By Andrew Krumme
National signing day took place just five days ago and among the most touted football players to sign was none other than running back and ESPN all-around top recruit Joe McKnight, who chose to attend the University of Southern California. However, since stroking his “Herbie” Hancock on the national letter of intent, reports have surfaced of possible recruiting violations involving alleged phone conversations with former USC star tailback Reggie Bush. (For those of you who do not know, former players are forbidden from speaking with prospective recruits, their relatives or guardians.)
Of course, like any good ole college coach facing possible violations, Southern Cal head coach Pete Carroll commented about the possible calls from Bush saying, “It never happened.”
“It does not seem to me that the problem is with the people pulling the stunts, but the institution as a whole. You can never have a perfect system and people will always get away with things,” said junior music major Nat McCoy.
Now and in recent years, USC has been no stranger to possible recruiting no-nos. Former Trojan Dwayne Jarrett was found at fault for not paying enough rent when he was living with quarterback Matt Leinart. Just several months ago, allegations about Bush who currently plays for the New Orleans Saints were brought to fruition about a sports marketing firm that allegedly offered illegal benefits to Bush and his family in his time at Hollywood U. Things like this at a school like USC that has clearly been head and shoulders above many other elite college football programs in recent years makes you wonder.
Violations of NCAA regulations occur on a daily basis on campuses across the country ranging from letting a player drive a car that does not belong to them to boosters discretely slipping them some cash after a good game. While our country adopts the policy of innocent until proven guilty it seems the media has established a different set of rules: “Guilty until you cut a deal or are ultimately proven guilty.” Any time a story breaks about a college athletic program doing wrong, a dark shadow of guilt will hover about for some time.
“I’m sure there is,” said freshman computer engineering and science major David Reilly about the likelihood of illegal activity going on between college athletes and their schools. “It happens and there are also ways to get away with it.”
So how about here at Louisville? I do not know. I have, however, had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Athletic Director Tom Jurich and he is one of the good guys in this business. When Louisville was slapped with penalties in 1998, just over one year since Jurich was named AD, for problems within the women’s volleyball and men’s basketball teams, he handled the situation with a lot of integrity.
“I want to be a stand-up, take-my-medicine kind of person. I want our department to understand that we’ve made some mistakes and that it’s not okay to break the rules.”
That is really all you can do.
