Oregon Ducks Get a Slap on the Wrist for Recruiting Violations

The University of Oregon Football team got a slap on the wrist for recruiting violations under former head football coach Chip Kelly. The NCAA began looking into possible violations after reports of payments Oregon made to recruiting services, including a $25,000 payment approved by Kelly to Willie Lyles and Houston-based Complete Scouting Services that were connected to an Oregon recruit. Oregon got a three year probation which they lose 3 scholarships,  lose 19 official visits over the next 3 years and  18-month show cause penalty against Chip Kelly who just took an NFL job with the Philadelphia Eagles much like Pete Carroll did when he bolted for the Seattle Seahawks just before his USC Trojans suffered sanctions enforced by the NCAA for a loss of institutional control.  The 18th month show cause penalty means if any college program wants to hire Kelly before Christmas of 2014, he and the the program must appear before the committee on infractions, and then he and the program could face sanctions. Since Kelly is head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles it amounts to much ado about nothing. The ducks avoided a major loss of scholarships and post season bowl bans like Ohio State received. Ohio State finished 12-0 in the 2012 regular season and were unable to compete in the post season and a possible national championship because eight players took a total of $14,000 in cash and tattoos in exchange for jerseys, rings and other Buckeyes memorabilia. Tressel’s silence and playing players in a bowl game when he knew they had sold memorabilia for cash and tattoos didn’t help. The NCAA hit him with a five-year "show-cause" order which all but prevents him from being a college coach during that time. (1)Tressel is now an assistant with the Indianapolis Colts. Even the useless 18 month show cause penalty handed down to Kelly by the NCAA infractions committee doesn’t make sense when Tressel got five years for a few athletes selling memorabilia. Tressel unlike Kelly might actually have a job offer in the college ranks the next five years if not for the penalty where Kelly probably has job security in Philly over the next 18 months. Keep in mind we are in the post Jerry Sandusky scandal era which  Sandusky was charged with more than 50 criminal counts related to child sex abuse. The NCAA all but gave Penn State the death penalty. The Ohio State sanctions looked silly in comparison to the sickness that went on at Penn State where many coaches and administrators are alleged to have turned a blind eye for years. In the post Sandusky scandal days writing a check to a recruiting service to help the school gain an advantage in the recruiting of an athlete probably has different perspective. If the NCAA were to do the same investigation today I don’t believe the sanctions would have been as heavy over $15,000 dollars in memorabilia sales and wouldn’t feel the need to make such an example out of a coach who chose not to roll over on his players. The NCAA said; “There is no finding of lack of institutional control and no findings of unethical conduct.”  At the University of Oregon. (2) Writing illegal checks that are approved by the head coach is not a loss of institutional control? Welcome to the post Jerry Sandusky era.  There is no other logical answer in the disparity of the two institutions sanctions, but then again the NCAA has not been known for their consistency and fairness when handing out penalties over the years. 

1 ESPN

2 www.goducks.com 
3 Wikipedia-Jim Tressel