For this week's Blog I I want you to read the article below about the Louisville basketball scandal that is rocking the NCAA. I think it is important to keep up with current issues related to basketball, especially as March Madness gets closer. Rick Pitino has been one of my favorite coaches because he always seems to be able to get the most out of his players. However, the allegations against him and the Men's Basketball program will greatly impact his program this year and for years to come. Please read the article below and answer the questions at the bottom the article. Please remember to put your name on the Blog.
'Continuum' of Sexism in Sports
Recruits visiting the University of Louisville were allegedly entertained by nude dancers and prostitutes paid for by a program assistant. How culpable is head coach Rick Pitino, and is the case a symptom of a larger problem in college sports?
October 26, 2015
First it was the claim of one prostitute, but now a scandal at the University of Louisville has grown. For years, Louisville basketball recruits attended parties at a campus residence hall that included nude dancers and paid sex, former and prospective players told ESPN, lending credence to claims made by a former prostitute in a book published this month.
The former escort, Katina Powell, said she was paid by Andre McGee, the team's former graduate assistant and director of basketball operations, to provide recruits with strip shows and sex during campus visits. Powell said she was given about $10,000 by McGee for supplying dancers -- including her own teenage daughters -- for more than two dozen parties during a four-year period. In one instance, McGee allegedly offered the escort a bottle of whiskey signed by the team's head coach, Rick Pitino, as payment.
On Friday, McGee resigned from his position as an assistant basketball coach at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, where he moved before the scandal broke. “The university deserves a full-time assistant coach and I am not able to provide that to the basketball team while the false allegations against me are being investigated,” McGee stated.
But some Louisville faculty members and other critics aren’t satisfied with McGee’s resignation, saying that Pitino is also culpable and that blame can ultimately be laid at the feet of big-time college sports as a whole. In the arms race that is Division I intercollegiate athletics, they say, some colleges are all too comfortable using attractive young women as a recruiting tool, and powerful coaches can count on underlings to handle the logistics.
“If Pitino didn’t have knowledge about this sort of thing, then he should not be a coach at all,” Nancy Theriot, a professor and chair of women’s and gender studies at Louisville, said. “If he did have knowledge, then he shouldn’t resign. He should be fired.”
While the case is being investigated by both the university and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Louisville officials are adamant that the university has no plans to fire Pitino, who denies knowing about the parties. The veteran Hall of Fame coach said last week that he’s not quitting.
“I will not resign and let you down,” Pitino wrote in a blog post. “Someday I will walk away in celebration of many memorable years, but that time is not now. I do not fight these accusations by others, but rather turn the other cheek. Couldn’t do it at 33, but at 63 it’s the wise thing to do. Let’s let the investigators do their job and we will play basketball.”
In the post, he also referenced Pope Francis’s recent visit to the United States, saying the pope would frequently answer controversial questions with the phrase “we will let God judge.” It’s advice Pitino said Louisville students and fans should remember as the investigation continues. “Let’s not try to justify,” he wrote, “but let the Lord judge.”
Pitino will also be judged, however, by a considerably less celestial entity: the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
Louisville alerted the association about the possible recruiting violations (providing impermissible “extra benefits” to prospects) a month before Powell’s book was published, but it could be months before an investigation is complete. Even if Pitino was unaware of the alleged sex parties, he would likely still be found to have violated NCAA rules. Recent NCAA decisions about recruiting and academic violations at Syracuse University and Southern Methodist University have placed sanctions on head coaches despite finding no evidence that the coaches knew about the misconduct.
That’s because the NCAA revised its rules last year to hold coaches more accountable for all violations within their programs.
“An institution's head coach is presumed to be responsible for the actions of all institutional staff members who report, directly or indirectly, to the head coach,” the revised rule states. “An institution's head coach shall promote an atmosphere of compliance within his or her program and shall monitor the activities of all institutional staff members involved with the program who report, directly or indirectly, to the coach.”
Pitino’s contract -- which runs through 2026 -- contains similar language. The coach is required to “diligently supervise compliance of assistant coaches and any other employees for which [he] is administratively responsible.” The dormitory in which the parties took place was also under Pitino’s purview. The building is designated for athletes and was built at his request.
