Running head: IS THE NCAA?
Is The NCAA An Enforcement Body Or A Financial Institution?
A Review of the Ethical Conflicts
John Scherr (John K. Scherr)
Legal Studies Academy
First Colonial High School
IS THE NCAA? 2
Abstract
This paper is about the corruption of Athletic Departments within schools. What what this
argument is about is that schools are constantly evading and violating the rules of amateurism
stated by the NCAA. The NCAA should enforce their rules upon these schools that are
subsequently breaking the rules even if they are the big money maker schools like Duke,
Gonzaga, Kentucky, or Kansas. It doesn't matter if the schools makes a lot of money off of
television proceeds or not, if you do the crime you should do the time.
IS THE NCAA? 3
Is The NCAA An Enforcement Body or Financial Institution
The NCAA is doing a very bad job on enforcing their rules. Multiple schools have been
found guilty of violating rules. They realize that if they are big money making schools such as
the big basketball schools like the University of North Carolina, Duke University, Villanova
University, Gonzaga University or even switch it over to the football schools like the University
of Alabama or Clemson or Ohio State University where to get in trouble and find themselves in a
bind with the NCAA, then they wouldn't make any money off of television proceeds because.
There is one common thing that seems to make the world go round whether it be in sports or
politics or really anything in the world, and that is that money is root of all evil, money controls
people, and unfortunately many people can be bought if given the perfect amount. The NCAA
was founded on March 31, 1906. The sole purpose of this group is to be an association in which
they make rules and also be a governing body that limits what schools and student athletes can
and cannot do. As the number of schools increased, the amount of rules and regulations came
along with it. Universities and colleges are supposed to abide by certain rules by the NCAA that
do not compromise their stance on amateurism. Some of these rules are: “Signing a contract with
a professional team, playing with professionals, participating in tryouts or practices with a
professional team, accepting payments or preferential benefits for playing sports, accepting prize
money above expenses, accepting benefits from an agent or prospective agent, agreeing to be
represented by an agent, or delaying your full-time college enrollment to play in organized sports
competition.” ("Amateurism," n.d.).
IS THE NCAA? 4
The NCAA is a not for profit organization that promotes an amateurism stance in which
student athletes cannot receive payment or any other type of financial value aside from
scholarships to attend Universities and play a sport. Multiple schools have been exposed for
paying college athletes, such as the 2002 Alabama Crimson Tide football team for having the
booster club pay money for certain high school players to play for the Tide. The boosters were
accused of making payments of up to five figures to two recruits so that their services would be
used for the Crimson Tide("Alabama Is Penalized," 20002). Some other examples of violations
are as follows
The SMU Death Penalty
This scandal took place in the late 1970's in which boosters set up a ¨slush fund¨ so that
they could make under the table payments to players and their families, and in return, the player
would commit and later on sign a letter of intent on coming to Southern Methodist University.
During the 1985 and 1986 season 13 players had been paid a total of $61,000. Payments ranged
from 50 to 725 per month , During the 1986 school year the players had received a total of
$47,000. The whole reason that this was so significant and gained so much attention was that
they repeated these violations and didn't just quit after the first time. After the first set of
violations had been sanctioned upon SMU, instead of immediately cutting off payment to
players, they issued a phase out plan in which they would continue to pay the players that they
promised money to until they graduated. It all worked fine until a player who had been kicked
off the team by the name of David Stanley had gone on a televised interview and explained the
benefits he received from SMU. After this surfaced the NCAA dropped the atomic bomb of
sanctions upon SMU being the harshest sanction in all of college sports these three words would
IS THE NCAA? 5
forever leave an impact that may never be recoverable for Southern Methodist University. The
Death Penalty. The Death Penalty is about as harsh as it sounds. The 1987 season was canceled;
only conditioning drills were permitted during the 1987 calendar year. All home games in 1988
were canceled. SMU was allowed to play their seven regularly scheduled away games so that
other institutions would not be financially affected. The team's existing probation was extended
until 1990. Its existing ban from bowl games and live television was extended to 1989. SMU lost
55 new scholarship positions over 4 years, only allowed to hire only five full-time assistant
coaches, no off-campus recruiting was permitted until August 1988, no paid visits could be made
to campus by potential recruits until the start of the 1988-89 school year. The 1988 season was
also canceled. SMU still has not recovered from the penalty because it still has a huge negative
impact on the football program and school entirely.Since 1989,SMU has beaten only two ranked
teams, had only three winning seasons. SMU didn't even return to a bowl game until 2009 in
which they routed Nevada 45-10. The Death Penalty has been used five times in NCAA Division
1 sports since the sanctions imposed upon SMU and is regarded as the harshest penalty in
Collegiate level sports. ("The Death," 2015). ("SMU's Death," n.d.).
