How much integrity are you willing to trade for success?

[broganreynik]

I'm curious to everyone's opinion. If it's not unethical, is it even a loophole?

I've always thought the reason people think loopholes are loopholes is because they're unethical and should be illegal.

 

[Kiyoat Husker]

I'm curious to everyone's opinion. If it's not unethical, is it even a loophole?

I've always thought the reason people think loopholes are loopholes is because they're unethical and should be illegal.

I guess to me there is a distinction between an "unethical" Loophole and one that isn't. It's a fine line, and everyone will have a different definition of it, based on their own criteria.

I think you are right in saying that in order to be called a loophole someone must think that it should be illegal. The three examples I gave above WERE banned after a while.

 

[NM11046]

I think instead of talking ethics and loopholes, I'd phrase it as, "working creatively within the guidelines to accomplish a goal".

 

[junior4949]

What I'm less on the same page with most of what I've read here is "loopholes" always being a bad thing. IIRC Tom was pretty good at exploiting any loophole that he didn't deem to be unethical. For example:

At one point in time, steroids were not illegal, and Nebraska used the hell out of them.

Partial Qualifiers

Fumblerooski (and other trick plays some might consider cheating)

My point is that I think that Coaches who try to use every possible way to make their team competitive, while not technically breaking any rules are smart, not unethical. Sure, there are unethical loopholes, like over-signing, but I think that TO and HCMR are similar in terms of "creative" use of resources. I think HCMR and his staff has done that with recruiting, to some extent.

Why is over signing unethical? If a program is well known for over signing, should a player really be mad when they lose their scholly for underperformance? Isn't this similar to someone receiving a regents scholarship? They lose their regents scholarship for underperformance.

 

[NM11046]

What programs are known for oversigning? Does a program have to tell the public/recruits that they oversigning?

Not all are lost due to underperformance, most are lost due to "we found somebody better" and that's hardly fair to the kid who commits and is truly loyal.

 

[Landlord]

Just because students should be wise about their decisions doesn't mean it's unethical. My personal ethic code doesn't allow room for practices that cause detriment/harm/suffering to others, which cutthroat oversigning and not honoring scholarships does. It's called 'honoring' scholarships for a reason.

 

[Kiyoat Husker]

If over-signing were ethical, they would just tell recruits that they do it. Also, they would have to give "under-performance" as a reason for pulling a scholarship. The schools that practice over-signing don't do either of those things. They make false promises, and then find some arbitrary reason for pulling a scholly, like "violation of team rules" for some small infraction. Because it is against NCAA rules to pull a scholly for "under-performance"

*for some reason, I can't remove that quote bubble

 

[NM11046]

If over-signing were ethical, they would just tell recruits that they do it. Also, they would have to give "under-performance" as a reason for pulling a scholarship. The schools that practice over-signing don't do either of those things. They make false promises, and then find some arbitrary reason for pulling a scholly, like "violation of team rules" for some small infraction. Because it is against NCAA rules to pull a scholly for "under-performance"

Thank you - you worded this far better than I did.