounding hormonal. For example, SI’s Mark Rosenberg said "Judging from the way he has handled this USC scandal from the beginning, Garrett seems like the kind of guy who would sucker-punch you in a dark alley, then sue your face." Dennis Dodd, "take a look at the USC infractions report: There was so much bling being tossed around that Kardashian should be jealous. By the looks of things, Bush has actually cut back his spending since his college days." These comments would be expected from ucla or sec fans, but aren’t Rosenberg, Dodd and a host of others supposed to be a little more objective? Though the NCAA’s report had barely seen the light of day, it was accepted as if it had come from the heavens.

Now that the dust has started to settle, a few reporters (here, here, and here) have begun to question the mixture of factual errors, gross assumptions, vindictiveness and sanctimony that underpin the work of the infractions committee. The media attacks on Garrett’s athletic department were to be expected, but the over the top rhetoric against the entire university is making many us wonder if there isn’t something larger happening.

It’s not just about football. As everyone knows, the competition between universities is not limited to athletics; the pressure on schools to increase or maintain their USNWR rankings is also tremendous. The meteoric rise of USC’s ranking during the Steve Sample Era has rubbed many competing administrators the wrong way.  One of the major components of the ranking is the "peer review survey" in which similar institutions state their admiration for each other.  The hysteria will cause USC’s peer review will take a hit, and if it results in a drop in the rankings they will dance in the streets from Westwood to the Bay Area, to Austin, up to South Bend and down to Florida.

So who are the members of the COI?  If you read the list you may find yourself wondering about their ability to remain impartial or even objective, or even able to restrain themselves from becoming a lynch mob. Here are some of the most notable vested interests:

The COI chairperson, Paul Dee, is the former athletic director at the University of Miami (USNWR Rank #50) and a professor at that school. He received his B.A. from the University of Florida (yes, he’s a Gator) and his law degree from Miami. His "convicts" operated under heavy sanctions after the chaos of the Dennis Ericson era. He has worked tirelessly to repair his legacy and the reputation of the "U", his success is reflected in the minimization of the ‘Canes history of repeated troubles with law enforcement and the NCAA. Don’t believe me? Just visit Miami’s Wikipedia page and you’ll see what I mean. With the destruction of the Trojans, Paul Dee’s beloved Hurricanes look not so bad; the jail Gators get a little boost too.

Melissa L. Conboy is the Deputy Director of Athletics at Notre Dame (USNWR Rank #20); she’s worked in the ND athletics department for 22 years. It has been frustrating lately. USC is Notre Dame’s greatest rival, but the Irish haven’t been able to beat the Trojans since 2001. Making matters worse, many of those losses were lopsided affairs that caused much turmoil, anger and resentment in the ND community. How do Domers spell relief? S-a-n-c-t-i-o-n-s

James O’Fallon of the University of Oregon represents the Pac-10. He received his law degree from Stanford University. Really. Professor O’Fallon is a faculty athletic representative to the NCAA, he clerked at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and taught at Harvard. This Tree come Duck practically landed on a golden opportunity to guarantee his school at least two more Pac-10 championships. He had to recuse himself from the committee, but it wouldn’t be a stretch for his friends on he COI to do him a little favor. O’Fallon was replaced by former COI member Josephine Potuto of Nebraska.

Josephine Potuto of the University of Nebraska has been the Huskers faculty representative to the NCAA and Big 12 Conference since 1997. She is a visiting professor at the University of Oregon and the University of Arizona -a detail that should have disqualified her from sitting on the COI. A tough little broad from Jersey, Prof. Potuto is a former member of the COI and was asked to return in order to replace James O’Fallon of Oregon, hmm. As a writer of rules, she is by far the greatest apologist for the NCAA’s way of doing business. In 2004, Potuto testified before the House Subcommittee on the Constitution regarding due process in NCAA infractions hearings, among the topics was one Mike Williams of USC. On page 9 of the record, Subcommittee Chair Mr. Steve Chabot states the following:

"It has been 13 years since Congress last examined the procedures that the NCAA uses to investigate and enforce its rules. In that time, the NCAA has made several changes, most notably the addition of a more robust appellate system for infraction cases, that have provided greater protections for member institutions, coaches and student-athletes. However, the NCAA has failed to take action on several recommendations of its own 1991 study, most notably, those relating to the hiring of independent judges to hear infractions cases and the opening of these proceedings to all. This hearing will examine those recommendations and the NCAA's decisions not to implement them. We will also examine the investigated individual's role in the process and their ability to participate fully in it. And we will examine the NCAA's restitution rule, which punishes member institutions in the event that student-athlete initiated litigation is ever resolved in favor of the NCAA."

So, despite having felt the heat of United States Congress, Professor Potuto, Paul Dee and the rest of the COI attacked USC as if Mr. Chabot's Hearings had meant nothing. Perhaps this time the NCAA went a bridge too far, but where are our elected representatives?

Conference USA (home of previous death penalty recipient SMU) was represented by Britton Banowsky. A Los Angeles native, his father was the president of Pepperdine University and the University of Oklahoma. Banowsky received his bachelors and law degrees from the University of Oklahoma; he worked previously for the Big-12 and has spent most of his life in Texas. No bias here either, yeah right.

The Atlantic 10 Conference is represented by the bookish Eleanor W. Myers of Temple University. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where she received her B.A. and law degrees. Professor Myers was a teaching fellow at Stanford Law School from 1975 to 1976 then returned to Philadelphia to pursue a career in securities and antitrust class action litigation; she joined Temple in 1983. She is the definition of East Coast bias with a massive dose of Ivy League elitism and Stanford haughtiness.

The remaining five are: Rodney J. Uphoff of the University of Missouri, representing the Big-12; Dennis E. Thomas, representing the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and three lawyers, Brian Halloran, John Black, and Roscoe Howard. Good luck finding a sensitive ear in this bunch. For more information on the inner workings of the COI read this article on SI.com.

You can’t make this stuff up folks. Unfortunately the WWL and the East Coast media are so heavily invested in the prevailing forms of yellow journalism that it will be up to the independents like Rivals and SbB to do some actual reporting.

As Pete Carroll said "the facts don’t match the sanctions."  Perhaps Mike Garrett, the proverbial broken clock was right for once, "I read between the lines and there was nothing but a lot of envy."  He's finally learned how to smell a rat.