The late President Ronald Reagan had a philosophy about arms reduction treaties with the former Soviet Union: trust but verify. One would think that with recent history bearing out the wisdom of that practice as regards athletic recruiting and eligibility scandals, university administrators would avoid rushing to judgment and proclaiming the innocence of their programs and coaching staffs before the results of internal and external investigations are known.
Back on March 3, 2011, Yahoo!Sports broke the story of a Houston-based high school football talent evaluator named Willie Lyles and his relationship with the University of Oregon’s program. The relationship generated interest because of a payment from the University to Willie J. Lyles dba Complete Sporting Service in the amount of $25,000 for “national scouting services.”
Because the amount seemed high, Yahoo!Sports and other media began firing off public records requests to the University in an attempt to pin down the return on that investment by the state institution. The yield turned out to be outdated and regional – at best – scouting reports and reviews of prospects that literally did not seem to fit the bill.
What Lyles did seem to do, was act as a conduit for a number of players who ultimately committed to attend Oregon and play football there. Running afoul of strict NCAA guidelines on steering student-athletes to colleges and universities could land OU in quite a bit of trouble, according to CBSSports.com’s EYE ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL, if that proved to be the true nature of Lyles’ services on behalf of the Ducks.
In a July 1, 2011 posting on rivals.com, Lyles detailed a very cozy relationship with recruits and the Oregon football staff that seemed to indicate a possible crossing of the NCAA line on improper recruiting. Cause for additional head scratching, as reported at sportsbybrooks.com on July 5, 2011, was Chip Kelly's initially telling The Oregonian columnist and radio talk show host John Canzano that he did not know Willie Lyles, his having earlier authorized the payment of a substantial amount of money to the scout notwithstanding.
Despite this mounting evidence that there may be more to the matter than the Ducks' football staff simply being poor shoppers, University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere backed his people. As reported in a September 17, 2011 Oregonian story on the NCAA probe, he affirmed that he had “very high confidence” in his football program and its staff, and that Head Coach Chip Kelly’s job was “quite safe”.
The NCAA investigation continues and the end result may not be known for some time yet. Whether the OU football program violated athletic recruiting rules is for the NCAA to determine, and if so, to mete out punishment. But like the head of any organization facing down an investigation by a governing body, it is better to look – preferably with a robust internal investigation – before leaping. Showing the wisdom of this course of action were the foibles of The Ohio State University at the start of 2011.
OSU President E. Gordon Gee and Athletic Director Gene Smith underestimated the seriousness of NCAA violations that their own football program faced early last year. Despite serious oversight violations, Early on, Gee not only safeguarded Jim Tressel’s employment before all of the NCAA's cards were revealed, but infamously hoped that the head coach would not fire him (insert rim shot here). Smith, too, consistently gave short shrift to the possibility of major infractions being found and serious penalties being imposed throughout the NCAA’s investigation of his program. Hubris has a price: Tressel is now in an administrative post at the University of Akron and OSU is bowl ineligible next year.
So, will the University of Oregon’s top administrator be proved prescient in this go-round or – like the Buckeyes – will he be seen to have stumbled out of the blocks a bit too early?
