We Caught the HBO Real Sports Program Last Night On Some Serious Problems In Intercollegiate Athletics – Our Question: Where the Hell Was NCAA President Mark Emmert? – It Takes Courage To Lead and at This Moment the NCAA and Intercollegiate Athletics Needs A Strong Leader – So We Ask Again: Where the Hell Was Mark Emmert? Emmert Is Too Good To Address The Issues Raised By HBO Real Sports In An Honest and Direct Way? – Pitiful! – The BCS Stench Gets Stronger and Just Think….This Is Just Getting Started! – What Is The REAL MOTIVATION Behind These Bastards Supporting the Bogus BCS? – Damn Good Question! – It Goes Something Like This: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$! – Gekko Was Right As Always When Greedy Bastards Are Lurking!
HBO Real Sports Program on Some Serious Problems With Intercollegiate Athletics
Watching the HBO Real Sports program last night on the amount of money that is being made by some major college athletic programs with student-athletes not getting a share of that money and the allegation that some Auburn players had received improper benefits at Auburn and other schools we could not help but wonder….
Where the Hell was NCAA President Mark Emmert?
Does Mark Emmert not have the Courage to go on this very Damning HBO Real Sports program about wrongdoing in major college athletics and at least address the fundamental issues that Real Sports brought up in the show?
Pitiful, that’s what we think of your “NO SHOW” on the HBO Real Sports program Mark Emmert. Pitiful.
We can honestly say here at Coaches Hot Seat that we have been terribly disappointed in the Mark Emmert’s performance so far in his short time as president of the NCAA and that is coming from people (us here at CHS) that have very good friends that knew Mark very well both in Seattle (when he was president at Univ. of Washington) and in Louisiana (when he was chancellor of LSU) that thought a lot of the man. We also have interacted with Mark a few times over the years (with Mark not having a clue that we are involved in Coaches Hot Seat) and we always came away impressed as well, but the past 6 months has in our opinion been just short of a disaster for Emmert at the NCAA and he could turn his tenure into a full-blown debacle that could open up the NCAA to the potential of multi-tens of Millions of Dollars losses in lawsuits if a few upcoming decisions go the wrong way as well.
If we had been in Mark Emmert’s shoes we would have been chomping at the bit to address both of the issues that the HBO Real Sports show detailed, student-athletes compensation and college athletes getting paid by boosters, last night because in our opinion there are very good arguments to both defend the student-athlete exchanging his skills and talents for the “opportunity” to earn a college degree (although Emmert is right that there needs to be a monetary stipend for all student-athletes in addition to their scholarship) and that the NCAA would take very seriously any allegations of student-athletes taking money from boosters, coaches or anyone else to attend a certainly school or for their play on the field.
Yes, those are two arguments and commitments that could be made very forcefully by a Real Leader, but we are starting to get the sneaking suspicion that Mark Emmert is not willing to take a tough stand on things as he has done in the past because doing that would ruffle the feathers and piss off people that Emmert must feel he cannot afford to piss off.
This is very simple: If a recruit coming out of high school does not want to exchange his skills and talents for a scholarship that will give him/her the “opportunity” to earn a college degree then don’t sign the Damn grant-in-aid form and go find something else to do with your life. Colleges and Universities are more than happy to reward talented athletes with very generous scholarships that give them the “opportunity” to earn a college degree but no one is forcing a recruit to take that scholarship and no student-athlete on scholarship should complain about their situation since it was they that agreed to the deal in the first place. If you don’t want the scholarship then quit and there will be 50 people behind you that would love to have it and the chance to play athletics while having their education paid for.
As for the allegations about Auburn football players receiving benefits from boosters, coaches and other schools we would take a much different tack than has been taken in the past by the NCAA and we would have told HBO Real Sports:
I know about many of the things that have been going on in intercollegiate athletics around some student-athletes, primarily on the men’s football and basketball teams at many schools, being paid to attend or play at a certain school and there is nothing I can do about what has happened in the past.
What I can do and say is this: If a booster gives money to a student-athlete that booster will be banned from that school’s activities for life. If a coach gives money to a student-athlete that coach will be put on probation and suspended for 1 year and if it happens a second time he will be banned from coaching at any NCAA school for life. If a student-athlete takes money and he still has eligibility left at his school he will lose ALL of that eligibility and he will lose his scholarship. Is that easy enough to understand, and no, I was not really speaking to HBO Real Sports on this one. (Looking into the camera while he said the above).
