Mr. Harrison,
You mentioned in The Hartford Courant today that you go by the data; yet you ignore the last 730 days of academic data for UConn Men's Basketball. If you were collecting metrics data results in any Fortune 500 corporation, you would get fired for that performance. To be part of an organization's culture (NCAA) , where this ineptitude is acceptable, is a sad tale of neglect and hypocritical since you are rendering harsh judgments on others.
None of the current UConn players have anything to do with the offense you are punishing them for and you are applying a punishment 4 years retroactively despite the fact the school was already punished for this APR offense with scholarship sanctions. Given these facts one might think all this made no sense until one considers the newly appointed Chief Counsel Officer of the NCAA was Chief Compliance Officer at Freddie Mac. Freddie Mac was ground zero for one of the most corrupt chapters in American financial services history. Mr. Harrison, that is the company you have decided to bed with.
You did touch on one item in your interview that hit home - that was the majors for athletes - which I know for a fact are prominent in the SEC. Yet, you keep consistent with your character and recused yourself from taking that any further on a national level. The truth is (as even you seem to admit) these SEC athletes are no more prepared to be college students than guys who attended UConn in 2009 - yet you give them a pass due to the system they have in place that dresses up the corruption - as they say by putting Lip Stick on a pig. Yet, schools that hold athletes to the same standards as other students - get punished by the Committee you Chair . Somehow that makes sense to you.
We also know the duplicitous way this measure got passed - the NCAA gave Black Colleges exemptions from the same academic standards that they asked the Black Colleges to vote to apply against other colleges (i.e. UConn). Without this corrupt backroom deal - the measure would not have gotten passed. The Freddie MAC guy must feel right at home at the NCAA and your committee. Then you have the nerve to say with a straight face that this is all about improving academic standards?
Even given all that, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of your Hartford Courant interview was it was 100% devoid of any consideration for the student athlete themselves or a perspective that would have any clue - how it would impact the kids. I don't often quote Coach Cal of UK but he did nail what guys like you are all about:
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It’s more about the selection committee getting on TV, everybody getting their tickets on the aisle, down low, all the parties they go to, the traveling. But we don’t take the parents of the participants. But they take their kids and their families.
The officials will get better hotels than some of their teams. And I know it for a fact. The decisions they make on the $2,000 (expense allowance for student-athletes)—it should have been $4,000. It’s a stipend. It’s not salary. It’s not “pay-for-play.” It’s a stipend. It’s expenses. And then schools vote against it. All this stuff piles up to where people are going to say, “Enough’s enough.”
Mr. Harrison, while the facts in this e-mail are a harsh indictment of your body of work; I hope you consider my input constructively moving forward.
Best Regards,
Chief00
