Double secret redactions

10/5/2011: Want to know what the NCAA’s cleaner Michael Glazier is doing in exchange for the $150,000 UO is paying him? Good luck – here’s what the August invoice looks like, after the UO Public Records office is done with it:

The UO administration has no problem making the academic side pay $75,000 towards the cost of the NCAA coverup – but tell us what they are spending our money on? None of your business, professor punk. Move it along, nothing to see here.

I’m no neuroscientist, but I wonder what a Fast Fourier Analysis of these redactions would reveal? Meanwhile, I’ve got a petition in to Attorney General Kroger to determine if UO is really allowed to do this. Should have an answer in a week or two. The Glazier contracts and other invoices are here.

NCAA violations on a biblical scale

10/3/2011: The NCAA infractions committee comes down hard on Cincinnati:

The University of Cincinnati committed a major violation in its women’s basketball program and secondary violations in its women’s basketball and football programs, according to findings by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions. … and members of the football coaching staff placed 20 impermissible recruiting calls to 12 prospective student-athletes.

The penalties include:

  • Public reprimand and censure. …  

Excessive phone calls? The NCAA hires well paid adults to spend their time monitoring this stuff? Anything to hold the hiring cartel together for a few more years – the profits are huge.

Kelly contract clause on NCAA violations:

10/1/2011: The contract is here. I’ve had a few questions about this clause:

So, Rob Mullens could indeed fine Kelly for NCAA violations, etc. A day’s pay would be about $20,000, but there’s no upper limit and Kelly would not seem to have much recourse. But I’m guessing this is not going to happen, even if the NCAA does find a violation and fine UO. What about a penalty like this? That would be the end of NCAA football and the last fat payday for a lot of people. Not least those on the NCAA Infractions Committee. Which would make the probability zero.

Academic side pays half the cost of NCAA investigation

9/29/2011: Why is the academic side of UO paying “The Cleaner” to defend Chip Kelly in an NCAA investigation? Shouldn’t the athletic department pay for this? From Ken Goe in the Oregonian:

The University of Oregon’s general counsel’s office and athletic department are sharing the cost for the specialty law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King, according to documents obtained by The Oregonian. …

Under terms of an agreement that began March 7 and expires Friday, the law firm can charge UO up to $150,000. Geller wrote that the general counsel’s office has funds budgeted for “outside counsel services.” “For the agreement with Bond, Schoeneck & King, the services are a shared responsibility between the General Counsel’s office and the Athletics Department,” he wrote. …

Documents approved by Jamie Moffitt, executive senior associate athletic director, show the athletic department would pay half of the legal bills from Bond, Schoeneck & King for March, April, June and July. 

The agreement that expires Friday is here, it will be replaced with a new one. Here’s one of the docs:

I first asked for the accounting documents back in July. Geller replied by claiming that none of the money spent on Glazier was available for academic matters. Of course it was, until he spent it.

Then Geller and Public Records Officer Liz Denecke spent almost 3 months stalling the release of the records that showed that the academic side was stuck with half the cost. Thet are still stalling release of the invoices that show what Mike Glazier has been doing for the money we are paying him. Not exactly transparent.

The Cleaner’s September bill

9/22/2011: We’ve written before about how UO General Counsel Randy Geller has hired longtime NCAA insider Michael Glazier for $150,000 to clean up the Willie Lyles mess – or at least sweep it under the rug, save Kelly’s job, and avoid paying Lyles the last $25,000 he was apparently promised.

Geller *really* does not want to tell us how much of that bill the academic side of the university is paying. We will have those numbers soon – and no Randy, we’re not going to pay you $57.03 for them. Here’s the latest invoice from Glazier. Download it and the contracts here. More on this later.

NCAA officially announces UO recruiting is under investigation

9/17/2011: In the Oregonian:

Mullens pledged full cooperation with the NCAA and said the University has retained outside counsel (Bond, Schoeneck and King) to conduct an independent assessment of the football program’s use of outside recruiting services. Once completed, that report will be made public.

