Geller blew UO money on Glazier: NCAA refuses plea deal

We’ve written a fair amount on UO General Counsel Randy Geller charging the academic side half the cost of “The Cleaner” Mike Glazier’s work on the Chip Kelly / Willie Lyles  scouting business – while he and UO “Faculty Athletics Representative” Jim O’Fallon refused to share any information about the infractions settlement  efforts with the UO Intercollegiate Athletics Committee.

An in-your-face violation of UO Senate rules, and our shared governance constitution, and one more example of the loss of institutional control by UO over its athletic department.

Not only that, it seems Geller, Mullens, and O’Fallon wasted our students’ money. The NCAA has just refused Glazier’s plea bargain offer, and is going to try the case in their “Committee on Infractions” kangaroo court. Charles Robinson and Rand Getlin have the story on Yahoo Sports:

The sources said the committee ultimately did not accept Oregon’s presentment, disagreeing with “various aspects” of both the infractions the school believed occurred, and the sanctions the school deemed appropriate. That impasse has made a full-blown hearing necessary. Had Oregon’s request for summary disposition been successful, the school could have avoided a hearing in which individuals such as head football coach Chip Kelly could be made to appear and take questions.

All’s not lost though: UO’s Athletic Director, Rob Mullens, can still hit up Chip Kelly for the legal fees and any NCAA fines and lost revenue – but only if he acts fast, before Kelly flees for the NFL:

Reporters trying to get info on this case should ignore O’Fallon and Geller’s claims that NCAA investigations are confidential. Take a look at the Oregon Attorney General’s Public Records and Meetings Manual, and particularly this 1981 opinion. Oregon law still trumps the NCAA, I think. Don’t forget to cite it when making requests to UO Public Records Officer Lisa Thornton, here. And ask for a fee waiver – how UO has been spending public money is certainly a matter of public interest!

November 12, 1981, Blaine Newnham. Order granted inspection of NCAA complaint against the University of Oregon, with some deletions. The conditional exemption for interagency advisory communications was not applicable, because the NCAA is not a public body. The exemption for information submitted in confidence was not applicable, despite NCAA demand for confidentiality and university agreement, because the information could not reasonably be considered confidential and the public interest required disclosure of information relating to staff misconduct resulting in substantial adverse consequences to university athletic program. No adverse consequences to continuing investigation were likely. Names and other identification of students involved were deleted as required by federal law. University president had option under ORS 351.065 to delete names of staff members. Names of other persons involved, without official responsibilities, were deleted to protect their privacy except in a case in which wide publicity naming the person had already occurred.

Of course this is all bad for the players. Kelly wanted them, they were willing to come to Oregon, and Willie Lyles was willing to arrange this mutually advantageous deal in return for a very modest emolument. But the NCAA cartel will collapse if the coaches and the players start negotiating over “impermissible benefits” – and it’s the job of the NCAA Committee on Infractions to enforce their rules on indentured servitude. The NCAA is the real guilty party here – and some day I hope their chickens will come home to roost. 12/2012.