Is Oregon Following Ohio State? Let’s Discuss

When Ohio State started to go down the path of NCAA allegations and impending penalties over what seemed to be out dated and antiquated NCAA rules I, like many other fans, simply thought it was dumb.  Yes, technically Ohio State had committed violations but in the grand scheme of things they weren’t awful deeds.  They just happen to fall squarely under the extra benefits rules of college athletics.  Some called it unfair, some called it a witch hunt, and others were resigned to the fact that while acts like this may be common place throughout college athletics it was simply our turn to take punishment and start to find a way back towards redemption.

Most fans always knew that similar stories from other schools would come out.  It was never really a matter of IF, but only a matter of when a news organization was ready to take on another high profile school.  Then it happened.  The story of Will Lyles, $25,000 and steering players to Oregon came out.  It was the relief just about every Ohio State fan was looking forward to, a new team and program for the national media to pick apart and scrutinize.

So today I dove into the Yahoo Sports article that detailed how Will Lyles used his position at a scouting agency to befriend various high school athletes and play an influential part of their lives.  As I read through the article I kept waiting for the big smoking gun, for Lyles to admit to paying players to go to Oregon, or for him to reveal that Chip Kelly arranged for improper benefits to fall in the lap of LeMichael James or Lache Seastrunk.  But it never happened.

I will admit that what I read did give off much more of a creepy, uneasy vibe than anything that ever happened at Ohio State.  There were plenty of things mentioned in the article that could easily be construed as unethical, lacking in integrity and shady.  However there was nothing mentioned in the article that spoke to any rules actually being broken.  That doesn’t mean that there isn’t potentially more to this story to come, maybe this is just the start.  Maybe we find out about cars for players, money changing hands to commit etc.  But if the story does happen to end after that article then I promise you nothing happens to Oregon, and I’ll give a money back guarantee on this post for that.  No scholarships lost, no wins taken away, nothing.  While Lyles reflected on his time over the last few years and recognized that he may have influenced the final destination for players and helped them find loopholes to admission he also seemingly acknowledged that he wasn’t doing it with any malicious intent.  He was doing his job as a scout and invariably became close with a few players.  In doing so he became a confidant and only helped at the discretion of the student athlete.  However, that relationship gave him a power with these kids that he didn’t fully recognize.  In a way after some reflection he found that he himself may have been manipulated by schools, not just Oregon.  Again, all of this is shady to say the least.  But, unless I’m missing something here, none of this speaks to any NCAA rules being directly violated in these stories.  If I’m wrong in this assertion in any way at all, please, let me know.  In all seriousness in the many years I’ve followed collegiate athletics and sports in general I have never heard anything that was described in that article as illegal.  If I am wrong I truly want someone to send me a link or photo copy or anything of the NCAA rule book that says what happened in Lyles account was against the rules.

Schools use boosters and famous alumni all the time to lure prospective athletes to their schools and that is not a violation of NCAA rules.  Essentially Oregon targeted a couple of Texas recruits they wanted to come to their program, and found out that Lyles was part of the scouting agency that had built a relationship with those players.  So, they hired the agency in hopes of essentially “hiring” a booster.  They paid a fee that was higher than normal and while that is suspect, there has never been any implication that any of those funds landed in the hands of the players or their families.  Hell, there was never an indication in the article that the funds ever went directly to Lyles, just to the company he started and that did in fact provide scouting reports to the school that was their only client.  If a school decides to pay a company for a service well above normal market value then that may be unethical or stupid, but it’s not illegal or a violation of rules, at least not any rules I’m aware of.

So here’s the review of the two schools situations.  Oregon may have manipulated an up and coming local scout and high school athletes in a way that just feels kind of slimy and disingenuous.  BUT, according to the letter of the law, or in this case the NCAA rule book, they didn’t actually break any rules.  Ohio State on the other hand is alleged not to have had any direct connection to providing extra benefits to college athletes but is in trouble because the players themselves sought out and found means of extra benefits in the community and the school didn’t report it or curtail it appropriately.  That according to the rules of the NCAA is a violation.  In my mind it screams of hypocrisy and only serves to highlight the glaring need for the NCAA rule book to be revised the same way a hoarder’s home needs to be renovated.

I’m an Ohio State fan that will fully admit that what has happened the last few months at my alma mater has brought a dark cloud to my school.  But also know that we signed up to play by a certain set of rules and we didn’t follow them, so we deserved to be punished.  Based upon those same rules the under handed doings of Oregon don’t appear to have actually crossed any boundaries of the NCAA.  Good for them, but I think this is the perfect time for everyone in a position of power to really look at the state of college athletics and student athletes in general.  Because I think you would be hard pressed to find someone that doesn’t believe that the rules aren’t broken.

————————————————————–

Click the comment button to let me know what you think or follow me on twitter @hewls