Two of the biggest brand names in college sports — the University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan — have not had the best of weeks, to say the least.
Notre Dame, as we mentioned earlier, decided to not play a bowl game this year after being left out of the 12-team collegiate football playoff in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Last Wednesday, the University of Michigan, a school which has won more football games than any FBS school, announced the summary firing of head coach Sherrone Moore because of an inappropriate relationship with a member of school staff.
Hours after that announcement, Moore confronted the person and was arrested and booked on charges of home invasion and two misdemeanors, police and published reports say.
It is, for me, one of the most bizarre episodes I have ever seen in the college sports sphere. And this is after a number of episodes in many college sports, both revenue and non-revenue, which stretch the credibility of college sports as an avenue to improve people through participation.
I mean, we’ve seen the murder of a Baylor basketball player by his own teammate in 2003 and a resulting cover-up, the grooming of numerous young female athletes by disgraced medical doctor Larry Nasser at USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, the abuse of 162 student-athletes by Ohio State trainer Richard Strauss, and the Tom “Chico” Adrahtas scandal in which a Chicago-area hockey coach who was working with the elite University of Minnesota program had been under suspicion of abusing players.
And now, this.
I fear for collegiate sport right now. There are a lot of elite players I have seen in many athletic pursuits who see college as the natural next step for honing their talent and leadership skills, even in sports like field hockey and women’s lacrosse where the post-collegiate avenues are limited if not nonexistent.
But can I really say that college sport is a healthy environment for the next generation of youth player to enter?
Right now, we have an NCAA, flush with cash, that is fecklessly unable to govern the abuses and inequities inherent in college sports. Worse, we’re also seeing a less-than-cooperative SafeSport program which seemingly is unable to weed out miscreants before they affect other lives.
A prime example?
Rick Pitino, who was up to his eyeballs in evidence regarding an escort sex scandal at the University of Louisville as well as a federal investigation involving bribes to recruits, is still coaching basketball at St. John’s University in New York.
And so, regrettably, it goes.