By now, everyone in Eugene is probably sufficiently excited about Oregon’s clash with No. 3@@http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fbs@@ Stanford tomorrow. The stakes couldn’t be higher — the winner has the inside track to earning a Rose Bowl berth and ESPN’s College GameDay@@http://espn.go.com/college-football/gameday@@ program will make its first trip to Palo Alto to chronicle the fun. It’s the biggest game in the Pac-12 Conference in years, perhaps the most important college contest in the lengthy history of Stanford Stadium@@http://www.gostanford.com/facilities/stan-stadium.html@@.
So yes, this is a big, big deal.
And yet it’s all been overshadowed in recent days by the mammoth sexual abuse scandal currently terrorizing Penn State and its football program.
Former longtime Nittany Lion defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested Saturday@@http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Penn-St-ex-coach-Jerry-Sandusky-others-charged-in-child-sex-case-110511@@ morning on the basis of a grand jury report. He was charged with seven counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, eight counts of corruption of minors, eight counts of endangering the welfare of a child and seven counts of indecent assault, among other charges.
Sandusky’s alleged deviance lasted for a decade and a half, from 1994-2009.
There are a million questions to ask about this revolting story:
How did Sandusky walk free for 13 years after charges of his perversion were brought to the attention of Penn State head coach Joe Paterno and university officials back in 1998?
Why didn’t the university’s ban on Sandusky bringing children onto campus sound more alarm bells?
Why were Penn State students rioting because an accessory to child abuse was fired?
How will the University deal with the repercussions from this incident?
How much will Paterno’s legacy be damaged?
What exactly did Paterno know?
How many victims of Sandusky’s heinous crimes have yet to come forward?
Who, aside from Sandusky himself, bears the most responsibility for letting this all happen?
Truth be told, we may never get the full story.
At this juncture, however we know enough to say each person with knowledge of Sandusky’s transgressions who didn’t take drastic action is culpable. But while those individuals do bear the brunt of the responsibility, the Penn State cover-up speaks to a system issue in college athletics: No matter the consequences, coaches and administrators protect their own.
A dangerous culture has been built in college athletics, where programs have to evade the never-ending drama of NCAA rules violations, student-athlete mishaps, rogue boosters and more.
The temptation to be less than forthright is obvious. And in the grand scheme of things, most college cover-ups probably aren’t a big deal. Nobody would have been worse off if Terrelle Pryor’s free tattoo had remained a secret.@@http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2010/12/22/ohio-state-may-be-without-terrelle-pryor-and-others-because-of-alleged-free-tattoos/@@
But this insane dedication to protecting the sacred nature of the college sports fraternity is also potentially hazardous. Coaches or administrators who blow the whistle on a coworker face serious ramifications from fellow fraternity members for doing so.
Don’t believe me? Just ask former Baylor assistant basketball coach Abar Rouse.@@http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=3371852@@
A few years back, Baylor found itself entrenched in a scandal connected with the murder of player Patrick Dennehy. Following Dennehy’s death, it was revealed that former Baylor coach Dave Bliss had been paying Dennehy’s tuition, a major NCAA violation.@@http://www.baylorbears.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/dennehy_patrick00.html@@ @@http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2011/05/ex-baylor-coach-bliss-controversy/1@@
But instead of telling the truth, a particularly compelling option in the aftermath of Dennehy’s tragic death, Bliss tried to cover up the violations. He instructed his players to lie to NCAA officials that Dennehy had paid his own tuition by dealing drugs.
The con may have worked if it weren’t for Rouse. Rouse taped a conversation in which Bliss directed his players to cover up the violations and his attorney later released the tapes to the media, incriminating Bliss in the process.
Even if it wasn’t his intent to make the tapes public, Rouse should have been considered a hero, someone who exposed a rogue coach. Instead, he was blackballed from the profession. After leaving Baylor, Rouse took a job as a graduate assistant at Midwestern State University in Texas, but hasn’t had another job in coaching since.
Hearing stories like that, what coach in his right mind would blow the whistle? Maintaining a positive impression in the fraternity is critical to a coach’s employment prospects. It’s no wonder Paterno’s subordinates (like then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary, who witnessed Sandusky abusing a child but only reported it to Paterno, not authorities) and coworkers didn’t go to the police. They feared for their own livelihood.
Sure, there are similarly close-knit fraternities in other professions. But in dealing with college-aged students and vulnerable high school recruits, college sports must hold themselves to a different standard.
So it’s clear — the college sports fraternity needs a major attitude adjustment. Unlike a college fraternity that gets in trouble for breaking university rules, the sports fraternity won’t be shut down, nor will it be placed on probation.
Rather it will take a commitment by the power players in college athletics to be more transparent to create a shift in attitude. To stop safeguarding the secrets of their peers, even if it ruffles a few feathers along the way. To do the right thing.
In the end, maintaining the current culture creates too many victims. It just isn’t worth it.