Now why couldn’t have NCAA president Mark Emmert have appeared on the HBO Real Sports show and answered their questions in a straight-forward and honest way? Why the Hell not? Was there some PR flack or an attorney that told him not to go on the show? If so, then Mark Emmert is a Candy Ass.
Hell, Mark Emmert is a Candy Ass because he didn’t go on the HBO Real Sports program no matter what he was told to do by someone else!
We would have been knocking down HBO Real Sports’ door to address the issues that were brought up in that program last night in a head-on and direct way and that very simply is the difference between someone that is willing to lead and someone that is scared of his own shadow.
No, at this moment in intercollegiate athletics history we don’t need someone scared of his own shadow.
What we need running the NCAA right now is someone like Teddy Roosevelt that can tell the College and University Presidents to get in line and shut the Hell up. Hell, in our opinion it is High Time someone laid down the law with the College and University Presidents that have done tremendous damage to intercollegiate athletics over the past two decades with Idiots like Ohio State president Gordon Gee making all kinds of comments that not only paint him as an Idiot but a Pompous, Arrogant Ass of an Idiot as well!
How about a little courage Mark Emmert? Is that too much to ask?
If it is then Mark Emmert needs to turn in his resignation right now, today because Emmert is then just not up to doing the job as head of the NCAA.
The BCS Stench Is Getting Very Strong and It Comes From the Top
Several of us here at Coaches Hot Seat sat with one of the “token” lawyers in our CHS group at the SF Giants – Oakland A’s preseason baseball game at AT&T Park (Giants 2 – A’s 1) on Wednesday and he arrived with some folded up papers and the first one he handed over to us was a notice he saw about the IRS and non-profit organizations earlier this year:
IRS Increases Scrutiny of Nonprofit Organizations, January 18, 2011
“Recently the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has stepped up its enforcement efforts to ensure that non-profit organizations comply with tax laws and regulations.
The Exempt Organizations (EO) Examinations office is tasked with analyzing the operational and financial activities of exempt organizations.
According to a recent IRS report highlighting the accomplishments of Fiscal Year 2010, throughout the year, the office conducted 11,449 audits – an increase of 12 percent over the number conducted in Fiscal Year 2009. The number of audits conducted in 2009 already marked a 30 percent increase over those conducted in Fiscal Year 2008. This increased scrutiny is undoubtedly aided by the addition of 100 employees to the EO Examinations division.”
Memo to IRS: Fly to Phoenix right now and not only will you find all kind of Absolute Nonsense that a non-profit organization should NOT be doing…
….but you will also have the opportunity to unravel the Biggest Scam going in America today in the non-profit world:
The Bogus BCS and the Corrupt College Football Bowl System
Hell that additional “100 employees” that the IRS has hired would have full-time jobs chasing these BCS Bastards and College and University Presidents that are ALL running non-profit institutions and organizations and are living High on the Hog while doing it!
Here is another lead for you as well from Dan Wetzel at Yahoo! Sports:
BCS conducts shallow probe as party rages on
“The Bowl Championship Series is so troubled by the graft exposed in Tuesday’s Fiesta Bowl corruption report that it appointed a special “task force.” Among the members is an athletics director who accepted a free Caribbean cruise from the Orange Bowl just last summer.
Yes, there’s nothing like having a guy – in this case, Southern Mississippi’s Richard Giannini – who takes lavish gifts from one bowl game to judge another bowl game for giving out lavish gifts.
The obvious news from Tuesday’s 276-page Fiesta Bowl report is that longtime CEO John Junker was fired and is in major legal trouble, in part because of the eye-popping way his bowl game was run – $1,200 strip-joint bills tend to generate news interest. The real issue is that the BCS is doing what the Fiesta Bowl originally tried to do: conduct a shallow investigation and hope the party is allowed to rage on.”
That’s right, Party On Boys and Girls in the Bogus BCS and College Football Bowls but please don’t try to tell us or anyone else with a working brain that all of this money being spent on lavish parties, golf tournaments, 5-star hotels, barrels of beer and liquor and all manner of other Bullshit has anything to do with the core missions of intercollegiate athletics or should be anywhere near 18 – 22 year old student athletes.
