Indiana University hired Kelvin Sampson as its men's basketball coach in 2006 knowing that he had a track record of violating NCAA recruiting rules. It then failed to prevent him from breaking recruiting rules again. A fundamental tenet of the NCAA is that its member institutions are responsible for policing themselves, and Indiana failed miserably.So it's utterly laughable to see that Indiana is now claiming that it has punished itself enough for the rules Sampson broke, and that it doesn't deserve any further NCAA punishment.
Those allegedly "significant" sanctions Indiana has imposed on itself? New coach Tom Crean has to spend his first year at Indiana under the same phone-call restrictions that Sampson violated, Crean can only spend 10 days recruiting off campus before July 31, and Indiana loses one scholarship for the 2008-09 season.
Indiana knows it's going to have a bad team in 2008-09 anyway, so one fewer player doesn't make much difference, and those recruiting sanctions aren't "significant" at all. By claiming these sanctions are significant, Indiana is basically thumbing its nose at the NCAA.
So the NCAA should come down hard on Indiana. A two-year tournament ban would let the Hoosiers and the rest of the college basketball world know that the NCAA takes violations of its rules seriously. Allowing IU to get off with its own self-imposed sanctions would let the college basketball world know that when the major programs commit major violations, they get slapped on the wrist.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. You're kidding....right? THEY are the ones that instituitionally found the violations of the COACHING STAFF. The University was lied to by the coaches, found it, and then reported it. This isn't players getting paid to play, receiving cars, ect...
Calm down!
Posted at 8:38AM on May 13th 2008 by Zappatista
2. If Indiana is going to be so bad at least next year, and possibly the following year, what good does a two-year tournament ban do?
Now, if you mean ban them also from the Big 10 Tourney as well so there's no chance at all of them winning a spot in the NCAA Tourney, I can see that.
But if it's simply giving them a ban to something they have little chance of making in the first place, isn't this just punishment for the sake of saying "we did something?"
Of course, like I said, this is taking into account that they're truly going to be that bad. If they end up being good, then the ban has teeth. But somehow, I just don't see that happening.
Posted at 9:29AM on May 13th 2008 by Mark
3. Hey genius, how is it that a team like USC has players receive thousands of dollars in payments and the NCAA does NOTHING, but when Indiana blows the whistle on its own coach they should pretty much get the death penalty. The only reason the NCAA isn't sweeping this under the rug is because Myles Brand still has an axe to grind with IU.
Posted at 10:59AM on May 13th 2008 by Chris
4. It does make you think that USC can get by with this and most the others have to pay the price. What happened at Indiana is small compared to some otheres. UCLA let John talk to the Love kid and nothing was done there either. North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Memphis and Florida have never been checked about anything. There is only 1 way you can keep geeting all these players in basketball and football.
Posted at 8:01AM on May 14th 2008 by Jack Adams
5. Mr. Smith- It is a travesty that somebody with the ability to write an article such as this would be so ignorant about the topic. Indiana along with Ice Miller an independent firm out of Indianapolis, launched their own investigation into the program and found the violations themselves!
Posted at 6:29PM on May 22nd 2008 by Sean