e******u
发帖数: 537 | 1 we are going to get our justice back! I would be shocked if we don't end up
suing NCAA
Emails show NCAA was out of control in USC case
By Ryan Phillips
In June 2010, the NCAA hit USC’s football program with the harshest
sanctions since SMU received the death penalty in 1985. For years USC fans
and administrators have contended that the NCAA was far too harsh in its
punishment of the school’s football program as a result of the Reggie Bush
scandal.
People close to the school have repeatedly insisted that the NCAA unfairly
targeted USC, that the investigation was biased against the university and
didn’t produce nearly enough evidence to actually prove its case. On
Tuesday, those people were proven right.
Hundreds of internal NCAA emails related to the Bush investigation were
unsealed on Tuesday and what they revealed was exactly what we’ve come to
expect from the NCAA. The picture painted by the emails is one of a
Committee on Infractions that judged USC guilty before the investigation
into the Bush matter even started. Then, when no smoking gun existed to
prove that USC knew about Bush receiving benefits, the investigators and
committee members attacked Todd McNair, the former running backs coach at
USC.
McNair is currently suing the NCAA for defamation and that suit was the
reason the documents were unsealed.
The nearly 500 pages of documents paint an embarrassing picture of a
vindictive investigation that was having issues finding the facts to
actually prove USC guilty. Dennis Dodd did a phenomenal job of summing up
the main points, so check out what he has to say, or check out some choice
cuts below.
– Two non-voting members of the infractions committee made disparaging
statements about McNair against proper NCAA procedures. One of those members
, Roscoe Howard (a former U.S. attorney) said, “I don’t think this
committee should be chained to a (enforcement staff) that has seemed to fall
short with this investigation or an institution that has no intention of
having us find out what actually happened here. I was insulted by the
arguments made by (the) institution and embarrassed by the reaction of the
staff.”
Committee liaison Shep Cooper also told the committee that McNair was a “
lying morally bankrupt criminal, in my view, and a hypocrite of the highest
order.”
Again, this is supposed to be an unbiased investigation based on facts.
– Rodney Uphoff, the NCAA coordinator of appeals repeatedly compared the
Bush case to the Oklahoma City bombing.
– In correspondence to committee members, Howard said, “McNair should have
all inferences negatively inferred against him…we need not say why we
disbelieve him, we only need to let the public, or whomever, know that we do
disbelieve him.”
So basically Howard is saying, we don’t have to prove that McNair is a liar
, just consistently call him a liar and people will believe it.
McNair’s lawyers have argued that the messages Uphoff and Howard sent to
voting members of the committee was in violation of the NCAA’s procedures
and influenced their decisions. Howard was only supposed to be an observer
in the case, and Uphoff also didn’t have a vote.
– One of the COI members, Eleanor Myers, admitted that investigators “
botched” an interview when their facts were completely wrong concerning a
phone call between McNair and wanna-be agent Lloyd Lake. That mistake is one
of many investigators made where facts were concerned in this case.
– The documents refer to a previous dog-fighting charge against McNair,
which is completely unrelated to the USC case and was never included in the
investigative file, but was brought up during the committee’s discussions.
– Uphoff also ripped USC’s hiring of lane Kiffin, saying the following: “
A failure to sanction USC both in basketball and football rewards USC for
swimming with the sharks. Although they all talked about the importance of
compliance at the hearing, winning at any cost seems more important.”
(And here’s the kicker) “Paul Dee was brought in at Miami to clean up a
program with serious consequences. USC has responded to its problems by
bringing in Lane Kiffin. They need a wakeup call that doing things the wrong
way will have serious consequences. In light of all the problems at USC, a
failure to send a serious message in this case undercuts the efforts to help
clean up NCAA sports.”
As far as we know, hiring Lane Kiffin is not an NCAA violation, but Uphoff
treats it like one. But first he praised Dee (then the head of the COI) who
oversaw a hilariously out of control athletic department at Miami. That
makes Uphoff’s statement even more comically ridiculous. Especially
considering his opinion was not supposed to hold any water in this case and
he was supposed to be a non-voting, silent member of the committee.
