Recognizing Necessity

The events unfolding at Penn State have effectively served as a tragic punctuation to all the scandals that have recently called into question the credibility of college football. While the misdeeds at USC, Ohio State, numerous others, and even Miami, fall far short of letting an alleged pedophile remain on the streets, they all call into question whether the demands of big-time sports can be reconciled with the educational mission of universities.

And they all speak to the necessity for drastic reform of NCAA governance.

Put simply, the tension between big-time sports and the educational mission of universities arises because there is too much pressure to win and generate revenue. All too often the tail wags the dog.

Why did USC fail to monitor compliance adequately? Why did Ohio State coach Jim Tressel cover-up information that some of his players were receiving illegal benefits? Why did the U’s Athletic Department ignore their own coach’s warnings about donor Nevin Shapiro?

And why didn’t the coach, athletic director, or even the president at Penn State call the police when they had credible evidence that one of their own was molesting boys?

Because they were all afraid of what it would mean for their football programs. They would rather risk NCAA sanctions, or in one case the safety of children, rather than lose star players, turn away wealthy donors, or reveal information that would nauseate potential recruits.

All of these schools deserve to be condemned, but the underlying problem will not go away because the NCAA levies some severe sanctions or some high-ranking officials are criminally prosecuted. So long as the tail continues to wag the dog, the temptation to cut corners, cheat, or worse will remain too great.

The presidents should mandate that every Division 1 school hire an ombudsperson who reports and is answerable to the NCAA. This person (or small staff) would make sure every athlete was educated about NCAA rules, help design and implement compliance requirements, and every supervisory official in the AD would be contractually obligated to report any concerns about potential NCAA rules or criminal violations to this office.

This is not a perfect solution. Very little can be done about a rogue supervisor, like Tressel, who failed to turnover relevant information to other supervsiory officials. But it might have made the crucial difference at USC, Miami, and Penn State.

USC claims that they did an adequate job with compliance and that it was unreasonable to expect them to know that Reggie Bush was receiving extra benefits. The NCAA ruled otherwise, but there would have been no need for the NCAA to make that judgment if an ombudsperson had told SC what they needed to do by way of education and compliance. Maybe Bush would still have found a way to get extra benefits, but everyone would know that USC took every reasonable step to stop him.

In the case of Miami, coach Randy Shannon and any of the other officials in the AD who had concerns about Mr. Shapiro would have been required to share whatever information they had with the ombudsperson and defer to whatever actions were mandated. Maybe Shapiro would have found a way to beat the system, but at least we would know that UM officials had taken every step they could to exercise proper oversight.

Finally, I find it hard to believe that Joe Paterno, athletic director Tim Curley, and president Graham Spanier would have kept the information they had about Sandusky private if they knew they were legally obligated to inform an empowered third party. And I think it is fair to say the ombudsperson would have called the police immediately.

German philosopher G.W. Hegel wrote, “Freedom is the recognition of necessity.” ATMs don’t open a drawer and ask us to take $40, which might tempt some of us to take more; they dispense $40, which leaves us free to think about how to spend whatever cash we have in our hot little hands.

Similarly, having an ombudsperson answerable to the NCAA would point to the necessity of reporting relevant information and compel AD officials to be more ethical and keep their priorities in order.

Having such a person in place at every school would have spared the NCAA a lot of embarrassment the last couple of years and it probably would have saved numerous children from being sexually abused.