Jim Tressel is going through media hell right now, and though he broke the rules, I don’t really think he deserves all the blame he’s getting. Yes he lied, and cheated, and covered up for his prized athletes. In this instance when we usually ask who’s to blame, the obvious answer is Tressel. But is Tressel an exception? Is he a wicked or devious man, or is he a product of a broken system? I tend towards the latter.
I’m not here the toss accusations at specific people or programs, but I’m here to state the obvious fact that most of sports fans know in their collective gut. Ohio State is not the only program cheating. In fact, if Ohio State weren’t cheating, it would be one of the only major programs that isn’t. We’ve seen the likes of USC, Auburn, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida at the very least implicated for NCAA violations in basketball, football or both just in the last few years.
Are we really to believe that the handful of programs I just mentioned are the only ones cheating? These programs, that all happen to be enormous revenue generators for their respective schools, are the exceptions to the rule and that most major programs adhere strictly to NCAA rules at all times?
Of course not. The axe fell on USC yesterday (though Pete Carroll got out the back door in time), Tressel today, and it will be someone else tomorrow. NCAA rules will to continue to be broken not because Tressel and other coaches are bad men, but because they want to keep their jobs, and to do so means winning games at all costs.
Like baseball players during the steroid era, these coaches have a decision to make: Be clean and let my competition pass me by and let my career slip away, or cheat and stay competitive while running the risk of getting caught down the line. Most people in any line of work will cheat if it means keeping their career versus losing it. What’s a little recruiting violation if it means beating Michigan?
Continuing the baseball analogy, cheating doesn’t necessarily guarantee success or entirely diminish accomplishments. Here are some names listed on the infamous Mitchell Report, implicating those MLB players that were found to have used performance enhancing drugs: Bart Miadich, Adam Piatt, Matt Herges, Chad Allen, Howie Clark. Not exactly Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa (all in the report too), huh? So when everyone cheats—or most everyone at any rate—it levels the playing field.
Even if cheating weren’t going on in college football, Florida, Ohio State, Alabama, and USC would still be atop the mountain because they are the name-brand schools where players want to go. No matter what, they would still beat the living daylights out of Youngstown State, Tennessee Tech, and the like. But when Florida starts to cheat, Ohio State has to cheat to keep pace. Tressel didn’t lie to the NCAA because he thought, “Jeez, if we don’t have Terelle Pryor I’m not sure we can beat Akron.” He lied because, “I can’t win a conference championship, let alone a national title, without my best players.”
It’s just as when McGwire started to juice, Sosa had to get on that sauce too. It’s not so he can hit Steve Woodard (also on the Mitchell Report) but so he can keep pace with Big Mac and jack 60 home runs.
Greatness is greatness, and when everyone cheats great just becomes greater. Barry Bonds may have jumped from 34 to 49 to 73 home runs when he started juicing, but he was great prior to drugs and simply greater afterwards.
Every major program is paying players, talking through agents, and simply doing things they should not be doing according to NCAA rules. But to get outraged at a single man for doing what his profession has essentially forced upon him and his coaching brethren is ridiculous. The problem isn’t with one man, it’s systemic, and until the system changes, we will continue to see coaches and programs demonized for doing what they must: dance with the devil.
--from @AdamHocking
(image from flickr.com)
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