The Pac-12's "Moral Authority" Took a Beating This Week

Those of us who have been lifelong fans of the Pac 8-10-12 over the decades have always been pretty firm in our belief that "our" college athletics was handled in the proper manner. We believed that the primary reason for our universities was to educate, and that those attending our schools needed to be students first and athletes second. And despite this, the conference was the "Conference of Champions" in the national landscape.

We believed our blood brothers in this rightful hierarchy of academic and athletics was the Big 10. The schools in the two conferences were not only among the best in the country, but also the world. In the latest world rankings of universities for academic achievement, the two conferences tied to the Rose Bowl (The Granddaddy of them All) put a combined 16 schools among the best 100 in the entire world.

As schools from other parts of the country struggled to properly balance school with sport, we smugly patted ourselves on the back. When an investigative report on a national news program (like 60 Minutes) told us of some professional sports players filing suit against their universities because they had been pushed through and graduated to keep them eligible even though they were functionally illiterate, we shook our heads knowing that "those things" didn't happen in our parts of the country.

As college sports  became Big Time and Big Money, however, the temptation for schools to win on the national stage became overwhelming. Simply allowing unqualified students to attend to help a school win seemed almost noble in comparison. Some rationalized that they would help these poor young men get the education they missed in high school, where they were also passed along to keep them eligible for sports.

Schools, particularly in basketball, went hard with handfuls (or bags full) of cash after young men who they knew would never even attend a collegiate course. They'd come in as FIVE STAR players, with cash in hand, play for one season and move on to professional basketball in the US or overseas before the NCAA caught on that they were not really students. There's even a name for them among the fans and press: The One and Done's.

It's a system which works for basketball because exceptional hardwood talents can be among the best in the country even as freshmen. It's much harder to do in football, but not totally unheard of.

When the FBI announced that they had made the first arrests of college coaches involved in high stakes bribery, and that system involved agents, financial managers, and even shoe companies, no one who follows college athletics was really surprised. Coaches were paid to advise young men who to hire as agents and advisors, and they were also directed to use money to lure young men to the "right" schools, where those with a financial stake could exercise influence over them.

That the Pac-12 had two of the first four coaches arrested was shocking to fans. Although, in reality, the USC coach was not a shock because, after all, USC has gotten in trouble before for athletes being paid. In fact, most fans in the Pac-12 refer to USC as an "Honorary SEC team" because of their predilection for running afoul of NCAA rules. The arrest of a coach at Arizona was another matter altogether.

The Wildcats were one of the Top 10 in all-time winning percentage. They had made it to the NCAA tournament every year except one in the last 32 years. They were the most consistently excellent program in the Pac-12 during those years. And now, it turns out, they've been paying players to go to Tucson. Head coach Sean Miller has not been arrested or indicted... yet. But his assistant, Emanuel "Book" Richardson was among the first arrested by the FBI. Most of us have a sneaking suspicion that the nickname "Book" has absolutely nothing to do with reading.

We were never surprised if the Louisville's or Kentucky's or Alabama's of the college landscape got caught paying players. Why would anyone willingly go to those places unless there was money involved? Isn't it amazing how certain we can be in our naivete?

The FBI claims that the first arrests were just the tip of the iceberg of a much larger, nationwide, problem of a multi-billion dollar industry being largely dependent on (officially) unpaid young athletes. How could that system possibly go wrong, right?

No matter what happens, fans from the Pac-12 have had their moral assured-ness in the propriety of their college athletics take a severe beating. They likely will never feel that way again. Overall, maybe that's a good thing. Blind faith in anything only leads to trouble.

 

Buffs Drop 100 on Oregon Ducks, Jump to 15th in AP Top 25

The Oregon Ducks came to Boulder with a perfect 13-0 record and close to the lead for the highest scoring team in Division 1 at 89.4 points per game. After giving up 100 points to the Tad Boyle's Buffaloes (2nd time this year OU has given up 100), the Ducks left Boulder with their first loss of the season.

The AP Top 25 for Men's Basketball came out this morning and Buffs leaped all the way to #15 from their prior ranking of #20. Strangely, San Diego State was ranked #21 last week and leapfrogged the Buffs all the way to #13 after defeating #16 Kansas while the Buffs were taking down the #10 team in Oregon.

What makes it stranger still is that the Buffs defeated Kansas when they were a top 10 team, and that win barely moved them up the polls in comparison. For now, though, the Buffs can bask in the glow of being the second highest rated team in the Pac-12 behind overall #1 Arizona. Oregon dropped to 17th in the latest poll.

It's been a down year for many of the traditional basketball powers. Indiana, North Carolina, Connecticut, and UCLA are out of the Top 25. Duke and Kansas are behind the Buffs in the rankings, and preseason #1 Kentucky is only a single place above Colorado in the latest poll. It's the first time that Boyle's Buffs have been ranked higher than his alma mater Kansas.

The Buffs play the Cougars of Washington State on Wednesday before taking on the Huskies of Washington on Saturday.

Video: Colorado Buffaloes Win 9th Straight, Defeat Kansas Jayhawks 75-72

Things are starting to look pretty damn good for Tad Boyle's Colorado basketball team. The only team they have lost to this year, Baylor, took down #3 Kentucky last night. And today, the Buffaloes showed why they deserve to be well into the Top 20 in the country with a 75-72 win over #6 Kansas as the Coors Events Center in Boulder. The win was the 9th straight for the Buffs.

On a bitter cold day in Boulder, with outside temperatures hovering just a bit over zero, Buff fans and the famed C-Unit made the interior of the Foam Dome a pressure cooker at just the right temperature for roasting Jayhawks. With the game tied at 72 and three seconds on the clock, Colorado inbounded the ball to Askia Booker. 'Ski took the ball across midcourt and launched a long three point shot with half a second to go... and the three-point shot was all net as time expired. Colorado students and fans flooded the court after the shot and the victory.

Check out the video of Booker's incredible shot to win the game.

The win ended a 19-game losing streak to Kansas that went back to January 22, 2003. Like that game, Kansas entered the game as the #6 team in the country. And like that game as well, Kansas heads back home to the land that denies evolution with a loss.

Considering that Colorado was a mediocre basketball team for most of the years that they played in the same conference as Kansas, the KU fans and players must be awful happy now that Colorado has moved on to the Pac-12. Indeed, Kansas fans used to refer to the Coors Events Center as "Allen Fieldhouse West" because their games against CU in Boulder usually featured at least half the arena filled with Jayhawk fans.

That is no longer the case as head coach Tad Boyle has turned Boulder into a basketball hotbed. The Foam Dome has an official seating capacity of 11,064, but several hundred more were in attendance today. Truly, the crowd was "standing room only." According CU records, the record attendance at the Events Center was 11,363 in 2001 (also against Kansas). Today's final tally may surpass that.

Colorado was led in scoring by Spencer Dinwiddie and Askia Booker, each with 15 points. Xavier Johnson and Josh Scott added 14 apiece for the Buffs. Kansas was led by Super-Frosh Andrew Wiggins, who scored 22 points. Many analysts predict that Wiggins will be the NBA's #1 draft pick next April.

The Buffs do not play again until next Friday, when they host Elon. On December 21st, they will play #9 Oklahoma State in Las Vegas.