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Northwestern's troubles pile up
In the afterglow of a 3-0 start and a memorable win over Michigan State, it's easy to forget that Northwestern's athletic program is in a state of real distress. The trouble surfaced in late 1998 when several of Northwestern's student-athletes admitted they were shaving points in both basketball and football. Their bets and their debts were more important to them, they admitted in court hearings, than their teams and their dreams. It was a dark moment, an incomprehensible level of corruption at a rich, private university that likes to compare its combination of quality education and big-time athletics to that of Stanford and Duke. The Wildcats tried mightily to turn things around after the gambling scandal by hiring impressive new coaches: Randy Walker for football and Bill Carmody for basketball. Walker was an instant success, opening up the offense and directing the club to a share of the Big Ten title in his second season, and Carmody's Princeton pedigree has sent all the right signals. All looked good for a while, but then came two highly questionable football scheduling decisions and the death of senior safety Rashidi Wheeler following a brutal Aug. 3 practice. In defiance of basic football tradition, Northwestern agreed to play its season opener against UNLV in Las Vegas on Friday, Sept. 7. Wildcats athletic director Rick Taylor likes to say he was dragged kicking and screaming into the Friday night game, but the fact is he did it. Friday night, of course, has long been reserved for high school football. Taylor's lame rationale for the Friday night game was that it gave his school another national television appearance, a money-grubbing approach that is difficult to imagine being taken by Stanford or Duke. The Friday night heresy was not the only scheduling error. When the attacks of Sept. 11 caused the cancellation of its game against Navy, Northwestern scrambled for a replacement matchup. In what Taylor probably regards as a success, he managed to schedule Bowling Green for a Nov. 17 date. That particular Saturday was open in the schedule because the Wildcats are set to play Illinois on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22. The makeup contest forces Northwestern's players into two games with only four days between them, all of this taking place during midterm exams. This is not a good idea for college-age players. Walker didn't like the move, but the result will make up for lost ticket revenue from the Navy game and perhaps be a big boost in the BCS rankings. (By the way, why would Northwestern even agree to play on Thanksgiving Day anyway?) The point-shaving embarrassment and scheduling blunders are damaging enough, but the effects of Wheeler's death could have the greatest potential for disaster to the athletic program. In response to a wrongful-death action filed on Aug. 23 by Wheeler's mother, Linda Will, Northwestern is already claiming that the 22-year-old asthmatic's death was caused by his use of an energy supplement containing ephedrine. After conducting a detailed autopsy, Edmund Donoghue, the Cook County medical examiner, attributed Wheeler's death to complications resulting from bronchial asthma. Yet Northwestern's lawyers argue in court papers that the supplement was somehow the sole cause of Wheeler's death. The legal team will face considerable difficulty hurdling the official cause of death, and it may face experts from the university's own science and medical faculties who will agree with the plaintiff's complaint that inefficient treatment and negligent diagnosis on the scene contributed to Wheeler's death. And on top of everything else, Wheeler's family has hired Johnnie Cochran and Thomas Demetrio, two of America's great trial lawyers, to handle their case. Point-shaving. A football game on Friday night. A football game on Thanksgiving Day. The death of a scholar-athlete. How important are big-time sports to Northwestern University? Maybe it's time for the only private school in the Big Ten to take a serious look at its priorities -- and at Division III. Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western Reserve, the University of Chicago (an original member of the Big Ten), Emory, NYU, the University of Rochester and Washington University in St. Louis all compete in a single Division III conference, the University Athletic Association. Is Northwestern a better fit with these prestigious academic institutions or with Ohio State and Penn State? Sports Illustrated legal analyst Lester Munson regularly holds court on sports law and business matters for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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