“You build a basketball dorm because you want more control, not less control,” sports columnist Rick Bozich wrote. “You build a basketball dorm because you want more information about what is going on with your players, not less information. You build a basketball dorm to make certain that scandals like this scandal do not turn your program into a national punch line. You control the security there. You control who comes and goes. You control everything because coaches like Pitino insist upon control.”
As tawdry and sensational as the Louisville case may seem, it is not the first time a program has been accused of using sex to attract athletes to a university.
In 2013, Sports Illustrated reported that Oklahoma State University’s football program used a group of women to entice recruits. Officially, the group, called Orange Pride, was meant to show visiting high school athletes around campus. Unofficially, according to Sports Illustrated, some of the women were having sex with the players. “There's no other way a female can convince you to come play football at a school besides sex,” one former OSU football player said. “The idea was to get [recruits] to think that if they came to Oklahoma State, it was gonna be like that all the time.”
The NCAA ruled that the allegations were "unfounded" but found the university in violation of "engaging in impermissible hosting activities" for using Orange Pride in recruiting activities. Such recruitment groups, or hostess programs, are not uncommon, despite the NCAA having banned “gender-based student hosting groups.” Louisville has used such programs in the past, too. Sex isn’t always part of the job description -- especially not formally -- but it does happen, and sometimes it happens without consent.
In 2007, the University of Colorado at Boulder reached a settlement with two women who said they were gang-raped at a party for recruits. The alleged assaults stemmed from a larger recruiting scandal that included strippers hired to entertain recruits and allegations that hostesses were being paid to sleep with the athletes.
Scandals involving hostess programs have also hit Arizona State University, the University of Oregon, the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University.
To be clear, Theriot, the chair of Louisville’s Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, said, using recruiting hostesses is not the same thing as paying for prostitutes to have sex with players. But the two “do exist on a continuum,” she said. They’re both part of a larger pattern of behavior where women are offered up as eye candy or more in an attempt to entice male athletes to join a team.
“With this sort of case, where staff members are paying for sex, it puts an extreme spotlight on what I think is actually a very widespread problem,” Theriot said. “And that is this sexist situation on campus where men are recruiting other men to play sports by providing them with girls.”
1. Name 3 other university's that have been involved in recruiting scandals besides Louisville.
2. Does Rick Pitino plan on resigning?
3. Do you think Rick Pitino should be penalized for these violations if he didn't know anything about them? Why or why not?
4. Do you think this goes on at other top-notch universities? Why or why not?
The former escort, Katina Powell, said she was paid by Andre McGee, the team's former graduate assistant and director of basketball operations, to provide recruits with strip shows and sex during campus visits. Powell said she was given about $10,000 by McGee for supplying dancers -- including her own teenage daughters -- for more than two dozen parties during a four-year period. In one instance, McGee allegedly offered the escort a bottle of whiskey signed by the team's head coach, Rick Pitino, as payment.
On Friday, McGee resigned from his position as an assistant basketball coach at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, where he moved before the scandal broke. “The university deserves a full-time assistant coach and I am not able to provide that to the basketball team while the false allegations against me are being investigated,” McGee stated.
But some Louisville faculty members and other critics aren’t satisfied with McGee’s resignation, saying that Pitino is also culpable and that blame can ultimately be laid at the feet of big-time college sports as a whole. In the arms race that is Division I intercollegiate athletics, they say, some colleges are all too comfortable using attractive young women as a recruiting tool, and powerful coaches can count on underlings to handle the logistics.
“If Pitino didn’t have knowledge about this sort of thing, then he should not be a coach at all,” Nancy Theriot, a professor and chair of women’s and gender studies at Louisville, said. “If he did have knowledge, then he shouldn’t resign. He should be fired.”
While the case is being investigated by both the university and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Louisville officials are adamant that the university has no plans to fire Pitino, who denies knowing about the parties. The veteran Hall of Fame coach said last week that he’s not quitting.
“I will not resign and let you down,” Pitino wrote in a blog post. “Someday I will walk away in celebration of many memorable years, but that time is not now. I do not fight these accusations by others, but rather turn the other cheek. Couldn’t do it at 33, but at 63 it’s the wise thing to do. Let’s let the investigators do their job and we will play basketball.”
