Mornin Mates...
Today's Topic = March Madness
At least the weather is getting much warmer even if some of our teams are going through bitter cold spells these days...
Our men's basketball team beat both Colorado and Utah on the road but not much else on the positive side this weekend...
Got swept by BYU in baseball and looked like mice yesterday when we lost 19-3...
We knew pitching was going to be a problem this year but never thought we would get blasted like that yesterday...
We also had interviews, this past week, that had taken place with president Crow and Ray Anderson, who both indicated that our football program was good to go under Herm...
I know that playing "hide and seek" with the truth is part of their jobs but it sure is frustrating for us fans and boosters....
I think we all know that Herm is not in danger of losing his job due to not winning enough but his really good recruiting has gone way down since the scandal broke a year ago...
Hopefully, when NCAA sanctions are announced in the next year or two they won't punish those that had nothing to do with the rule violations in the first place...
The Gates Committee, working under the auspices of the NCAA to renovate their constitution, made dealing with punishments a priority, so that they don't punish the innocent after the fact when violations occurred...
The Gates Committee was run by former Secretary of Defense and former president of Texas A&M, Robert Gates, who said in an article titled "How College Sports May Change Under Proposed NCAA Rule Violations" written by Alan Binder on 11-15-21 of the New York Times...
Gates concluded that "a critique of the existing rules enforcement system (of the NCAA) is that protracted inquiries can lead to punishments, like post season bans, for players and coaches, who had little or nothing to do with any violations. A new proposal (they are advocating for) calls for divisions (P-5) to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that penalties do not punish programs or student-athletes that are innocent of any violations."
Then, in our case, we have two different sorts of violations in play...1) illegal payments made to potential recruits and their families by coaches who have now either been fired or forced to resign, and 2) recruiting taken place when forbidden by the NCAA during the pandemic...
It doesn't appear that Herm was involved in any illegal payments but it sure looks like he participated in recruiting during a prohibited period during the pandemic...
On top of all this, we're talking about the NCAA that is thought to be about as corrupt as any organization can be about how it investigates and enforces its recruiting policies...
And, the recruiting took place in a state (AZ) that didn't have the same pandemic rules in place, where the pandemic rules were initiated, in a different part of the country...
So, if you ask me, you have layer upon layer of arbitrariness involved by the powers that be in this whole deal...
That said, you still have some rule violations that took place that could lead to some sanctions down the road for our football program....
These are certainly crazy times for ASU athletics and I'm wondering how much crazier it might get moving into March...
Again, I like that we are warming up in the desert but not sure when our Big 3 sports are going to warm up to higher degrees in the coming months and years...
I also wonder how much president Crow and Ray Anderson are enjoying this March Madness in our athletic department..??
Thoughts..??
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
Today's Topic = March Madness
At least the weather is getting much warmer even if some of our teams are going through bitter cold spells these days...
Our men's basketball team beat both Colorado and Utah on the road but not much else on the positive side this weekend...
Got swept by BYU in baseball and looked like mice yesterday when we lost 19-3...
We knew pitching was going to be a problem this year but never thought we would get blasted like that yesterday...
We also had interviews, this past week, that had taken place with president Crow and Ray Anderson, who both indicated that our football program was good to go under Herm...
I know that playing "hide and seek" with the truth is part of their jobs but it sure is frustrating for us fans and boosters....
I think we all know that Herm is not in danger of losing his job due to not winning enough but his really good recruiting has gone way down since the scandal broke a year ago...
Hopefully, when NCAA sanctions are announced in the next year or two they won't punish those that had nothing to do with the rule violations in the first place...
The Gates Committee, working under the auspices of the NCAA to renovate their constitution, made dealing with punishments a priority, so that they don't punish the innocent after the fact when violations occurred...
The Gates Committee was run by former Secretary of Defense and former president of Texas A&M, Robert Gates, who said in an article titled "How College Sports May Change Under Proposed NCAA Rule Violations" written by Alan Binder on 11-15-21 of the New York Times...
Gates concluded that "a critique of the existing rules enforcement system (of the NCAA) is that protracted inquiries can lead to punishments, like post season bans, for players and coaches, who had little or nothing to do with any violations. A new proposal (they are advocating for) calls for divisions (P-5) to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that penalties do not punish programs or student-athletes that are innocent of any violations."
Then, in our case, we have two different sorts of violations in play...1) illegal payments made to potential recruits and their families by coaches who have now either been fired or forced to resign, and 2) recruiting taken place when forbidden by the NCAA during the pandemic...
It doesn't appear that Herm was involved in any illegal payments but it sure looks like he participated in recruiting during a prohibited period during the pandemic...
On top of all this, we're talking about the NCAA that is thought to be about as corrupt as any organization can be about how it investigates and enforces its recruiting policies...
And, the recruiting took place in a state (AZ) that didn't have the same pandemic rules in place, where the pandemic rules were initiated, in a different part of the country...
So, if you ask me, you have layer upon layer of arbitrariness involved by the powers that be in this whole deal...
That said, you still have some rule violations that took place that could lead to some sanctions down the road for our football program....
These are certainly crazy times for ASU athletics and I'm wondering how much crazier it might get moving into March...
Again, I like that we are warming up in the desert but not sure when our Big 3 sports are going to warm up to higher degrees in the coming months and years...
I also wonder how much president Crow and Ray Anderson are enjoying this March Madness in our athletic department..??
Thoughts..??
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
