Could have been worse for Alabama

On Friday, the NCAA announced its punishment for Alabama's reported recruiting violations, including five years' probation, scholarship reductions and a two-year bowl ban. CNNSI.com spoke with Sports Illustrated senior writer Ivan Maisel -- who co-authored the recent book A War in Dixie: Alabama v. Auburn -- regarding the news.

CNNSI.com: Were the additional penalties handed down by the NCAA harsher than or about what you expected?

Ivan Maisel: It became evident over the course of the investigation that the NCAA could find no smoking gun that would render a vastly harsher verdict than what the university imposed on itself. If you looked at the charges that the NCAA made public last fall, there was only one that pertained to a specific person within the athletic department at that time, which was the loan from Logan Young, the Memphis booster, to former recruiting coordinator Ronnie Cottrell. The fact that no one else had been charged with committing an NCAA violation meant that while serious, the case would not be as devastating as the death penalty or penalties that eviscerate the football team.

These penalties will hurt, though, and they will reduce the recruiting margin of error to the point that it's virtually non-existent. The bowl bid ban could have an effect on recruiting, and we will probably get an answer to that next week. We'll see if anyone backs out of his commitment to Alabama in the next few days.

CNNSI.com: Is there any significance to both Kentucky and Alabama receiving bans on bowl games, the first the NCAA has handed out since 1995?

Maisel: The bowl ban is interesting because the committee on infractions had gotten away from that. There's been a big turnover in members recently on the committee. The feeling was in earlier years that a bowl ban penalized not only the school but the other members of the conference who shared in the bowl revenue. But evidently, these people feel that it is still punitive enough and worth applying in these two cases. What's interesting to me is the SEC usually gets eight bids a year. Now those eight bids will be spread out among just 10 schools. If you're in the SEC and you don't get a bowl bid in the next two years, you're going to have to really stink.

CNNSI.com: The committee insinuated that Alabama was close to receiving the death penalty. Did the school's cooperation with the investigation save it that fate?

Maisel: Hardly anyone stonewalls the NCAA anymore. Schools recognize the benefit of self-policing. But we should always remember they only came around to embrace self-policing when the NCAA made them understand the price of stonewalling. The death penalty is the bull whip on the wall, and the NCAA doesn't need to take it down and crack it. People know it's there. It's like the kid who knows where his dad's belt is. If it's there, and it's been used once, you're going to do what you're supposed to do.

When SMU got the death penalty 15 years ago, the school had blatantly lied to the NCAA about what it had been doing. The NCAA told the school, "Stop this," and it didn't stop. Everyone seems to understand now that even though the importance of athletics may still be out of whack on college campuses, they still have to pay some homage to the idea of it being an institution of higher learning.

CNNSI.com: What Alabama is charged with, was it a case of "everyone does it, they just got caught?" Or was this an especially glaring bundle of violations.

Maisel: I think the right word is, it was a bungle of violations. I think we would all be naive to think that Alabama was not just responding to the market place and trying to keep up. But they did it in such a ham-handed way and such a blatant way that they were discovered.

CNNSI.com: Realistically, what can we expect on the field from Alabama football once these punishments begin to kick in?

Maisel: I think the harshest season will probably be 2004 or maybe 2005, when the brunt of the scholarship reductions will be felt. If you think about Miami, they got their violations in 1995, and it took them five years to return to being a Top 10 team. And that was with a coach who did everything right in terms of recruiting and coaching. So in other words, the best case scenario for Alabama is five years, and Alabama's not in a conference with a whole bunch of Rutgers and Temples. This will only exacerbate the transition and rebuilding that Dennis Franchione must do. This is exactly why he wanted a long-term contract when he took the job.

CNNSI.com: Speaking of Franchione, there were already rumors following his first season that he was looking to leave. Do you think he fully understood how bad the situation was when he took the job?

Maisel: No job is as wonderful as on the day you accept it. I think he and Notre Dame flirted with each other [after Bob Davie was fired], and he eventually decided where he was and what he had was worth sticking with. But it's not going to be easy the next few years.

CNNSI.com: Anything else we should be looking for from this?

Maisel: No, I'm just wondering whether the parties tonight in Auburn, Ala., and Knoxville, Tenn., and Baton Rouge, La., are black-tie or casual.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Ivan Maisel covers college football for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.

 

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