– Howard was also not a fan of Kiffin as he said, “Lack of institutional
control…(and do we add the hiring of Lane Kiffin?), is a very easy call for
me.
-To show just how out there one infractions committee member, Britton
Banowsky, thought the investigation was, here is a quote that shows how not
everyone was convinced McNair was as awful as he was being painted: “It is
challenging for me to make the finding when there is no allegation that he
personally was involved in any rules violations or even had specific
knowledge of any. That is why this is a tough one. But I will defer to
others on it.”
Myers agreed with Banowsky’s assessment, “As Britton says, on this record
it is hard to find that (McNair) was ‘involved’ in anything.” Myers also
expressed concern that the NCAA’s case against USC wasn’t very strong.
-Meanwhile, Uphoff continued pounding the pavement for tough punishment. He
argued against upholding “too high of a burden of proof” and defended “
inconsistencies re dates and details about events that spanned over 15
months” in Lake’s story.
Basically he was saying the committee should ignore anything Lake said that
didn’t fit their narrative and that the “proof” in the USC case (which
some didn’t seem convinced actually existed) shouldn’t be held to the same
standard as other cases.
-In case Uphoff hadn’t shown his personal bias enough, he sent an email to
Cooper that is simply unbelievable. An excerpt follows: “Obviously this
email is only going to you. I haven’t been able to sleep for three nights
because I fear the Committee is going to be too lenient on USC on the
football violations. I think that would be a huge mistake.”
Remember, Uphoff wasn’t supposed to be expressing his opinion to anyone
involved in the process, because he was not involved in the decision making
and was not on the Committee on Infractions. The fact that he was directly
influencing the proceedings is proof the NCAA’s own rules were being
violated.
If those emails weren’t enough for you, there are still 200 of the most
inflammatory pages that have yet to be released. What those made public on
Tuesday show is that the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions had decided USC
was guilty long before an investigation ever took place. Once that
investigation had been going on for four years, several members of the COI
decided that trying to connect McNair to the situation was the only way they
could connect Bush’s actions to anyone at USC. So they targeted him
despite a complete lack of evidence.
The investigators and the COI painted McNair as a liar and a “criminal”
despite any evidence to prove it. Basically they said they didn’t like him
so he must be guilty, never mind that they ruined his life in the process as
he has never been able to coach again.
There is more disgusting conduct in the emails and you can read them for
yourself here.
USC never denied that Bush violated his status as an amateur and was
therefore ineligible. What the school argued was that no one at USC knew
about it and when they found out, they acted accordingly. The NCAA needed to
prove that someone at USC knew in order to justify a lack of institutional
control ruling, so it attacked McNair’s credibility to make him look dirty.
Unfortunately, according to some of the COI’s own members, the
investigation and the committee did a terrible job, because they didn’t
even prove their own case or anything close to it, despite botching
interviews and making up facts.
The bottom line is that USC fans and administrators have been right all
along: USC football got screwed by an NCAA Committee on Infractions that was
biased against the school from the start. After four years of investigating
every aspect of the program they could find no evidence of wrongdoing
against anyone but Bush, so they went after McNair to help make their case.
They failed to make that case, but luckily they weren’t just the
investigators, they were also the judges and jury. They proudly nailed USC’
s pelt to the wall, never suspecting that the emails about their
deliberations would be made public. Now we all know the truth.
I would not be surprised if USC filed one heck of a lawsuit against the NCAA
in this one. | e******u
发帖数: 537 | 2 there are still more documents, approximately 200 pages, according to the
Los Angeles Times, which the NCAA continues to hide from public view.
--FuXX!
up
Bush
【在 e******u 的大作中提到】
: we are going to get our justice back! I would be shocked if we don't end up
: suing NCAA
: Emails show NCAA was out of control in USC case
: By Ryan Phillips
: In June 2010, the NCAA hit USC’s football program with the harshest
: sanctions since SMU received the death penalty in 1985. For years USC fans
: and administrators have contended that the NCAA was far too harsh in its
: punishment of the school’s football program as a result of the Reggie Bush
: scandal.
: People close to the school have repeatedly insisted that the NCAA unfairly
| Y******e
发帖数: 20256 | |
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