I was watching PTI today, and one of the topics in the headlines had to do with Chip Kelly's dismissal of WR Jamere Holland. Holland was dismissed after he posted his profane disagreement of assumed treatment of Oregon Linebacker Kristian Kiko Alonso after he was arrested on suspicion of DUI. Holland disclosed his displeasure on everyone's favorite news source, the facebook. Say what you will about the situation in Oregon. It sure seems like Chip Kelly has been dealt a rough hand and really done as well as anyone could with it (let us not forget the gloriously tragic LeGarrette Blount sucker-punch). But anyway, that is beside the point in this case.
When presented with the question of "what does this mean for Oregon football?" Dan Lebatard (who has really grown to be a welcome participant on PTI for APT (far better than Bob Ryan)) came up with a very interesting response. "It means they are getting better," Lebatard answered, much to the chagrin of Mike Wilbon. He spoke of how many of the more successful programs in recent years welcomed with their prosperity, a disconcerting wave of criminal activity within their athletic programs, citing 30 arrests during the Urban Meyer tenure at Florida (that number was corrected later in the who by Tony Riali to be 27).
This issue really got APT thinking about the legitimacy of the claim. It certainly makes a whole lot of sense. Wilbon's best arguments to the contrary had to travel back a way through recent history. Rival Dirt is a website that compiles "Dirt Scores" for teams, awarding them dirt points for things like suspensions and minor to major run-ins with the law. Their "Dirty Dozen" of 2009 is as follows:
Arkansas
Tennessee
Kansas
Washington State
Florida
South Carolina
Michigan State
Wisconsin
Penn State
Oklahoma
West Virginia
Texas
Among those teams you see some of the top Football and Basketball programs in the NCAA. More notably for APT, you see programs who've made substantial moves towards the top of the NCAA being on the list for this last year. Florida, Kansas, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Texas, Tennessee and West Virginia are universities who in the past few years have really made great strides in their programs. It's unfortunate to see that along with hiring great coaches, who recruit well and put in effective systems, the lowering of standards, as far as quality of person, have been a part of the equation. To prove the point further we continue down the list and see recent NCAA surprises like South Florida, Iowa and Nevada climbing their way up the list.
We've all known for some time that many of the top schools suffer from low graduation rates for athletes in order to maintain athletic success. However it is very upsetting to see that this either correlates or is now in cooperation with a disregard for behavior and state of mind of the kids that the schools are bringing in. 27 arrests for Florida since Urban Meyer arrived. That is almost 7 arrests a year. I my 4 years at Boston College (fall 2003- spring 2007), I remember maybe one or two (and a handful of behavioral suspensions). Along with a superior graduation rate and there doesn't seem to be much hope for the Eagles to make noise at the very top of Collegiate Sports. (To be fair, BC has had a little more trouble since I've departed the school and rank 42nd in the past year Dirt Score List with a score of 6 (many thanks to Brady Smith, I'm sure.) Now this is not to prop up or make excuses for Boston College, but that is an example that hits close to home. If you question my bias, Mike Wilbon tried to make his case with Notre Dame's success. However, Lebatard was quick to point out (as was APT to think) that Notre Dame has not been a top caliber team in quite a few years. Save a Brady Quinn led team that was pummeled by LSU (who actually only has one 2009 dirt point, so DAP to the Tigers), Notre Dame has experienced very moderate success for a team that seems to have a head up on the rest of the NCAA in recruiting at times (1 dirt point for the Irish in 2009 as well). The rumors swirled everywhere before the Fighting Irish hired Charlie Weiss that ND wanted Urban Meyer, but Meyer wanted the ability to disregard school standards for students for X number of recruits each year. Everyone spoke of it in terms of academic ability, but maybe Meyer wanted to take it even farther.
Now APT is not here to disparage Urban Meyer as a coach. He is a brilliant football mind and has brought a lot of good to Florida, but he and others of his ilk have now brought a lot of questions as well.
Everyone has seemed to come to terms with the fact that many athletically-competitive schools disregard graduation rates and academic excellence in the case of sports. Here's hoping that we don't simply "come to terms" with this devaluation of character, as well.
Thanks to rivaldirt.com for the information.
-APT
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