Yes, we are paying “The Cleaner” Michael Glazier $150K for his “advice” on the investigation. We expect to soon have documents showing what percentage of that comes from the academic side. Meanwhile, Andy Staples has offered Chip Kelly and Rob Mullens his help for free.

9/18/2011: More from Rob Moseley here, George Schroeder here, and Rachel Bachman here, with a quote you know Pres Lariviere is going to regret:

“We’ve cooperated with the NCAA very extensively and looked at this really, really carefully internally, and I have very high confidence in this group of people. Very high confidence.”

Willie Lyles is apparently still working in a Houston grocery store for $8 an hour – while the NCAA insiders are still raking it in.

The Texas sky is not falling

8/26/2011: That’s the takeway from Insidehighered‘s report on faculty productivity steps pushed by Governor Perry. They also have short takes today on the College Board head’s fat salary and Utah canceling classes for a football game. And a story about the Youngstown faculty union calling off a strike. The UO faculty union people have been quiet lately, any news on if they still plan to try a card check this fall?

And a Miami sports reporter asks the obvious question about the NCAA infractions committee:

The NCAA plays the bully in taking on the kids. Why doesn’t it take on
the adults who allowed Nevin Shapiro to run around their athletic
department?

Money.

NCAA infractions committee: paid to act stupid?

8/25/2011: The NCAA infractions committee just blackballed some unlucky coach for not fessing up to having an illegal home cookout for his recruits. Ribs? You evil, evil man. Put down the spatula and step away from the grill slowly.

Meanwhile, the committee completely missed the fact that the Fiesta Bowl director was using college football money – including some from UO – to buy off politicians, and that a Miami booster bought a yacht to host parties for the players, with hookers. These scandals – real dirty money scandals – were dug up by reporters. You really think no one on the infractions committee knew about them? When the past chair of the NCAA committee was the AD at Miami during the parties? No photos of him on the yacht, yet.

The committee is getting tough on trivial shit like BBQ’s to distract attention from the fact the NCAA is in bed with the corruption that the billions of dollars in tax-deductible money coming into college football and basketball has created.

Next thing you know they’ll give Chip Kelly the death penalty for slipping some down on his luck street agent 25 large. See – we’re cleaning things up!

Take away their tax exemption

8/23/2011: Senators Grassely and Baucus have been discussing this for years, Now Forbes argues that it doesn’t make sense to give athletic boosters a tax deduction to buy hookers for the “student athletes”. You can’t open a newspaper these days without some piece on how hopeless the NCAA has become and how corrupt college sports is, I’ve generally given up posting these. Margaret Soltan has plenty of links.

More mush from the wimps:

8/20/2011: The NCAA vows to get tough on schools that try to use athletics money to help with the players’ basic needs for drugs and hookers, instead of spending it as a righteous God intended – on car payments for the Athletic Director, his assistants, and the coaches. Oh yeah – turns out that dreaded “death penalty” just means the school can’t play football for a year. And the NCAA can’t use it, because if they do Div 1 football will take their money and set up their own super-conference.

The NCAA Infractions Committee is on the case:

Update: More chatter that the Div 1 football teams will leave the NCAA. That will make a lot of money for some people.

8/18/2011: From Tim Dahlberg, in the RG, on the latest football scandal from Miami:

Much of it allegedly happened under the watch of former Miami athletic director Paul Dee, who would go on to — no, we’re not making this up — become chairman of the NCAA’s committee on infractions. It was from that position last year that Dee came down hard on the University of Southern California in the Reggie Bush case, saying then that “higher-profile players require higher-profile monitoring.” 

It the allegations prove correct, that makes Dee either a hypocrite or someone who was stunningly unaware of what was taking place right under his nose. Either way, it doesn’t do much to inspire confidence in the enforcement efforts of the NCAA.

This is good – the rules that the infractions committee enforces are mainly designed to keep the money the players earn in the hands of the coaches, AD, and NCAA insiders. An incompetent NCAA Infractions Committee, stuffed with conflicts of interest, is optimal.