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Articles
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Posted 14 June 2004
-- In February, Rivals.com ranked the UW recruiting class nineteenth best in the country. With the potential loss of Matt Tuiasosopo (5 stars) to the Mariners, Rashaad Goodrum (4 stars) to USC and Keauntea Bankhead (4 stars) to some standardized test scores, won't Keith Gilberston’s recruiting class take a big hit in ranking? Answer: With the exception of Dashon Goldson (4 stars), who underwent shoulder surgery last winter, the rest of the incoming class has been given a ranking of 3 stars or less by Rivals.com. Because of players like Goldson and Goodrum who come out of the JC ranks and because no one seems to know how these rankings are computed, we turn each year to the Tacoma News-Tribune's Western 100 for a general picture of how Washington is recruiting. In 2003, the UW brought in 14 players listed in the Western 100. This season, the UW brought in 7 players, half as many as the year before. If Bankhead and Tuiasosopo don’t enroll this fall, that would leave the Huskies with 5 players who are listed in the Western 100, rendering them eighth in the conference in that metric. Also, the Hawaii pipeline, a big kahuna for the UW in the past, has taken a one-year hiatus so it seems. Of the three recruits listed above, Bankhead has the best chance of enrolling for fall quarter. -- According to press reports, former AD Barbara Hedges twice witnessed the UW booster who piloted the boat rides to Rick Neuheisel’s house in contact with recruits at his house but didn't report the violations. Isn’t that an egregious mistake? Answer: It would seem so. However, just recently the University of Utah was put on probation by the NCAA for findings involving a lack of institutional control. According to the NCAA report, “during the spring of 1999, an athletics department tutor and two football student-athletes at Utah committed academic fraud when the tutor, a friend of both student-athletes, provided them with a paper for a writing class. The paper was discovered, the tutor was fired and the student-athletes received failing grades in the courses, but the institution did not report the violation to the NCAA.” Last week, Utah’s athletic director, Chris Hill, turned down the AD job vacated by Hedges, according to the Salt Lake City press. It’s not certain whether Hill has taken responsibility for the oversight in reporting the tutoring violation or not. -- In addition to Hill, six other prominent candidates for the AD job at Washington have turned the job down. Has the AD position turned into a pariah’s job? Answer: With the cloud of the NCAA findings hanging over the UW, the job as its athletic director is about as attractive as a lunar landscape. Furthermore, since the fruit-basket scandal of 1992, the UW has been under intense media scrutiny. Most members of the local media, accompanied by a bevy of eavesdroppers and snitches, are not passionate about big-time college football, in general, and UW football, in particular. -- Hey, Malamute, are you paranoid? You’re always writing about media bias. Answer: No, I’m not paranoid. The media influences public opinion and public opinion influences public officials; otherwise, the media will target them – like in this hypothetical headline “Has Myles Brand gone soft on gambling?” which would have been the case had he and other NCAA officials acted fairly in the Neuheisel matter. With respect to the gambling incident, the fourth estate could have easily taken a different tack, in that the NCAA bylaw on gambling is not clear about sports pools but rather aimed at organized gambling. If the media had argued for the bylaw’s ambiguity, the NCAA would have rewritten its bylaw and dropped the matter, leaving Barbara Hedges as AD, Neuheisel as coach and Dana Richardson as compliance director. There is no sinister intent. The sensationalism of the stories helps the media market its goods. -- What sanctions will the NCAA levy on Washington? Answer: The NCAA considers Neuheisel’s gambling to be a major violation because of the monies bid in the two auctions. Also, the undercharging for the boat rides and the booster’s contact with recruits are considered a major violation. The small betting pools within the athletic department are considered secondary violations. Lack of institutional control is a superset of all the violations and carries with it severe sanctions. We expect the NCAA to uphold the Pac-10’s findings and concomitant sanctions, while adding the lack of institutional control. The NCAA will most likely put the UW on two years’ probation, instead of one, and probably will reduce its grant-in-aids for football -- say, by 5 -- for one of those two probationary years. We doubt whether limitations on post-season play will be levied or that Neuheisel will be given a “show cause” edict. Note that the Pac-10 did not pursue the lying-to-investigators charge that has followed Neuheisel in the past. We doubt whether the NCAA will pursue that angle, since the NCAA allegedly violated two of its own bylaws when its investigators blindsided Neuheisel last June. What's the prognosis for UW football? Right now its condition is listed as critical because of some daunting questions posed. Somehow Keith Gilbertson needs to survive what looks to be a dreadful season ahead. Without Matt Tuiasosopo, the quarterback situation is iffy; the offensive line will be makeshift at best. The "Dr. Feelgood" scandal awaits resolution, and it is not clear what the NCAA will do about that along with the current set of violations, which could take 5 to 7 weeks to resolve. The hunt for a new AD is temporarily butting its head against a stone wall. Richard Linde (a.k.a., Malamute) can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com |
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Malamute
opens his mailbag and answers some questions pertaining to the 2004 recruiting
class, to potential NCAA violations, to the AD position at Washington and to the subject
of paranoia. Be aware that there are neither pop ups, spyware, nor spin on this
website.