Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The Last Will be First...
Or, at least ranked in the top 25.
It doesn't seem so long ago that I saw three of my law school compatriots (Bill Underwood, David Guinn, and Michael "Hap" Rogers) striding mournfully through the courtyard. I didn't ask what they were doing-- I knew they had come from a meeting about the basketball program, which later avoided the NCAA's death penalty only by the dint of their very hard work before the NCAA infractions committee. At that moment, though it seemed like Baylor might not ever again be good, or even mediocre, at men's basketball; it was probably just not going to exist anymore.
Not so long afterwards, things were so bad that the team had open tryouts on campus-- I remember seeing a flyer on a bulletin board announcing them.
Today, for the first time since 1969, Baylor is ranked in the top 25. Scott Drew deserves much of that credit. But at least a little should go to those three law professors, who saved the program from what seemed like a certain death.
UPDATE: Tonight, Baylor beat #18 Texas A & M in 5 overtimes, at College Station.
Comments:
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I hope, though, that there are strong controls within Baylor's program now to prevent the kinds of abuse that took place not long ago.
I also wonder if the NCAA should make use of the death penalty to create effective deterrence in the future. It seems to me that penalties used at present constitute mere "slaps on the hand."
I also wonder if the NCAA should make use of the death penalty to create effective deterrence in the future. It seems to me that penalties used at present constitute mere "slaps on the hand."
# posted by 
: 12:50 AM
: 12:50 AM
11:50, I wonder if the NCAA picks and chooses who it sanctions.
Example #1: Baylor, Rice, and Arkansas were the only Southwest Conference [now defunct] members to escape football recruiting violations in the 1980s. During that same period, SMU received the death penalty and never recovered. Were SMU's sins more egregious than those of A&M, UT, Tech, etc., or were the Mustangs a convenient scapegoat who would cost the NCAA little in revenues?
Example #2: Southwest Conference members were heavily investigated and sanctioned in the 1980s, while comparatively few Big 8 and SEC members were sanctioned. Were SWC schools committing more violations (whether in number or severity) than members of other conferences, or was something else afoot?
Example #3: We'll likely never have anything with which to compare the problems in Baylor basketball during 2001-2003, culminating in the murder of Patrick Dennehy. Yet had such a thing happened at a Duke, North Carolina, or even a Texas or Florida, would those schools have been punished as severely.
Baylor lends the NCAA's approach credibility: bring in a squeaky-clean coach like Scott Drew and go to work recruiting. Baylor's work and Scott Drew's work after its half-death penalty calls SMU's inability to recover from a full death penalty, even after 20 years, into question.
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Example #1: Baylor, Rice, and Arkansas were the only Southwest Conference [now defunct] members to escape football recruiting violations in the 1980s. During that same period, SMU received the death penalty and never recovered. Were SMU's sins more egregious than those of A&M, UT, Tech, etc., or were the Mustangs a convenient scapegoat who would cost the NCAA little in revenues?
Example #2: Southwest Conference members were heavily investigated and sanctioned in the 1980s, while comparatively few Big 8 and SEC members were sanctioned. Were SWC schools committing more violations (whether in number or severity) than members of other conferences, or was something else afoot?
Example #3: We'll likely never have anything with which to compare the problems in Baylor basketball during 2001-2003, culminating in the murder of Patrick Dennehy. Yet had such a thing happened at a Duke, North Carolina, or even a Texas or Florida, would those schools have been punished as severely.
Baylor lends the NCAA's approach credibility: bring in a squeaky-clean coach like Scott Drew and go to work recruiting. Baylor's work and Scott Drew's work after its half-death penalty calls SMU's inability to recover from a full death penalty, even after 20 years, into question.
# posted by : 3:12 AM
: 3:12 AM << Home
