stephenrjking

November 29th, 2016 at 6:07 PM ^

Lots of similarities.

Look past the BR website: This is a legit eye-opening article.

And it doesn't instill me with a lot of confidence in the sport, I can tell you that.

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LSAClassOf2000

November 29th, 2016 at 6:19 PM ^

How do you compete in a business where third chance has become the new second chance—and no one ever remembers what the first problem was all about, anyway?

It is one of the few professions where you can get multiple chances to do the same thing, succeed or not, move on and all the while weather storms which would derail people in other careers for good basically. 

Very interesting piece indeed. 

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Everyone Murders

November 29th, 2016 at 6:22 PM ^

To think that Bowden still had the ledger of which players were on the payroll, and Auburn never got busted for SMU-level violations is astounding.  I understand that the NCAA doesn't have subpoena powers, but Jebus. 

Power 5 CFB's a rotten business at a lot of levels, and makes me all the more happy to have someone with the integrity of Harbaugh at the helm.

 

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Hard-Baughlls

November 29th, 2016 at 6:26 PM ^

For all of Hoke's failings, he recruited mostly quality character kids and whatever accountability / success they lacked on the field, they made up for it in the classroom and off the field.

Harbaugh inheritied not just some very talented kids, but guys willing to work, listen, learn and compete.  I'm hopeful we can continue to bring in quality character kids that can play both school and football.

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Gucci Mane

November 29th, 2016 at 10:28 PM ^

Michigan has many great kids to be sure. But we do have some ass holes as well. One sticks out to me big time. But that is unavoidable, you cant have 85 scholarship players and expect them all to be great people. However a coach like Harbuagh can keep that down to a minimum, and avoid a culture where breaking the laws and rules in ok.

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I Want To Believe

November 29th, 2016 at 6:54 PM ^

There are so many laws, and other obstructions in the NCAA rule book. I'm not suggesting that Michigan pays players, but there are things that go on behind the scenes that would be ruled illegal by the NCAA.

My best friend was a division 1 QB for a middling power 5 conference school. So I've been privy to some stories.

I also have experience as a football coach (high school & arena). Been around enough coaches to know that when schools get away with cheating, others follow. Coaches are extensions of their players. Coaches are some of the most competitive people in the world. If they can get an edge, they're going to. I



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Tshimanga

November 29th, 2016 at 9:31 PM ^

Just to help further illustrate the point that Michigan and likely every program 'cheats' at some level and gets away with it...My experience

I played at the Northwestern/Duke/Stanford of my D3 conference from 2003-2006 (4 year letter winner). If anyone wants to figure out where I attended undergrad (masters at U of M), be my guest, and I'll confirm. When I entered the program, we had the longest losing streak in all of D3. By the time I was a senior we upset the #16 team in the country and were 4-6, 

Anyways, for those who aren't aware, D3 athletes are non scholarship athletes, therefore we had much different rules and regulations than D2, D I-AA and D1-A (how it was classified at the time)

Being a D3 school, our specific infraction was: Significantly Surpassing our NCAA MANDATED Off-Seasons Practice/Contact hours. Our coaches essentially ran 'illegal' mandatory offesaons weight lifting and conditioning sessions where attendance was taken and it was widley known and threatened it would influence your standing on the team the next season.

Why and How the NCAA found out?! Since we were a D3 program (1,800 kids at the school) there were many 2 sport athletes; half our baseball team were football players. Well the baseball coach was fed up with his players conflicting interests so he snitched on our own school. 

Our probation sentence since we couldnt lose scholarships? We lost Spring ball  for 3 off seasons.

The coach who recruited me and most of the team bolted for a parrallel job pretty much overnight and left all of 'his guys' in the dust. I wasnt one of 'his guys'. 

Ironically, after he left the program made a home run hire with a D3 combo version of Kingsbury/Harbugh that had the sophomores from my senior year ranked in the top 25 and playing for conference championship/playoffs before he was eventually fired for misappropriating college funds -- he used the credit cards at Minneapolis bars picking up girls and the what not...

Other scandalous stuff I witnessed was a lot of lying to recruits to influence their decision and lying to current players to keep them from quitting.

I would say 50-75% of the team smoked weed In-season knowing we wouldnt be drug tested unless we made the playoffs. Other players took questionable supplements, likelly illegal now, but could be purchased at GNC 10 years ago

I can only image what our superior peer programs got away with since we were only punished due to a snitch.

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FatGuyTouchdown

November 30th, 2016 at 1:32 AM ^

a Carleton guy would you? 

Got recruited there by a "Dick Tressel". There was no way I was going to play for Jim god damn Tressel's brother.

