College Athletics On Slippery Slope
posted by Scott Hood on Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The firing of LSU head basketball coach John Brady puts major college athletics on a slippery slope it may have a hard time getting out of.
The firing of a college coach in mid-season, short of strong evidence of major rules violations, is unacceptable and shouldn’t happen.
If they wanted to buy Brady out at the end of the season, that’s fine. Pay him the money he’s owed and show him the door. The players deserved better than the way things went down.
Prior to Dave Odom’s ‘retirement’ announcement, I was asked several times if USC AD Eric Hyman would fire Odom before the end of the season. Each time, I said ‘no way.’ Hyman doesn’t operate like that, nor should any Division I athletic director worth his salt.
Of course, circumstances may require an AD to act swiftly to protect the integrity of a program.
Kelvin Sampson at Indiana, for example, could be a coach who deserves to get fired for his continuously deliberate violations of NCAA rules, but not Brady.
Sampson is one of those coaches who’s always looking for the gray area, a loophole that he can drive through in order to circumvent the spirit of the NCAA rules, which, I acknowledge, there are many.
Sadly, he’s far from being alone.
But Brady wasn’t like that. His only sin was not winning enough games to satisfy the insatiable appetites of LSU AD Skip Bertman and the gluttonous Tiger fans. Why didn’t he win this season? It probably had a lot to do with the fact his entire starting front line defected early to the NBA.
Yet, I can imagine Bertman having a hissy fit in his office after each loss this season that only a five-year old can appreciate.
I spoke with Odom about the Brady situation on Tuesday following our bi-weekly press briefing previewing the next game. Odom, as usual, was thoughtful in his answers.
“You would hope the fans and the university would focus on the future,” Odom said. “LSU was a young team getting better. They were playing better. John Brady wasn’t given anytime to turn it around. For him to lose his job in the middle of the conference season with a good young team and the promise of a good team next year is a tragedy.”
Just think, two years ago, LSU had both their men’s and women’s basketball teams in the Final Four. Now, neither head coach is still around in Baton Rouge.
There’s no question multi-million salaries for coaches have changed the priorities. It’s also resulted in extreme impatience on the part of athletic administrators and fans.
“The more money universities pay to the coaches, the more they have a right to expect,” Odom said. “We the coaches understand that. We need to come together and decide what we want. Do we want to continue the trend of making as much money as you possibly can? If that’s true, you can expect more of this. If you want to get some sort of leveling off where we get more security like tenure, that might be something we look at.”
Word of caution to all Division I heads football and basketball coaches – win now or else.
Oh, and welcome to the world of instant gratification.
“There’s a lot of information available and people have a tendency to make snap judgments and decisions,” Odom said. “The truth is, fans don’t walk in the shoes of the coach or the players. They don’t know the day-to-day problems they have.”
Is tenure a legitimate option for coaches? Arguments in favor of that have been made in the past, but nothing has been done. Here’s hint - don’t hold you breathe waiting for the NCAA to take action. They’re too busy chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
As I often say, college athletics is a lot like the weather. If you don’t like it, wait five minutes.
Unfortunately, the Brady episode provides further proof college athletics is becoming more and more like pro sports every day. In short, winning is everything.
And so are those precious revenue streams.
The NCAA loves to give lip service to graduation rates and the APR and all that academic stuff just to try to show it matters, but coaches are still, in the end, judged exclusively by their won-lost record.
It’s all about the W’s. And I’m not talking about the President of the United States, either.
Is college basketball becoming more and more like the NBA in the way it thinks and operates? You bet.
“I definitely think (the Brady firing) is a trickle down from the NBA,” Odom said. “The difference should be that the NBA is an entertainment business, whereas collegiately, we’re presumably still involved with student-athletes and universities. There should be a purity of competition that doesn’t necessarily exist at the NBA level, where it’s all about wins and losses and entertainment.”
Major college athletics has everything pro sports does except for one thing: the players aren’t paid directly, though you could argue a scholarship providing for a free education is a form of payment.
Look around and this is what you’ll find in college stadiums and arenas today throughout the country: luxury suites, expensive tickets, hypermarketing, seat licenses, advertising galore and, of course, multimillion TV deals.
There’s no question major college athletes are the medium through which universities are getting rich.
Is there a way to stop the madness?
I’m waiting.