No, don’t even try that BS!
Oh, here’s another little nugget for you from an Arizona Republic story just out this morning:
BCS official eases stance on Fiesta Bowl’s future
“The BCS created the task force Tuesday to examine a 276-page report by Fiesta Bowl investigators detailing a culture of excessive spending on Fiesta Bowl employees, politicians and business associates. The BCS will review the report and decide whether and how to punish the Fiesta Bowl.
Its seven-member task force includes a member who for years let the Fiesta Bowl pay for his golf at a resort, and another who took a free Caribbean trip last year from the Orange Bowl, The Republic has learned.
In addition, Hancock said Wednesday that for at least five years, while attending Fiesta Frolic, he let the Fiesta Bowl cover his golf tab and accepted free gifts from Nike.
The Frolic is an annual, multiday spring gathering the bowl stages for college-football officials at a Phoenix resort.
Hancock called the Frolic, which costs the Fiesta Bowl several hundred thousand dollars a year, a “remarkable business opportunity” for college-football executives to network. However, the Fiesta Bowl Special Committee’s investigative report noted that it recently changed its name to Fiesta Bowl Spring College Football Seminars at the request of attendees “to make the event sound like less of a ‘boondoggle.’ “
Task-force member Wright Waters, the Sun Belt Conference commissioner, told The Republic that for much of the past decade he attended Fiesta Frolic but that he only began paying for his own accommodations in 2006. He said there was nothing wrong with accepting free golf and gifts from Nike, which attended the event and gave away T-shirts and shoes to participants.
“When you are dealing with a round of golf or T-shirt or something like that, it doesn’t influence anyone who cares about college football as deeply as we care about it,” Waters said.”
Really Wright Waters? We have a Newsflash for Wright Waters, Bill Hancock and EVERYONE ELSE that has their Greedy little hands in the BCS money pile…
These are non-profit organizations and institutions that you are accepting gifts from and from where we sit that means that we have non-profit organizations acting like for-profit one’s and that means they are ripping off and committing fraud against the US Taxpayers and the American People.
Maybe all of you Greedy Bastards that have been living like Roman Kings for several decades now while both running and receiving gifts and all manner of other things from these bowl games that are supposed to be non-profit organizations focused on running postseason games for intercollegiate athletics think the party will go on……but we have some news for you…
Those Days Are Over.
What about this line from the above Arizona Republic news story:
“Hancock called the Frolic, which costs the Fiesta Bowl several hundred thousand dollars a year, a “remarkable business opportunity” for college-football executives to network. However, the Fiesta Bowl Special Committee’s investigative report noted that it recently changed its name to Fiesta Bowl Spring College Football Seminars at the request of attendees “to make the event sound like less of a ‘boondoggle.’ “
Really Bill Hancock? Call the “Frolic” something else so it doesn’t sound like a “boondoggle?”
We are going to tell everyone something that we have thought for a long-time now about Mr. Bill Hancock.
Bill Hancock in our opinion is one of the BIGGEST FRAUDS in the United States of America today.
No, we would not trust Bill Hancock with 2 cents of our money and the same goes for EVERYONE else that has their Greedy hands in this BCS money pot.
Many years ago one of our instructors in US military intelligence training told us:
“If something that someone is saying or doing doesn’t make sense then you need to look again until you find out what the real motivation or thing is that is driving their behavior or action.”
What then is the Real Motivation behind the defense of the indefensible BCS?
As Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman points out…
BCS has strong smell of corruption
“The BCS is mad at the Fiesta Bowl. Really mad. So mad, the Bowl Championship Series is talking about booting the Fiesta from the BCS
The Fiesta released a damning internal report Tuesday that read like something out of imperial Rome. Extravagant expenditures for Fiesta president John Junker. Illegal campaign contributions. Payouts to people like Big 12 Conference consultant Donnie Duncan for services unexplained.
Meanwhile, the University of Connecticut lost $1.6 million just for playing in the Fiesta Bowl, courtesy of all the Fiesta’s ticket demands.
Corruption to the core.
The BCS is standing on moral outrage. The BCS “will not be associated with this kind of behavior,” said its executive director and my old pal, Bill Hancock.
I hate debating Hancock. But the BCS outrage stems from other motives.