Also to the drug issue, there were a couple times where our entire starting defense would smoke weed together. Weed and Adderall and the occasional coke habit run rampant in every college locker room.

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Tshimanga

November 30th, 2016 at 10:41 AM ^

But Dick Tressel?!? When Was he on the staff, certainly not when I was there. I'm assuming when Kurt Ramler was the coach? I'll always remember my D-Cordinator coming in to the locker room (post-win) fired up to tell me Michigan SMOKED #2 ND and high fived me (he wasnt a Blue fan, just knew I was)

There were no kids from Ohio on the roster when I was there and I even played 4 years with one guy from AA Huron that turned down preferred walk on @ Michigan.  We were actually at the Great Comback @ Minnesota of 2003 because it was a Friday night game. 

Chris Brann was the head coach my first 3 years. He was an INCREDIBLE recruiter, but wasn't a great motivator or X & Os guy; the talent on our roster was immense but it wasnt enough to overcome the losing culture in close games.  

Kurt Ramler was hired before my senior season when Brann bolted overnight for Beloit once the sanctions were officially handed down. I don't know how Ramler was as a recruiter, but he blew away our old staff in regard to being a motivator & X & Os guy, that's why he was able to get Brann's talent to practically a conference championship in 3 years. 

 

I agree wit the Performance Enhancers, Weed, Adderrall, Coke, Etc likely rampant in all college locker rooms

 

Where did you end up playing?!

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Blueblood2991

November 29th, 2016 at 8:59 PM ^

I highly doubt that Harbaugh is involved in anything shady. Like most schools, it's the boosters that are doing the dirty work. Not too many would doubt that there's guys with burner phones passing out cash all throughout CFB.

I think that's why people are exceptionally upset about Ole Miss. Not so much that they cheated, but the blatant "fuck you" way they did it by not even trying to hide it by using university issued phones to set up payments with the Athletic Department. They basically dared the NCAA to do something, and we've yet to see anything.

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4godkingandwol…

November 29th, 2016 at 9:35 PM ^

When I was in school in the late 90s many players drove really nice cars. I can't verify if they were paid for by their parents or family, but my guess is they were leased under the name of some distant aunt given there were all the same couple makes and models.



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Jason80

December 1st, 2016 at 7:16 AM ^

Many years back I was doing contract work where we processed State of Michigan income tax returns. One that I came across was of a Michigan football player, a member of the 97 championship team and future NFL player. This man claimed significant earnings (approaching 20 grand) doing work that should not have paid well for a pt worker going to school, playing a sport and preparing for the league. No show job?

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WestQuad

November 29th, 2016 at 6:31 PM ^

The money stuff is bad enough, when it comes to sexual assault (Baylor, Tennessee, PSU) and assault, the line needs to be drawn.  Unfortunately ethics go out the window in almost every competitive industry.   You can shoot a man's dog and he'll do business with you the next day if it makes him a buck.  

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stephenrjking

November 29th, 2016 at 6:40 PM ^

PSU is not like the others, because it was a situation where a long-time coach, a friend of the leadership, was allowed to perpetuate monstrosity.

Baylor and Tennessee are examples of the ugly tip of the iceberg of the situations described in the article. The problem the article illustrates is that in many places the line isn't particularly obvious. It's not just that some guys are taking cash, but the bad guys are obvious problems that should be kicked out; it's that coaches walk in and find a series of messy issues in which the idealistic response could cripple a program they've just been hired to turn into a winner. 

Those situations range from players taking cash to players getting away with not going to class to players with serious disciplinary issues that you need on the field. 

And so drawing the line isn't so easy. Which is where a guy like Briles can get in trouble, but not drawing a line at all. It's clear that Briles built a winner by getting players with problems and letting stuff go, to the most extreme levels. His success was built on trouble guys and he never determined what was too much.

 

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superstringer

November 29th, 2016 at 9:53 PM ^

OR ... we admit that we live in a capitalist society and PAY THE PLAYERS their fair market value. Problem solved.

Colege football is literally a communist system -- the owners tell the employees what their low wages will be, allow no argument or negotiation, and reap all the profits. How did it come to this? In any other industry, we'd be aghast.



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Ghost of Fritz…

November 29th, 2016 at 7:03 PM ^

to the BR article that claims inside knowledge confirms that OSU is still cheating.  Says its not cheating when everyone cheats.

No surprise.

There is a difference between the sort of institutionalized flagrant cheating that the article reports (playing players, etc. with full knowledge and collaboration of coaches) and programs that make a serious effort to corral boosters but sometimes can't prevent a loose cannon booster from 'boosting.'

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