9712190091
DETROIT FREE PRESS
971219
Friday, December 19, 1997
METRO FINAL CHASER
1C
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1997, Detroit Free Press
NCAA: GOOD NEWS AND BAD FOR U-M
Everyone checks their mail this time of year. But the folks at Michigan
weren't looking for Christmas cards. They were waiting for a letter to render
judgment on their basketball program. And this week, just before the holidays,
the NCAA dropped some news in the mailbox.
Now, in the spirit of the holidays, I will not reprint the actual NCAA
language here, since reprinting anything the NCAA says could result in instant
sleep, and who needs that with all the Christmas shopping left to do?
Instead, I will give you the essence of the message, the likely end result and
then take questions. You know. The Cliff Notes version.
Ready?
ESSENCE OF MESSAGE: "Tom Goss, we agree with you."
The NCAA found no smoking guns. After poking into the situation, it basically
unearthed the same thing Michigan unearthed with its internal probe: 1) some
evidence of small violations, 2) some whispers of big ones, 3) nobody who is
willing to talk.
And as I've been saying since this thing began, if the NCAA -- which is not
the FBI -- can't get people to talk, it has to live with the lack of results.
So in the end, the only charges leveled were that a booster gave some improper
cakes and rides to recruits and their families, that this same booster was
improperly present at a recruiting visit, and that this booster was improperly
visited by U-M players with a recruit.
Of course this booster, the central figure in this whole mess, is the former
autoworker/basketball junkie named Ed Martin.
He doesn't talk. Not to the NCAA. Not to the press. He denies everything. And
so, without hard-core proof of any terrible violations (such as stuffing cash
in a player's pocket), the NCAA had little choice but to conclude what it did,
which is pretty much what U-M's law firm concluded.
Still with us?
A slap on the wrist
LIKELY RESULT: This is what most fans want to know. What's going to happen to
the U-M program? My guess is -- and I've also been saying this all along --
very little. Secondary violations such as these are not enough to close a
program down, or even to cause it to forfeit an appearance in March Madness.
The NCAA is giving Michigan until the end of January to recommend its own
punishment. Goss says he's already suggested "limiting a couple of
scholarships" for the team. This is not uncommon. I wouldn't be surprised if
the NCAA says, "Yeah, that sounds right. Case closed."
Still with us? OK.
QUESTIONS:
What's the best part of this for U-M?
That the NCAA didn't feel the need to send its army into Ann Arbor and conduct
a full-blown, all-out investigation. This means the end of this affair is
within sight.
What's the worst part for U-M?
That Martin was indeed considered a "representative" of U-M athletic
interests. In other words, a booster. Under that definition, the school is on
the line for anything he did wrong.
Is the reason the NCAA is not pushing further because U-M already fired its
coach and has a new athletic director in place?
It's possible. The NCAA will never admit this, and when I asked it of athletic
director Goss, he said, "I don't know" -- which is often a way of saying, "I'm
not going to admit that."
The fact is, the NCAA may well feel that U-M has been punished enough, that
the old regime is gone, and that new personnel are not likely to allow Ed
Martin within 100 miles of the team.
Does that mean that firing coach Steve Fisher was the right thing?
Not at all. As I've said all along, Fisher was fired because the new bosses
didn't like the way he did business. Goss and president Lee Bollinger felt the
shadows around the program were not seemly for U-M. There is no right or
wrong. They're the bosses. It's their prerogative.
But would Fisher have been fired anyhow with these NCAA findings?
Not necessarily. There are coaches all over America whose programs have been
found guilty of similar things, and they're still on the bench.
Any more questions?
The bottom line
Last one. Is this good or bad for Michigan?
Well, let's be honest. It's never good when the NCAA says, "We agree, your
school is guilty of infractions." The best thing would have been if none of
this ever happened.
The good news for Michigan is it will keep its program mostly intact. The bad
news is this whole thing has been an embarrassing lesson in how much control
it takes to keep a high-profile basketball team operating under the onerous
rules of the NCAA. You have to watch everything and everybody. And players
need to clearly know who's safe and who's not.
Having said all that, I want to add this. Somewhere in Ann Arbor, for the
first time in decades, Steve Fisher and his family are preparing for a
Christmas without a team or schedules or games or practices. And knowing how
much he loves coaching, I know this hurts. I have never believed that Fisher
did anything maliciously, nor was he trying to cheat the rules with Ed Martin.
It doesn't mean he's blameless; it was on his watch, and the captain takes the
blame.
But when that letter arrived, it was almost like sending a storm report after
a hurricane. The damage is done. Lives have been changed. All that remains now
is a final punishment, another piece of mail coming from the NCAA.
That one won't have Santa on it, either.
Mitch Albom will sign copies of his new book, "Tuesdays With Morrie,"
7:30-8:30 p.m. tonight, Borders, Flint; 10:30 a.m.-noon Saturday, Barnes &
Noble, Saginaw; and 2-3 p.m. Saturday, B. Dalton, Oakland Mall, Troy. To leave
a message for Albom, call 1-313-223-4581.
THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED ARTICLE.
U-M; CONTROVERSY; NCAA; RULING; COLUMN