With all the league's NCAA woes the past two years, new commissioner Slive expects schools to shape up by 2008.
By Associated Press
Published May 30, 2003
DESTIN - The Southeastern Conference will distribute more than $100-million in revenues this year, another gaudy reflection of the strength of the nation's richest league.
Then there are the facts and figures nobody at this week's annual conference meetings wants to talk about.
Three of the SEC's 12 schools have football teams on probation. Six others have had football or men's basketball teams under NCAA investigation the past 24 months. Alabama is reeling from a coaching scandal, and when the Tide failed to hire a black coach, the Rev. Jesse Jackson called the conference a bastion for racists.
"I know we've got our issues and our problems," LSU football coach Nick Saban said. "But I think we're trying to correct these things as quickly as possible."
The man trying to make the fixes is new commissioner Mike Slive. Soon after he took over for Roy Kramer in July, the former commissioner of Conference USA issued a bold - some said unrealistic - challenge: In five years, he wants everyone in the SEC off probation.
He reiterated that point this week to football coaches, and he seems to have sold everyone on the idea, no matter how farfetched it may seem.
"I started saying that a little earlier and I haven't really wavered from that at this point," Slive said. "I really believe we can get there."
Cleaning up this mess will not be easy. Academic fraud, overzealous boosters, recruiting violations and corner-cutting coaches have resulted in probations and investigations from Knoxville to Starkville. It is a daunting task to keep tabs on it all.
"You educate, audit, double check and keep your fingers crossed," said Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, an assistant in the 1980s when the Gators were on probation. "We've learned some painful lessons. We know it could happen again tomorrow. All it takes is for one person to step out of line."
Most painful is when that single person is someone inside the program who should have intricate knowledge of what is right and wrong in the NCAA rulebook.
Georgia officials sent a letter this month to the NCAA stating assistant basketball coach Jim Harrick Jr. solely was responsible for academic fraud that left two players ineligible and compelled the Bulldogs to withdraw from the NCAA Tournament last season. Harrick Jr. was fired in March and his father, Jim Harrick, resigned as head coach shortly after.
Since, nine football players were declared ineligible for violating NCAA rules by selling their SEC championship rings.
"You have to take care of yourself first, but the way I look at it, whenever anyone's in trouble, it's not good for the league," Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan said.
University presidents are tinkering with the idea of an oversight committee to help schools deal with athletic compliance. The Pac-10 has a similar system, but Slive said he is against giving the committee the ability to impose sanctions.
It was a popular idea among SEC presidents last year. But Kramer and others opposed it, saying it could put schools in double jeopardy for the same violations - forcing them to face sanctions from the conference and the NCAA.
The SEC's recent problems do not end with the NCAA.
When Alabama fired coach Mike Price after his reported hijinks at a topless club in Pensacola, its decision to replace him with a white lifetime assistant, Mike Shula, instead of a black assistant with more experience, Sylvester Croom, gave Jackson ammunition. In 70 years of football, the SEC never has had a black head coach.
"The SEC maintains a culture of excluding blacks beyond the playing field," Jackson said this month.
Slive said he had "confidence" Alabama made a responsible decision. Of course, problems regarding race and the NCAA do not mask that the SEC is in good health.
During a time when the Big East is faced with possible extinction, the SEC is stable, its 12 teams sharing more than $100-million in revenue. That is about $15-million more than the next-richest conference, Big 12. The figure is more staggering considering it was at $16.3-million in 1990.
But, clearly, the SEC has problems to fix, lest it become permanently tainted as a conference full of cheaters.
"My main concern is Auburn," AD David Housel said. "But people know what's going on around the league. This is a conference, and when another team has a problem, obviously, it affects us all."
SEC PROBLEMS
A list of sanctions, investigations and inquiries that football and men's basketball programs in the Southeastern Conference have faced over the past 24 months:
ALABAMA: NCAA places football team on five years probation February 2002 for recruiting violations, mostly under former coach Mike DuBose. Banned from postseason play for two years and stripped of 21 scholarships.
AUBURN: Last fall, NCAA begins investigation into alleged recruiting violations involving two basketball players.
ARKANSAS: Loses two football scholarships and entire sports program placed on three years probation in April after NCAA determined a university booster overpaid athletes for work at his trucking company.
FLORIDA: None.
GEORGIA: Sends letter to NCAA this month stating former assistant basketball coach Jim Harrick Jr. solely was responsible for academic fraud that left two players ineligible. Also suspends nine football players for violating NCAA rules by selling SEC championship rings.
KENTUCKY: NCAA places football program on three years probation in January 2002 for recruiting violations.
LSU: Six-month investigation that concluded last summer determines some football players received improper study help and help with typing; school contends all violations were "secondary."
MISSISSIPPI: Not officially being investigated, but Ole Miss officials said they are working with the NCAA to gather information about various allegations of rules violations. Also, two football players face suspension for making hundreds of dollars of phone calls with an access code stolen from an athletic department employee.
MISSISSIPPI STATE: NCAA investigating football program for possible rules violations over the past five seasons, largely regarding recruiting. NCAA is reviewing whether there was a failure to maintain institutional control.
SOUTH CAROLINA: NCAA briefly investigates allegations of recruiting violations on football team last fall, but finds no wrongdoing.
TENNESSEE: In January, NCAA accepts Tennessee's self-imposed penalties for recruiting infractions related to ex-football player; UT gives up two scholarships. NCAA clears UT of any violations involving payments quarterback Tee Martin received from an Alabama sports writer in 1999.