UNC Paper Classes
These classes were otherwise called “fake classes.” These classes were led by Julius
Nyang’oro and Debby Crowder of the African Studies department so that athletes could take
GPA booster classes to stay eligible. These paper classes were set up so that certain athletes
specifically basketball and football players who were at risk of becoming ineligible to play
would take these classes so that they would remain eligible to play. Since the classes had been
discovered, there have been 9 employees that have been fired. These classes were set up so that
IS THE NCAA? 6
anyone could take these classes and not just student athletes. The class requirements were very
loosely based being that sometimes the students didn’t even show up to class some of the times.
The class consisted itself of a paper that was to be written, but the paper could be of any topic
and did not have to have any strenuous effort put into it. When it was taken to the court, they
ruled that the paper classes were not in violation because they were not issued to just student
athletes and ordinary students could take them as well. The NCAA let the University of North
Carolina off the hook for one of the worst academic frauds in the history of collegiate athletics.
("N.c.a.a. North," 2017).
Reggie Bush Scandal
The first report of this scandal came out in September 2006; this report would
forever change the life of star running back Reggie Bush. The Bush family was accused of
receiving gifts and cash from sports agent Lloyd Lake. The gifts were received from
approximately from 2004 and onward. Lloyd Lake later sued the Bush family for $290,000
because they did not repay him for the gifts he brought them. These events would ultimately
make Reggie Bush to give up his Heisman trophy. USC’s sanctions were four years of probation,
forced to vacate its last two wins of the 2004 season, and all of its wins in the 2005 season. They
were also banned from bowl games in 2010 and 2011 and lost 30 scholarships over three years.
Also running backs coach Todd Mcnair was banned from off-campus recruiting for one year.
This is the first time in the history of Heisman Trophy winners that the trophy has ever been
forfeited by a player. Even though Reggie Bush had to give up his Heisman Trophy, everyone in
college football knows that Reggie was the best player that year. “It doesn’t matter if he gives it
back. Everyone still knows Reggie Bush was the best player that year. Look at the runs. He was
IS THE NCAA? 7
clearly the best player,” -Johnny Rodgers, 1972 Heisman winner from Nebraska. ("Reggie
Bush," 2010). ("Reggie Bush," n.d.).
University of Miami Pell Grant Scandal
Between 2002 and 2010, Nevin Shapiro donated approximately $170 dollars to primarily
to the football team but also to the University of Miami´s athletic department. Nevin took over
the business after Luther Campbell a rapper, who made generous donations to the football team
as well as make music about the team and created a thuggish street crime image of the Miami
Hurricanes. Nevin said that he would go on live interview and admit to giving money to players
who played for the Miami Hurricanes. He paid the players using investor funds and is currently
serving a 20 year sentence for securities fraud, money laundering and ponzi scheme. He violated
4 major laws: “Bylaw 11, involving impermissible compensation to coaches; Bylaw 12,
involving amateurism of athletes; Bylaw 13, involving improper recruiting activity; and Bylaw
16, involving extra benefits to athletes.” Some reports came out as athletes getting discounts on
apartments as well as discounts on automobiles and making illegal contact with agents while the
student athletes were still in school. One of the members of the pell grant system was rap star
Luther Campbell, he also threatened to go to the reporters if Ryan Collins was not named starting
quarterback. ("Report: Nevin," n.d.). ("The Miami," n.d.). ("Miami Admits," n.d.).
Do's and Don'ts
The rules of recruiting are as followed ¨A contact happens any time a college coach says
more than hello during a face-to-face meeting with a college-bound student-athlete. An
evaluation happens when a college coach observes a student-athlete practicing or competing. A
IS THE NCAA? 8
verbal commitment happens when a college-bound student-athlete verbally agrees to play
sports for a college.” Visits for college bound athletes that are paid for by the college are
considered an official visit. Visits paid for by the student or their parents are considered
unofficial. While on an official visit the college can pay for transportation as well as lodging,
food and entertainment such as a sporting event. “During a contact period, a college coach may
have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents. During an
evaluation period, a college coach may watch college-bound student-athletes compete, visit
their high schools and write or telephone student-athletes or their parents. During a quiet period,
a college coach may not have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their
parents and may not watch student-athletes compete or visit their high schools. During a dead
period, a college coach may not have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes
or their parents and may not watch student-athletes compete or visit their high schools.”
("Recruiting," n.d.).
Coaches cannot give money to players in any form or any possible way, or any
materialistic items until you go on your official visit when you are a senior in high school.
