Whether it's football or basketball, what many of our fans need to understand is that until the powers that be and the boosters at UT are willing to offer the same "scholarships" that Kentucky, Alabama, and Auburn, among others, are willing to offer, we aren't going to be on a level playing surface with these other schools in football or basketball.
Let's not be naïve. We know damn well that if UT tried to hire a John Calipari with his history after Memphis, we would have had a serious roadblock thrown up by Administrators. Even folks on here turned their noses up when names like Butch Davis and Jim Harrick have come up in the past in connection with openings. And we all know how our Administration let Pearl hang himself in the NCAA interview. Think Bama would ever do that to a football coach or KY to a basketball coach?
If you don't think the Cam Newton "investigation" was a game changer, you are a sucker.
I happen to have knowledge from a direct source in two different instances of serious benefits offered to players by conference opponents.
One was a few years ago when one school in the West offered cash, but the HS AA didn't want to go there no matter what. The kid was silently committed to UT when another school from the West offered his parent a medical benefit that would shock even the biggest shady booster. When UT was asked to match the offer, we declined and we lost the recruit. (As for BB, I don't know Rick Barnes, but my impression is that he isn't going to even look the other way while someone connected with UT might offer a recruit what our rivals offer.)
The other I found out about this week. A top 100 football player who is being recruited by UT, Bama, Georgia, and Florida, among others, and who I have known since he was in the 8th grade, told someone I am very close to that one of the schools recruiting him had offered him whatever amount he wanted to go there and another said they would talk about it with him once he came to visit. He did not suggest that UT had offered him anything. Both of the other schools consistently out-recruit us and have won championships recently while we have faltered.
My point -- which I have been making for a few years now -- is that if the NCAA is not going to enforce the rules against teams we compete with, then we need to start offering the same things they are. That's all I'm going to say about that. ;-)
Let's not be naïve. We know damn well that if UT tried to hire a John Calipari with his history after Memphis, we would have had a serious roadblock thrown up by Administrators. Even folks on here turned their noses up when names like Butch Davis and Jim Harrick have come up in the past in connection with openings. And we all know how our Administration let Pearl hang himself in the NCAA interview. Think Bama would ever do that to a football coach or KY to a basketball coach?
If you don't think the Cam Newton "investigation" was a game changer, you are a sucker.
I happen to have knowledge from a direct source in two different instances of serious benefits offered to players by conference opponents.
One was a few years ago when one school in the West offered cash, but the HS AA didn't want to go there no matter what. The kid was silently committed to UT when another school from the West offered his parent a medical benefit that would shock even the biggest shady booster. When UT was asked to match the offer, we declined and we lost the recruit. (As for BB, I don't know Rick Barnes, but my impression is that he isn't going to even look the other way while someone connected with UT might offer a recruit what our rivals offer.)
The other I found out about this week. A top 100 football player who is being recruited by UT, Bama, Georgia, and Florida, among others, and who I have known since he was in the 8th grade, told someone I am very close to that one of the schools recruiting him had offered him whatever amount he wanted to go there and another said they would talk about it with him once he came to visit. He did not suggest that UT had offered him anything. Both of the other schools consistently out-recruit us and have won championships recently while we have faltered.
My point -- which I have been making for a few years now -- is that if the NCAA is not going to enforce the rules against teams we compete with, then we need to start offering the same things they are. That's all I'm going to say about that. ;-)