Self-preservation. The focus on whether the Fiesta Bowl will retain its BCS status is misguided. The focus should be on whether the BCS will retain its status as college football’s playoff.”
Now that is some Damn good writing and why Berry is paid to write for a living and we make a living making things but Tramel asks the essential question later in his column which goes right to the heart of the Real Motivation for the defense of the indefensible BCS:
“How can university presidents and athletic directors possibly support such a system?
The masses have cried for a playoff because they want more playoff games and a truer champion. Presidents and ADs don’t hear such protests.
But how could they not hear the claims of corruption? How could they argue that an NCAA-sponsored football tournament is somehow less idyllic than a bowl system that looks like the Roman Forum?”
Why indeed Berry, but by asking the question of Why you ask the essential question of what drives the people that support and champion the BCS which every American that was raised by Real Americans clearly understands is a FRAUD on the field and evidently as we have seen with our own eyes now, for years has been a FRAUD off the field as well.
What is that Real Motivation? It is as old as time itself and it inflicts EVERYONE involved with the Bogus BCS from the College and University Presidents down to lowly bowl officials:
MONEY + POWER = CORRUPTION
Or as Lord Acton said over 100 years ago:
“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they did not wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you add the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”
In our opinion the reason why all of these Bastards are such staunch defenders of the Bogus BCS is that there is a VERY BIG pot of $$$$$$$$$ that a very small amount of people control that is not under the purview of a large nonprofit organization like the NCAA which as Berry Tramel points out funnels almost all of the money it takes in back to colleges and universities across America and thus this very small group of people in order to keep control of that $$$$$$$ will…
Sell their souls
Sell their schools out
Sell their student-athletes out
And Sell anyone else out so they can keep their Greedy hands on all that money and the power that comes with controlling the college football postseason.
That is the Real Motivation here and all of the College and University Presidents that support the Bogus BCS because it is “best for the student-athletes” are nothing but Complete Frauds and in the opinion of our “token” lawyer friend at the San Francisco Giants game on Wednesday…
“Willful participants in a conspiracy by others to operate non-profit organizations (the bowls and BCS) that are defrauding the US Taxpayer and the American People.”
Put that in your corncob pipe and smoke it Boys and Girls behind the Bogus BCS and be assured that the revelations about the Fiesta Bowl are just the beginning and one way or another the Greedy Bastards and Sorry Excuses for American Citizens that run and support the Bogus BCS are going to have to deal with the fact that when the dust settles the NCAA will be in complete charge of the college football postseason which will include a 16-team playoff tournament and “X” number of bowl games for teams with .500 plus records that did not make the 16-team member tournament field.
Getting back to the man that we consider to be one of the Biggest Frauds in America today, Bill Hancock, it is the BCS led by Bill Hancock that has held spring meetings for the last three years where the main players, supporters and operators of the BCS have come together to discuss their Bogus system and please note where these Bastards deemed to meet (the IRS can take notice as well):
2008 – Fontainebleau, Miami Beach, Florida
2009 – The Broadmoor Resort, Colorado Springs, Colorado
2010 – Royal Palms Resort and Spa, Scottsdale, Arizona
Wonder where Bill Hancock and the Gluttonous BCS Boys and Girls (with their spouses of course!) are going this year? Maybe the IRS would like to know as well Bill!
Yes, Bill Hancock and the other Greedy Bastards that have their Greedy hands in this VERY BIG BCS $$$$$$$$ pot it’s about the…
“Student-athletes”
If you believe that BS then you need some real help but then there are lots of people across America both in and out of the news media that are starting to wake-up and understand that the college football bowl system and the BCS is the modern version of a Mob family that rules over the most lucrative segment of intercollegiate athletics and the people are starting to find out they do it in very unethical, illegal and maybe even criminal ways.
This Arizona Republic headline says it all:
Fiesta Bowl report: Trouble may lurk for Arizona officials
No, not just “Arizona officials” but EVERYONE that has been involved in the BCS from its inception and that includes all of the College and University Presidents, Athletic Directors, College Head Coaches and other that enjoyed lavish benefits, golf tournaments called Frolics, five-star hotels that included liquor, beer and all manner of over-the-top food will come under scrutiny because these are non-profit organizations acting in what we believe to be very un-non-profit ways and often doing it with officials and leaders of institutions of higher learning that are also claim to non-profit entities. Yes, that is Total BS!
Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports sums up the Hypocritical Bastards behind this Bogus BCS much better than we ever could in his column:
BCS conducts shallow probe as party rages on
“The BCS cuts to the very core of what’s wrong with college athletics – the arrogance and entitlement of the people in charge.
Put it this way: Junker spent $95,000 to get Jack Nicklaus to play a round of golf with him. Among the people he took along in the foursome was an associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference. (The then-Big 12 commissioner dropped out at the last minute).
So Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor gets a five-game NCAA suspension in part for selling his Fiesta Bowl “sportsmanship” award for hundreds of dollars. Yet the Fiesta can drop nearly 100K so some associate commissioner can play 18 holes with the Golden Bear?
Giannini, the task-force member, was one of more than 40 administrators (plus spouses, of course) who accepted the Orange Bowl’s “complimentary getaway” to the Caribbean in June. He was pretty much just following the crowd. (He has not responded to attempts seeking comment).
According to records obtained by PlayoffPAC, there wasn’t a single business meeting scheduled for the entire trip. The brochure did note that attendees would have time for things like a day on the private island of CocoCay, which “offers activities for everyone, from parasailing to sipping delicious ‘Coco Locos’ on a hammock.”
PlayoffPAC has filed an IRS complaint against the Orange Bowl, claiming that the trip – among other expenditures – violated various not-for-profit rules. The Orange Bowl says it’s on the up-and-up. Of course, the Fiesta Bowl used to say that as well when PlayoffPAC complained.
Among the attendees, according to Orange Bowl documents, were administrators from eight Atlantic Coast Conference institutions plus two from the ACC office.
How does the Orange Bowl reward its “partner” conference? By forcing participating teams to buy 17,500 artificially inflated tickets (up to $225 a seat) they have no chance of reselling (for last year’s game, you could buy online for $15). Then they get locked into exorbitant travel costs (nearly 500 high-end hotel rooms at up to $319 a night).
It’s a sure financial loser – as are most bowl games. For playing in the 2009 game, Virginia Tech and the ACC lost $1.7 million. In 2011, they returned to lose $1.6 million more. The Orange Bowl continued to roll in cash. The Coco Locos continued to flow.
Should the same administrators who sign off on such deals accept free cruises from the people who benefit from it?
“Could be seen as a conflict of interest,” N.C. State athletics director Debbie Yow told the Greensboro News-Record. “Maybe it is; maybe not. But I have always declined.”
Guess who isn’t on the task force?”
Now that is some great writing and we have some news for the Greedy Bastards behind the BCS:
This is just the beginning and before it is over EVERY CENT spent by EVERY BOWL GAME over the past 15 years is going to be looked into and have to be justified by someone and as US Taxpayers we and others have every right to ask about what all of these bowl games organized as non-profit organizations have been up to over the years because we have seen things with our own eyes that don’t pass the eye or smell test for a non-profit organization and just imagine for a moment all that has gone on far from the public eye by these Greedy Bastards that in our opinion would sell our their own families to keep their Greedy hands on the BIG POT of BCS money.
As usual when you find Greedy Bastards in America doing very bad things Gordon Gekko wise word area always right:
“It’s all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.”
Yes, Gordon Gekko went to prison in the movie Wall Street just as did the man the Gekko character was based upon: Ivan Boesky.
By the way, any wrongdoing like what has been going on at the Fiesta Bowl for years now that is going on at the other bowl games that are organized as a non-profit and thus tax-exempt organization (Aren’t all the bowl games so organized?) is going to come out and be known by the news media and public eventually, but it can be reported before then to the IRS using Form 13909 which can be found here:
IRS Complaint Process – Tax-Exempt Organization
And once you file your complaint of alleged wrongdoing on a non-profit, tax-exempt organization you can file Form 211 to claim a reward for providing the information if it turns out to be true.
How about that? You come clean with the Feds about potential wrongdoing at a non-profit, tax-exempt organization and you can get paid for coming clean. That makes it doubly the right thing to do.
The choice is clear: If the “student-athletes” are the MOST important thing and making more money by a factor 3 to 5 times would help out in a very big way the majority of I-A athletic departments that are losing money the BCS must be ended and all of the Fraudsters that have their Greedy Hands in the BCS money pot must be held to account as well.
Let the investigations begin!