For baseball there are to be
No phone calls before July 1 after an athlete’s junior year, after July 1, outside of a
contact period, athletes can receive one call per week per coach/institution. During a
contact period, coaches can contact athletes at the institution’s discretion. Contact
period—Friday after the second Thursday of September through the Sunday before the
IS THE NCAA? 9
early period National Letter of Intent (NLI) signing date and March 1 through August 31
of an athlete’s senior year. ("Amateurism," n.d.).
Scandals involving coaches have been around for years, but one of the most prolific ones
is Coach John Calipari when he was the head coach at the University of Massachusetts. John
Calipari and Marcus Camby were accused of accepting luxurious gifts such as cars, jewelry as
well as having hookers invited on campus. The NCAA actually stripped UMASS of its
tournament victories and forced the school to pay $151,617. The reports sprang up after a press
conference when Marcus Camby appeared in a sparkling and obviously expensive silver chain
necklace. Coach Cal led UMASS to five consecutive Atlantic 10 Conference Title games.
Marcus Camby helped UMASS reach the Final Four by winning the John R. Wooden Award and
the Naismith College Player Of The Year Award. However, these awards and significant wins
were taken away after he accepted $28,000 from two sports agents. ("John Calipari," n.d.).
College Sex Scandals
Jerry Sandusky Sexual Assault Scandal
In 2012 Jerry Sandusky, the Defensive Coordinator of Penn State University was found
guilty of sexual assault on 10 individuals. The assaults began back in 1994 through 1997.
Sanduski met these kids through the Second Mile program which help underprivileged children
that are at-risk. The first report came along when the mother of an 11 year old boy reported that
Sanduski had showered with her son. In June 1998, Sanduski admitted that he had showered with
the boy and promised that he would never do it again. In 1999 Sandusky retired from Penn State.
In 2000, a janitor at Penn State said that he saw Jerry Sanduski sexually abuse a boy in the
IS THE NCAA? 10
showers in the Lasch Building. However, the event went unreported. Again in 2002, Mike
McQueary told Head Coach Joe Paterno that he witnessed Jerry Sandusky abusing a 10 year old
boy in the Lasch Building showers on February 9, 2001. In 2005 or 2006 Jerry Sandusky
befriends another participant in the Second Mile program. It turns out that Jerry Sandusky had
been sexualy abusing the boy multiple times and it had also been revealed that Sandusky had
called the boy 118 times over the course of abuse. In 2008, Sandusky has informed Second Mile
that he is under investigation and he is banned from all events that have to do with children. The
ensuing events would eventually become the downfall of Jerry Sandusky. On November 5, 2011
Jerry Sandusky is arraigned for 40 criminal counts and is released on $100,000 bail. In the same
year Joe Paterno announces that he is retiring after the next season, shortly after it is reported that
Coach Paterno and President Graham Spanier are to be fired effective immediately. On
November 16, 2011, a new judge is assigned to the Sandusky case after it is discovered that
Leslie Dutchcot the justice who freed Sandusky on bail was a volunteer at the Second Mile
Program. The first lawsuit to come up was a participant in the Second Mile program. He said that
he was 10 years old when the abuse started. He said Sandusky abused him over 100 times and
that if he reported it to anyone that Sandusky would harm him and his family. On December 7,
2011, Jerry Sandusky is arrested on additional child rape charges, this raised the victims from 8
to 10. The next day he is released on a $250,000 bail and is placed on house arrest. On June 22,
2012, Sandusky is found guilty on 45 counts after Jurors discuss for nearly 21 hours. After this,
Sandusky's bail is no longer available and is taken to jail. The NCAA states that in result of the
incidents that Penn State is fined $60 million, banned from postseason play for four years and
IS THE NCAA? 11
vacate all wins from 1998 to 2011, Penn State must also donate $13 million dollars to charities
for preventing child abuse. ("Penn State," n.d.)
