NCAA Director of Enforcement Resigns
Bill Benjamin, the NCAA Director of Enforcement resigned after 8 months on the job.
There's nothing to suggest so but I do wonder if he left because he wasn't allowed to do his job correctly or if he was forced out for being over-zealous.. With all the allegations at Ohio, and the little the NCAA chose to punish them, along with nefarious dealings at Oregon, Alabama, and LSU, among others, it wouldn't be inconceivable if he wasn't happy with what he was allowed to do.
Anyways, I searched and found nothing, scrolled through mgo.licio.us and saw nothing, and didn't recall Brian saying anything about it, so sorry if it's already been posted.
Link:http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8078986/bill-benjamin-ncaa-director-enforcement-resign
Disclaimer: I know nothing about this guy or why he resigned.
But I'm just going to assume it was one of two extremes: he wanted to do his job but the NCAA didn't want people who actually wanted to enforce the rules OR he took the job thinking it would be easy because the NCAA is terrible at enforcing rules and with UNC and Miami and OSU and everyone else, he had to do actual work and quit.
I've gotta be right on one of them.
rubber-stamp method used by the NCAA. This probably will pave the way for the SEC-type of business in college football, which will undoubtedly be bad for the B1G and lovers of honesty ruling the day EVER in college football.
With the 4-team playoff system agreed upon allowing two teams from the same conference, it would seem the SEC will most always get two of the four spots, "because they are truly the toughest conference in the country."
My guess is theat the the cheaters won't ever really pay. USC never paid much (they missed a couple of bowl games, big deal, they still get top-5 classes even with reduced numbers), OSU is not paying at all and Oregon will get nothing.
I can't stand how people keep insisting the B1G is some bastion for righteousness in the league. We've got our (very minor) violations, OSU's Tattogate, MSU's Halfway house, PSU's Diddling Daycare, and everything Bielema has ever done.
Well you arn't strengthening any case for a mature (or at least somewhat clever) fan base with posts like this, either.
The SEC laughs at these minor violations (except PSU maybe). These things don't even create a ripple at the SEC schools.
and now has to go into witless protection.
A gig as Florida State's Director of Snow Removal.
I heard he resigned because his desk was moved down to the basement and they took away his Swingline stapler.
http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/
This is the blurb that the NCAA posted when he was hired in November. Per this article:
"Benjamin will lead a team of football-focused investigators charged with building knowledge, meaningful contacts and actionable leads to better inform investigations. "
This could be an intriguing look into the culture of the NCAA itself depending on the details, if they should follow this story at some point. It really is difficult to tell without more detail whether the resignation was out of dissatisfaction or a coerced move, but I would imagine that there was probably some pushback, given the state of the NCAA and college football, to the sort of transparency that would be needed for Benjamin to effectively do this, at least from certain sources. They actually restructured their investigative arm to accommodate this guy, I believe, and I wonder also if the NCAA then denied him the power to do what he was supposed to do. I am interested in hearing more about what happened here certainly.
NCAA and enforcement... an oxymoron, if ever there was one.
Sorry I had to throw that in there.
Where's Kennesaw Mountain Landis when you need him? Minus, you know, the racism.
While part of me was hopeful that the NCAA really wanted to crack down on programs like USC, OSU, Oregon, and most of the SEC, another part thought it was "too good to be true." It's becoming obvious that the NCAA doesn't want to go after the "big boys," and that as long as Mark Emmert is running the NCAA, Ohio is protected because of his BFF/protege relationship with Gordon Gee.
I wish they would just get rid of most of the rules and let everyone pay players. That would signigificantly decrease the advantage that programs who cheat currently have. Sadly, even though the "rich" are already "richer," it will always come down to the "the rich will get richer" argument.
The bottom line: the NCAA doesn't really want to enforce their "rules," and certainly don't want to enforce them equally.
up in a nice administrative role at Ohio?
Lets hope that he writes a book detailing the how process of investigations and punishments actually happens with the NCAA. I would imagine it goes something like this. (hypotheically)
1. Interview alleged violators
2. Report findings to Mark Emmert
3. Shake head as Mark tells you that this doesn't seem to be a systemic problem. (Wait what?)
4. Get royally pissed when your findings are not used in the penalty phase.
5. Resign after realizing you have integrity and want to do the right thing.
his secretary