In the post, he also referenced Pope Francis’s recent visit to the United States, saying the pope would frequently answer controversial questions with the phrase “we will let God judge.” It’s advice Pitino said Louisville students and fans should remember as the investigation continues. “Let’s not try to justify,” he wrote, “but let the Lord judge.”
Pitino will also be judged, however, by a considerably less celestial entity: the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
Louisville alerted the association about the possible recruiting violations (providing impermissible “extra benefits” to prospects) a month before Powell’s book was published, but it could be months before an investigation is complete. Even if Pitino was unaware of the alleged sex parties, he would likely still be found to have violated NCAA rules. Recent NCAA decisions about recruiting and academic violations at Syracuse University and Southern Methodist University have placed sanctions on head coaches despite finding no evidence that the coaches knew about the misconduct.
That’s because the NCAA revised its rules last year to hold coaches more accountable for all violations within their programs.
“An institution's head coach is presumed to be responsible for the actions of all institutional staff members who report, directly or indirectly, to the head coach,” the revised rule states. “An institution's head coach shall promote an atmosphere of compliance within his or her program and shall monitor the activities of all institutional staff members involved with the program who report, directly or indirectly, to the coach.”
Pitino’s contract -- which runs through 2026 -- contains similar language. The coach is required to “diligently supervise compliance of assistant coaches and any other employees for which [he] is administratively responsible.” The dormitory in which the parties took place was also under Pitino’s purview. The building is designated for athletes and was built at his request.
“You build a basketball dorm because you want more control, not less control,” sports columnist Rick Bozich wrote. “You build a basketball dorm because you want more information about what is going on with your players, not less information. You build a basketball dorm to make certain that scandals like this scandal do not turn your program into a national punch line. You control the security there. You control who comes and goes. You control everything because coaches like Pitino insist upon control.”
As tawdry and sensational as the Louisville case may seem, it is not the first time a program has been accused of using sex to attract athletes to a university.
In 2013, Sports Illustrated reported that Oklahoma State University’s football program used a group of women to entice recruits. Officially, the group, called Orange Pride, was meant to show visiting high school athletes around campus. Unofficially, according to Sports Illustrated, some of the women were having sex with the players. “There's no other way a female can convince you to come play football at a school besides sex,” one former OSU football player said. “The idea was to get [recruits] to think that if they came to Oklahoma State, it was gonna be like that all the time.”
The NCAA ruled that the allegations were "unfounded" but found the university in violation of "engaging in impermissible hosting activities" for using Orange Pride in recruiting activities. Such recruitment groups, or hostess programs, are not uncommon, despite the NCAA having banned “gender-based student hosting groups.” Louisville has used such programs in the past, too. Sex isn’t always part of the job description -- especially not formally -- but it does happen, and sometimes it happens without consent.
In 2007, the University of Colorado at Boulder reached a settlement with two women who said they were gang-raped at a party for recruits. The alleged assaults stemmed from a larger recruiting scandal that included strippers hired to entertain recruits and allegations that hostesses were being paid to sleep with the athletes.
Scandals involving hostess programs have also hit Arizona State University, the University of Oregon, the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University.
To be clear, Theriot, the chair of Louisville’s Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, said, using recruiting hostesses is not the same thing as paying for prostitutes to have sex with players. But the two “do exist on a continuum,” she said. They’re both part of a larger pattern of behavior where women are offered up as eye candy or more in an attempt to entice male athletes to join a team.
“With this sort of case, where staff members are paying for sex, it puts an extreme spotlight on what I think is actually a very widespread problem,” Theriot said. “And that is this sexist situation on campus where men are recruiting other men to play sports by providing them with girls.”
1. Name 3 other university's that have been involved in recruiting scandals besides Louisville.
2. Does Rick Pitino plan on resigning?
3. Do you think Rick Pitino should be penalized for these violations if he didn't know anything about them? Why or why not?
4. Do you think this goes on at other top-notch universities? Why or why not?
21 comments:
Seif Younis
1. Three other universities involved in these recruiting scandals include Arizona State University, the University of Oregon, and the University of Tennessee.
2. Rick Pitino does not plan on resigning, but decides that he will leave it to the decision of the NCAA Committee on Infractions
3. Unfortunately, Rick would need to be held accountable for these violations. This is because it was his responsibility to ensure proper conduct, for one, with regards to the athletes on the team.