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I have a confession to make. I actually agree with the always bombastic Dick Vitale on something.
The firing of LSU head basketball coach John Brady puts major college athletics on a slippery slope it may have a hard time getting out of.
The firing of a college coach in mid-season, short of strong evidence of major rules violations, is unacceptable and shouldn’t happen.
If they wanted to buy Brady out at the end of the season, that’s fine. Pay him the money he’s owed and show him the door. The players deserved better than the way things went down.
Prior to Dave Odom’s ‘retirement’ announcement, I was asked several times if USC AD Eric Hyman would fire Odom before the end of the season. Each time, I said ‘no way.’ Hyman doesn’t operate like that, nor should any Division I athletic director worth his salt.
Of course, circumstances may require an AD to act swiftly to protect the integrity of a program.
Kelvin Sampson at Indiana, for example, could be a coach who deserves to get fired for his continuously deliberate violations of NCAA rules, but not Brady.
Sampson is one of those coaches who’s always looking for the gray area, a loophole that he can drive through in order to circumvent the spirit of the NCAA rules, which, I acknowledge, there are many.
Sadly, he’s far from being alone.
But Brady wasn’t like that. His only sin was not winning enough games to satisfy the insatiable appetites of LSU AD Skip Bertman and the gluttonous Tiger fans. Why didn’t he win this season? It probably had a lot to do with the fact his entire starting front line defected early to the NBA.
Yet, I can imagine Bertman having a hissy fit in his office after each loss this season that only a five-year old can appreciate.
I spoke with Odom about the Brady situation on Tuesday following our bi-weekly press briefing previewing the next game. Odom, as usual, was thoughtful in his answers.
“You would hope the fans and the university would focus on the future,” Odom said. “LSU was a young team getting better. They were playing better. John Brady wasn’t given anytime to turn it around. For him to lose his job in the middle of the conference season with a good young team and the promise of a good team next year is a tragedy.”
Just think, two years ago, LSU had both their men’s and women’s basketball teams in the Final Four. Now, neither head coach is still around in Baton Rouge.
There’s no question multi-million salaries for coaches have changed the priorities. It’s also resulted in extreme impatience on the part of athletic administrators and fans.
“The more money universities pay to the coaches, the more they have a right to expect,” Odom said. “We the coaches understand that. We need to come together and decide what we want. Do we want to continue the trend of making as much money as you possibly can? If that’s true, you can expect more of this. If you want to get some sort of leveling off where we get more security like tenure, that might be something we look at.”
Word of caution to all Division I heads football and basketball coaches – win now or else.
Oh, and welcome to the world of instant gratification.
“There’s a lot of information available and people have a tendency to make snap judgments and decisions,” Odom said. “The truth is, fans don’t walk in the shoes of the coach or the players. They don’t know the day-to-day problems they have.”
Is tenure a legitimate option for coaches? Arguments in favor of that have been made in the past, but nothing has been done. Here’s hint - don’t hold you breathe waiting for the NCAA to take action. They’re too busy chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
As I often say, college athletics is a lot like the weather. If you don’t like it, wait five minutes.
Unfortunately, the Brady episode provides further proof college athletics is becoming more and more like pro sports every day. In short, winning is everything.
And so are those precious revenue streams.
The NCAA loves to give lip service to graduation rates and the APR and all that academic stuff just to try to show it matters, but coaches are still, in the end, judged exclusively by their won-lost record.
It’s all about the W’s. And I’m not talking about the President of the United States, either.
Is college basketball becoming more and more like the NBA in the way it thinks and operates? You bet.
“I definitely think (the Brady firing) is a trickle down from the NBA,” Odom said. “The difference should be that the NBA is an entertainment business, whereas collegiately, we’re presumably still involved with student-athletes and universities. There should be a purity of competition that doesn’t necessarily exist at the NBA level, where it’s all about wins and losses and entertainment.”
Major college athletics has everything pro sports does except for one thing: the players aren’t paid directly, though you could argue a scholarship providing for a free education is a form of payment.
Look around and this is what you’ll find in college stadiums and arenas today throughout the country: luxury suites, expensive tickets, hypermarketing, seat licenses, advertising galore and, of course, multimillion TV deals.
There’s no question major college athletes are the medium through which universities are getting rich.
Is there a way to stop the madness?
I’m waiting.
- Permalink, Discuss, Blog Home
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.