Busting Brackets
Fansided

Louisville Cardinals Scandal Just the Latest Mess for the NCAA

By Matt Johnson

facebooktwitterreddit

Picture if you will an NCAA administrator walking across the stage towards a solitary podium. Sporting the latest in three-piece suit fashion and surrounded by media members, this administrator calmly begins reading a statement filled with terms like “major infractions” and “sanctions,” all while supposedly setting some college’s basketball program back a few years.

If none of that sounds particularly new or interesting, it shouldn’t. At this point, it probably sounds pretty darn routine.

After all, NCAA talking heads have had to weigh in on various laundry lists of bad behavior ranging from Syracuse’s issues under Jim Boeheim to Larry Brown’s woes at SMU in recent months. With North Carolina back in the NCAA’s crosshairs due to 18 years of fraudulent academic practices, expect more of the same from Chapel Hill heading into 2016.

If all that wasn’t enough, the NCAA now gets to sink its collective teeth into another potential scandal relating to one of college hoops’ big boy programs.

More from ACC

Louisville has never been a stranger to off-the-court issues. Nevertheless, Rick Pitino’s program finds itself in an entirely new mess after a book entitled “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen” made some racy accusations against former Director of Basketball Operations Andre McGee. Specifically, McGee is accused of setting up high-level recruits with a professional escort from 2010 to 2014. That these incidents allegedly took place on campus adds still another level of ugliness for Cardinals’ faithful to digest.

Louisville Athletic Director Tom Jurich has already launched an investigation into the allegations and Pitino has spoken somberly about potential ramifications for his program. None of it really matters however. Regardless of any revelations or soul searching that may be done at Louisville, the optics couldn’t be worse.

No one at the highest levels of college basketball wants to be associated with a program that can be compared favorably to an out-of-control frat party. And that’s precisely the deep end of the pool where Jurich, Pitino and the rest of the Louisville program finds itself treading.

Of course, Cardinal fans will point out McGee is gone to Missouri-Kansas City, the rumored escort is now in her early 40s and one of the recruits in question, Antonio Blakeley, never even attended Louisville.

Nevertheless, the Louisville story highlights a highly disturbing fact of modern college basketball. In an era where coaches and entire administrations actively flaunt rules, such behavior is not only mildly accepted, it’s almost expected.

Much has been made of college football’s “wild west” atmosphere when it comes to recruiting. College basketball has joined right in with unscrupulous high-level boosters and AAU coaches becoming more and more visible. The result has been an increasingly cynical culture threatening to leave almost all standards of ethical behavior behind. First it was money in briefcases. Then it was massive academic fraud. Now it’s stories of orchestrated illicit rendezvous with escorts on campus.

Is it therefore any surprise when the average college sports fan smirks at a well-dressed NCAA representative talking about harsh penalties for rule breakers and a supposed commitment to student-athletes?

The bottom line is the NCAA in its current form is incapable of executing a mission of deterrence. Bad behavior has become so common it permeates every facet of big time college basketball. It’s a sad but telling realization fans have been forced to acknowledge nationwide. One can only hope someday, some way, the NCAA will finally take the steps necessary to clean things up once and for all.

Next: Busting Brackets Season Preview: Big Ten Conference Home Page

More from Busting Brackets