Blood in the Water

Right now events surrounding the Kelvin Sampson/Oklahoma/Indiana violations are unfolding too quickly for anything I write to be relovant even twenty minutes from now, but I will quote two very cogent posts from different websites that I have seen today. These are posts from random IU fans and bloggers:

"Alan" in the idsnews.com basketblog says:

"People are overreacting. Let’s put this into perspective. A prestigious football school with a tradition similar to that of IU’s in basketball, Florida State, had a massive cheating scandal in which 30 of the players were ineligible for the bowl game. This was messing with grades; it wasn’t phone calls. Phone calls, a t-shirt, and a backpack are minor compared to messing with grades. Also, let’s look at the Ohio State scandal in 2002. Ohio State got in trouble for a player receiving benefits and commiting academic fraud. The NCAA came down hard, but when you compare academic fraud and benefits to phone calls of POTENTIAL players, it is minor. People are also being too critical of Sampson. He isn’t Bobby Knight; he will never be Bobby Kinght. To paraphrase Rick Pitino, Coach Knight ain’t walking through that door people. Also, if Coach Knight did this, the same people calling for Sampson’s head would be defending the General. Let’s actually unite around our players and team and beat the hell out of Wisconsin tonight.

Also for those interested, there is a handful of successful programs that have been put on probation recently, such as Oklahoma football, Kansas basketball, and Ohio State football. All these probations occured during the current coach’s tenure. Bob Stoops, Jim Tressel, and Bill Self all still have their jobs. People need to relax and chill out."

And "Rikki-tikka-tava" on peegs.com says:

Allegation analysis: Emphasis on "Allegations".

1. That Sampson, Meyer and Senderoff failed to comply with sanctions imposed on Sampson for impermissible recruiting calls he made while he was a coach at Oklahoma. Those sanctions followed Sampson to IU when he came here in May of 2006. Sampson and Senderoff are alleged to have jointly participated in telephone calls at a time when Sampson was prohibited from being present or taking part when staff members made recruiting calls. Senderoff and Meyer are alleged to have made about 100 calls that exceeded the sanction limits. Senderoff resigned his position Oct. 30.

- We knew all this already, yes? Nothing new here.

2. That Senderoff and Meyer placed "at least 25 telephone calls" to nine potential recruits that exceeded NCAA limits even if no sanctions had been in place.

- Senderoff & Meyer, not Sampson for what that's worth.

3. That Sampson "acted contrary to the NCAA principles of ethical conduct when he knowingly violated recruiting restrictions imposed by the NCAA Committee on Infractions," and that he "failed to deport himself in accordance with the generally recognized high standard of honesty normally associated with the conduct and administration of intercollegiate athletics by providing the institution and the NCAA enforcement staff false or misleading information," and that he "failed to promote an atmosphere for compliance within the men's basketball program and failed to monitor the activities regarding compliance of one or more of his assistant coaches."

- Absent any specificity it seems like this is a reiteration of Allegation #1.

4. That Senderoff "acted contrary to the NCAA principles of ethical conduct when he knowingly violated recruiting restrictions imposed by the NCAA Committee on Infractions," and that he "failed to deport himself in accordance with the generally recognized high standard of honesty normally associated with the conduct and administration of intercollegiate athletics by providing the institution false or misleading information."

Senderoff again, not Sampson.

5. That Sampson and Meyer engaged in an impermissible recruiting contact during a two-day sports camp held at Assembly Hall on June 30 and July 1, 2007, and that Meyer provided the potential recruit with an impermissible benefit at least one T-shirt and drawstring backpack.

Big whoop. Sounds like if he'd been given the backpack and T-shirt 24 or 48 hours later no violation would have in fact occurred. yawn...

Sorry boys and girls but I can't see what the fuss is all about other than the fact that the NCAA has alleged 5 major violations against IU for the first in 47 years. This is to say that there doesn't seem to be anything in said allegation that represents new evidence of misconduct beyond what was revealed six months ago. There is language about "false and misleading" which can be variously interpreted to indicate willful and malicious prevarication or imperfect memory depending on one's bent (or the available evidence of which we have none), as well as an allegation that at least some of these improprieties took place "knowingly". Aside from that, and in the absence of any specific detail, hardly earth-shaking news.

I'm sticking with Coach Sampson and IU at least until such time as they indicate they're not sticking with each other and/or I see something that reveals more than a formal rehash of what we already knew, and I've had a chance to hear what Coach and the University have to say about it. And I happen to think that most of you calling for Coach's immediate firing are pathetic...sure many of you will say the same or worse about me, but much as I am disappointed by Coach's problems with staying within the lines regarding phone contacts, to characterize his and his staff's transgression's as "major" violations as compared to paying/bribing players, their families or buying them cars and such, forget it. Condone it, no way, but cashier Sampson over it while bewailing the irreparable harm done to the University - no chance, at least not until Coach and the University respond.

Most important three games of the season this week beginning tonight. IU hasn't abandoned Sampson and neither will I. Go Hoosiers, Go IU!