EXTRA POINT: Inaccurate aura still surrounds former ASU coaches
By Josh Moon
Montgomery Advertiser
November 10, 2006There has always been one thing that I found trou bling about the whole L.C. Cole fiasco at Alabama State.
OK, there were a bunch of things I found troubling, but one stood out.
For some reason, Southwestern Athletic Conference fans seem to accept the idea that Cole and his brother, Johnnie, are cheaters.
Listening to fans talk, it's more than obvious that they believe the Coles are dirty and that their success is due in large part to their cheating ways. And because of those feelings, many SWAC fans want nothing to do with the Coles.
I don't get that.
Not a single allegation stemming from this ASU mess has been proved. In fact, more than a few have been proven false.
In addition, even if the allegations were true, you're talking about a list of minor infractions that wouldn't warrant a slap on the wrist from the NCAA. The most serious of the charges against Johnnie Cole is that he unknowingly boarded an airplane on which a recruit was also flying and traveled across the country. Even if Johnnie set the trip up himself -- which he didn't -- it would be a minor violation, if that.
But still the perception remains.
Let me inform all of you of a couple of things. (These will seem like no-brainers, but for some reason, no one thinks about them when discussing a I-AA coach's NCAA troubles.)
First, there is no money in I-AA football. No one is buying players. No one is enticing recruits with extra benefits. It's just not happening, especially in the SWAC.
Second, no coach out there is knowingly playing an ineligible player. There are TV cameras all over the place these days. If a guy is ineligible in this day of computers and e-mail, everyone from school officials to the conference office to the NCAA knows it. And the minute that guy steps on the field, it'll be recorded by at least three TV cameras.
Those are the two most prominent examples of "competitive advantage." And in the SWAC, neither is happening very often.
That's important for one reason: Competitive advantage is a huge qualifier for major violations. It's not the only qualifier, but it's the most prominent.
If the NCAA categorizes a violation as "major," you can just about bet that a competitive advantage was gained.
Another big factor is intent.
If a coach or school purposely violates rules, there's a good chance it will go down as a major violation. This was a big factor in the Florida A&M case. There were around 200 violations found at FAMU and many were expecting death penalty-level sanctions against the Rattlers. That didn't happen, because almost all of the violations were unintentional.
So, to review here, in order to legitimately call a coach a cheater you need to show intent to violate rules in order to gain a competitive advantage.
Try applying that to the ASU case.
You'll find rather quickly that the intent simply wasn't there and no real competitive advantage was gained.
Were rules broken during the Coles' tenure at ASU? Yes, there were four minor violations. But at the same time, rules are broken every single day by coaches on every level at schools across the country. And no one, the NCAA included, pays much attention to any of it.
So, why are guys like L.C. Cole and Billy Joe, who was the head coach at FAMU, singled out?
It's simple: Because they had the misfortune of coaching on a level in which compliance is often overlooked and under-funded.
See, the difference between I-AA schools and large I-A schools is that the large schools have fully-staffed compliance offices that stay on top of this stuff. Most violations are caught before they occur, but even if a coach or the school unintentionally commits a violation, the school reports it immediately to the NCAA.
In I-AA ball, and particularly the SWAC, the compliance offices consist of one guy monitoring 12 to 16 sports. The best he can hope to do is keep the ineligible players off the field. In the meantime, these minor violations go unnoticed and unreported and they pile up -- often into the triple digits.
And that's the real problem in all of this. If it weren't for all of these violations being reported at one time, no one would pay much attention to any NCAA rules violation story coming out of I-AA football. But when the headline includes the words "violations," well, that's news. And immediately, people assume the coaches of the major sports were cheating like crazy.
In addition, because media outlets rarely provide in-depth coverage of these I-AA programs, the splashy headlines are all most people get. So, no one notices months later when the football coach is cleared of all wrongdoing and the blame lands on the compliance office. Or they get a messed up situation such as the one the Coles are facing and have their lives put on hold for years.
What I'm saying here is this: Don't automatically assume some college coach is a cheater just because the NCAA shows up on his doorstep. Read the details of the case. Take a look at what the guy is actually accused of doing. And remember what I've said here.
Let's make sure these guys are actually guilty of something other than a few minor, unintentional mistakes before we slap the "cheater" label on them and take away their livelihoods.
Josh Moon, who covers Alabama State athletics for the Advertiser, may be reached by phone at 334- 240-0194 or by fax at 334-261-1548. His e-mail is jmoon@gannett.com.
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Gerber(oc) left A&T before he was fired by Hayes. Fans had begun to holler for his head. He left just before the season began.