Baylor University Sexual Assault
On January 23, 2014, freshman football player Tevin Elliot was convicted of two counts of
sexual assault and is sentenced to twenty years in federal prison. On August 22, 2015, questions
are starting to be asked when Art Briles allows a transfer from Boise State after he was convicted
of sexual assault in 2013. On September 2, 2015, Baylor hired a law firm to investigate sexual
assault cases at the university. In 2016 it is discovered that in Policy IX policy encouraged
students not to report sexual assault. In 2016 star defensive end Shawn Oakman was indicted for
sexual assault as a result he went undrafted and unsigned. On October 26, 2016, a story was
released that 17 women reported sexual assault events involving 19 football players as well as 4
gang rapes. In 2017 a lawsuit is released stating that 52 acts of rape were committed involving 31
football players between 2011 and 2014. On November 12 2017, members of the equestrian team
at Baylor University accuse 3 members of the football team of of sexually assaulting them. On
March 14, 2018 Head Coach Matt Rhule announced that those three players involved in the
incident are suspended and that a fourth player is suspended but for unknown reasons. Baylor
University has since received extreme criticism about how the assaults were handled and how
they subsequently protected their star players from being sexual predators. The school poorly
handled the situation and reports even came up that the school even intentionally slowed the
process of hiring someone to even help the victims with their cases. One fact that was released
was Baylor should have just ripped off the band-aid and come clean about everything from the
IS THE NCAA? 12
beginning and not let out little details at a time. It seemed that with each little detail that was
released that the next would just seemed to be far more worse and far more incriminating on both
the athletic department as well as the academic department. This scandal really put a dark stain
on the largest Baptist University in America. ("A Quick," n.d.) ("TIMELINE: Baylor," n.d.)
Conclusion
Athletic departments have been corrupt for years. This wave of corruption is nothing
new. What people fail to realize is that if a college coach goes to a neighborhood that's run down,
has regular gun violence, and drug dealers on the corner of every street, they will realize that this
kid needs money aside from a scholarship. There's a type of mentality that these kids have that
they have to make it to the league to take care of their family so that they don't have to worry
about money ever again. If a college coach comes into a dangerous neighborhood trying to
recruit a kid to play a sport for his school, that coach will hand that kid a briefcase of thirty
thousand dollars and say ¨You and your family can get out here and live a happy life and you
will receive a college degree as well as possibly playing professionally¨. I can guarantee that
every time that situation occurs, that the kid will say yes every time. He will say yes because he
now knows that he won't have to worry about his family getting murdered or being surrounded
by danger, that his brothers and sisters won't have to be another statistic, that they can go to
college and make a name for themselves. Some people don't realize that these kids don't have
anything. They don't have lights on in their house all the time, they don't have water running,
they don't have food or a bed to sleep, sometimes they don't have parents to take care of them
and they have to take care of themselves.
IS THE NCAA? 13
After watching a video about a young man named Inky Johnson. He grew up in a very
poor household in Atlanta, Georgia. He played football starting at a very young age and he soon
realized that this was his opportunity to make it out of the ¨hood¨ and take care of his family.
Everynight after practice he waited until 10:30 at night for his mom to pick him up after her shift
at Wendy's, when she arrived he then asked her to leave her car lights on for a little bit longer so
that he could do extra drills after practice. He said, ¨Mama, I'm going to make it to the NFL so
that we don't have to worry about money ever again.¨. Inky received a full scholarship to play
football at the University of Tennessee, on his official visit he had a host that asked him if he
wanted to go to a sorority party or a basketball game. He then replied with “Can you just take me
back to the hotel please” the host said “Why? Are you sick?” Inky replied with “I want to go to
the hotel and lay in the bed because it will be the first time I've ever layed in one by myself.”.
During a game against Air Force Inky went for a routine tackle and sustained a traumatic injury
to his right arm that nearly left him paralyzed. And in the blink of an eye Inquoris “Inky”
Johnson's NFL destined football career was over. He went to the hospital and when the doctor
said he won’t play football again he replied with “No offense doc, but you don't understand, you
weren't there when me and my cousins were sleeping on the dirty floor with the rats and roaches,
no offense doc but you weren’t there when I was asking my mom to leave her headlights on so
that I can run extra drills after practice, no offense doc but you didn't run to the bus stop every
morning and just before the bus came you had to shakedown your bookbag to make sure there
weren’t any rats or roaches in it.”.
("Who Is Inky," n.d.).
IS THE NCAA? 14
Schools are always getting away with these scandals, the NCAA knows that if they crack
down on their big money making schools such as Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Gonzaga, and the
University of North Carolina then they won’t make any TV profits or proceeds. For example
when the University of North Carolina escaped possibly the worst academic scandal of NCAA
history. By issuing paper classes to all students and not just athletes the NCAA ruled that the
classes were not in violation of the Academic Rules of the NCAA because the classes were
offered to students and athletes not just athletes.
Even if there were to be a system in which student athletes were to get paid, there is no
possible way that it would be a fair system to pay them. Some athletes would produce really
good numbers and would either sit out of games or protest in some sort of way in order to get
more pay so you are actually creating more problems rather than solving them. Players would be
constantly getting into arguments with either coaches or athletic department directors about their
pay, saying that they deserve more because they put up XYZ amount of statistics last season to
help the team win. Subsequently this would just create more problems rather than fixing them.
IS THE NCAA? 15
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