Some thoughts on Nebraska and the latest fallout from NCAA investigations

N

Nexus

All-American
If you haven't noticed, the NCAA Compliance Dept. is NOT on vacation this summer. With the fallout at USC setting off a flurry in the media, we're seeing a domino effect and the ACC/SEC region is getting hammered right now as we speak. Let's recap it quickly.

Tennessee - Vols athletes have been receiving VIP treatment at a local bar and had been for quite awhile (years?). Even worse is the establishment had been serving under-aged Vols athletes too.

North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama - Athlete/Agent related violations a la Reggie Bush.

USC hired a new AD as of today and he is cleaning house. LITERALLY. He's unretiring Reggie Bush's number along with removing his memorabilia display case which includes sending back his Heisman trophy. He was quoted as saying that he's washing his hands of all things Pete Carroll and starting fresh from here on out.

I imagine a lot of schools across the nation are starting to get nervous, especially in the ACC/SEC region.

Through all of this chaos, I hope Nebraska has kept its nose clean? I've read that T.O. runs a really tight ship when it comes to dealing with agents. Apparently he has a strict policy enforced on campus. But I'm curious if anyone else has any info. on how he regulates these sorts of issues? Agents are sneaky characters and with the direction Pelini has the program going in, I expect a lot of defensive players getting NFL looks as long as Pelini is around. Suh especially put the focus back on Nebraska and now I see agents wanting to exploit the defensive talents that Pelini will be producing here in Lincoln for $.

Here's to hoping our staff and players are doing their part in preventing such a fiasco from happening at Dear Ol' NU.

 
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Yep. At a time like this fans are all in the same boat. UNC fans, etc, are probably blindsided by these reports, and nobody knows who might get struck next. So as fans, now's not really the time to laugh at the schools who are getting hit with these investigations - but just to hope that we continue to run a tight ship.

 
No program is 100% clean. It's impossible to police 100+ kids 24/7. So I will guarantee that there are violations at Nebraska, just like there are at Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Alabama, etc.

The key is to have as few as possible, and to have a system in place that checks for such errors. The problem at USC that spurred this latest sweep is that they had no effective safeguards on their marquee player(s), which is why they got hammered. Hopefully whatever violations exist are minor, mostly innocent, and of the garden variety of violations such that the NCAA won't publicize them and/or come down on you.

 
I can only think that we're safe...but you never know when the Carolinas got hit like they did. Bama and Florida doesn't shock me, not even so much with Butch Davis with the haul of talent he reeled in when they were an abysmal team. But I would think Spurrier runs a pretty tight ship too, which leads me to believe the player agent relationships are getting more and more discreet every years, even more than expected.

There's no question in my mind however, that Suh was involved in anything shady or under the radar. And we don't exactly have anyone else of Suh caliber quite yet except for this shady character

:sarcasm

 
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I think the culture of Nebraska is helpful in this situation. This isn't LA with glitz and glamor all over and people driving $70,000 cars probably isn't anything new. In the SEC it just seems to me as an outside observer that it's kind of a don't ask don't tell policy towards this sort of thing. It probably changed for a while when Alabama got beat down by the NCAA, but with the depth of talent in the SEC, it's easier for agents to maximize their exposure to potential clients and find that one or two who would be willing to grab some cash. Agents, especially outside agents, would stick out like a sore thumb in Lincoln.

 
Yeah, we are fine. It's not like kids are flashing fat stacks of cash and buying other people's groceries for 'em. Now that would be trouble! :moreinteresting

 
I might be in the minority with this opinion, but I don't see how stripping Bush's Heisman does anything for you. Sure, the "university" doesn't deserve it, but Reggie Bush does at the very least. Whatever benefits he received, they didn't make him a physically gifted athlete.

 
Enhance89 said:
Whatever benefits he received, they didn't make him a physically gifted athlete.
Click to expand...
Yes they did.

It is a really interesting thing to wrap your head around, but check out the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It is an eye-opening analysis of what makes someone successful or gifted - and it is not so clear or obvious as you would think. In short, in our culture we like to think that being really good at something means that we have a natural talent or hard work or some long-winded lifted-up-by-my-own-bootstraps story, but in the overwhelming majority of the extremely successful people, natural talent and hard work have far less to do with their success than less obvious but extremely important aspects and opportunities of their life.

 
Enhance89 said:
I might be in the minority with this opinion, but I don't see how stripping Bush's Heisman does anything for you. Sure, the "university" doesn't deserve it, but Reggie Bush does at the very least. Whatever benefits he received, they didn't make him a physically gifted athlete.
Click to expand...
I live in L.A. and your opinion is the prevailing argument around here, but according to Pat Hayden, who is the new A.D. distancing themselves or basically washing their hands of both Reggie Bush and O.J Mayo was a mandate set down by the NCAA. Right now SC is trying to do everything they can to kiss up to the NCAA in hopes that their appeal will be successful. I'm not saying that they wouldn't have cut ties with Bush anyway, but either way the NCAA didn't really give them a choice.

 
Manhattan said:
Enhance89 said:
Whatever benefits he received, they didn't make him a physically gifted athlete.
Click to expand...
Yes they did.

It is a really interesting thing to wrap your head around, but check out the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It is an eye-opening analysis of what makes someone successful or gifted - and it is not so clear or obvious as you would think. In short, in our culture we like to think that being really good at something means that we have a natural talent or hard work or some long-winded lifted-up-by-my-own-bootstraps story, but in the overwhelming majority of the extremely successful people, natural talent and hard work have far less to do with their success than less obvious but extremely important aspects and opportunities of their life.
Click to expand...
Very interesting book, well worth the time to read.

 
Sparker said:
Manhattan said:
Enhance89 said:
Whatever benefits he received, they didn't make him a physically gifted athlete.
Click to expand...
Yes they did.It is a really interesting thing to wrap your head around, but check out the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It is an eye-opening analysis of what makes someone successful or gifted - and it is not so clear or obvious as you would think. In short, in our culture we like to think that being really good at something means that we have a natural talent or hard work or some long-winded lifted-up-by-my-own-bootstraps story, but in the overwhelming majority of the extremely successful people, natural talent and hard work have far less to do with their success than less obvious but extremely important aspects and opportunities of their life.
Click to expand...
Very interesting book, well worth the time to read.
Click to expand...
I was born January 11th. Reading that book make me mad I never moved to Canada and started playing hockey.

 
I'm not sure what to think on all this stuff.

On one hand Nebraska has a top tier compliance staff and has had an assistant AD to watch over the Football team for years. (the position people are praising USC for adopting today) I think we can be pretty safe with the assumption that under the current administration and coaching staff that we're definitely in compliance with NCAA rules as much as can be expected at any program.

HOWEVER, I'm slightly concerned that John Blake's name keeps popping up as a central figure to the North Carolina investigation. Blake was our D-Line coach for three years and was a primary recruiter for several players including Ola Daganduro, Barry Cryer, Phil Dillard and Marlon Lucky.

 
It's almost like you can't be a top recruiter without a little sleaziness. :/

Well, I take that back. It's only his name that's popped up. We know nothing yet.

 
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