4. While I may not know for sure, I do not believe this goes on at other top-notch universities. The sort of scandalous motivation to play on a team couldn't be present in such athletes, as there may be stricter regulations or perhaps those kinds of athletes are more enticed by the opportunity to play.
1. Arizona University, Oregon, and Tennessee
2. No, he does not plan on resigning
3. No, because that would be unfair since he did not do anything since he did no know about it.
4. Yes I do, other colleges get players to commit by giving them these benefits, making them think that it goes on all the time at the college.
- Justin Nguyen
1. University of Missouri
Syracuse University
Southern Methodist University
2. No
3. No because he had nothing to do with it.
4. Yes because if it can happen here then it can happen anywhere.
Kamaal Kusow
Period 6
1.Universtity of Oregon, University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University.
2.No he doesn't.
3.He should be penalized. He should know everything because he is head coach.
4.I don't think so. Those universities area only special examples. Other universities won't do that.
Yuchen Li
2/23/2016
pd.6
1) Oregon, Tennessee,and Vanderbilt
2) No
3) Yes, because he is the head coach and oversees everything so he definitely knew about the events that took place in his campus
4) Yes because other schools are also trying to get the best players so it's all a game to see who can bribe the players the most
Devesh Agarwal Pd. 6
1. Arizona State University, the University of Oregon, the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University.
2. He will NOT retire.
3. Yes because he did know and they are wrong but if he didnt know about them he should still have a little punishment because he should know about his team and what is going on good or bad but i think it shouldnt be to severe if he didnt know.
4. I do not think so because they have too much to lose to be doing these kinds of things.
1. Arizona State University, Vanderbilt University and University of Oregon
2. Pitino does not plan on resigning.
3. He should not be penalized for the violations because he had nothing to do with the scandal.
4. When recruits are provided with girls, they are convinced that if they came to the school, they will be with the girls all the time. Possibly a widespread among top-notch universities.
Alex Kuang
1. Oklahoma State, Colorado Boulder, Tennessee
2. No, he doesn't plan on resigning.
3. Yes, because as a head coach you should be aware of the circumstances of how your assistants signed under your name as the HEAD coach are recruiting high schoolers to play for your team, not the assistants ultimately.
4. Yes, it definitely goes on at other universities. With the amount of investigations going on at a list of universities, it is easy to presume it is going on elsewhere.
Brett Rudden
1)Arizona State University, University if Oregon, and Vanderbilt University.
2)Rick Pitino doesn't plan on resigning.
3)Yes, I do because the head coach should know if these things are going on since those are his players.
4)Yes, I think this does go on at other top-notch schools because if it happens at a well-known school like Louisville under a famous coach it most likely goes on in other places as well.
Tai Metzger
1.Arizona State University, the University of Oregon, the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University.
2.He does not plan on retiring
3.He should be penalized because he should be responsible for everything his staff does because he is the head coach.
4.Yes I think this does happen at other schools because some schools really want certain players and will do anything to get the players they want.
(Prajit Dharmavaratha)
1.) Arizona State University, the University of Oregon, the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University.
2.) He doesn't
3.) No I do not think he should because that is unfair, what can he do about it if he didn't know about it
4.) No, I think the other Universities are more professional with their work.
Harish Chinnasamy
1. Oregon Tennessee and Vanderbilt
2. No
3.No because he was not involved
4.Yes, because in generalthere are incentives for everything
-Jack Fisk
1. University of Colorado, Oklahoma state university, Arizona state university
2. He will not resign
3. Yes because it is his team that is involved in the scandal therefore he is responsible for any scandal involving them
4. Probably because NCAA teams are willing to do a lot to recruit the best players they can find
Brian Barrett
1. Tennessee, Vanderbilt, SMU
2. No
3. No, how was he supposed to know?
4. Yes, D1 athletes get more than anyone else in college.
Jonathan London
1. Oregon, Tennessee, and Arizona State
2. No
3.Yes because it is his team and his players and he has to take care of them and something like this cannot go unnoticed. I think the fact that he did not know what was going on is why he should be penalized.
4.Yes, I'm sure this does go on at other colleges but in different ways and forms. The colleges do what they feel they have to to appeal to the athlete.
Mark Gottfried
1. Arizona State University, University of Oregon, and Vanderbilt University
2. No
3. Rick Pitino should be penalized because he is supposed to know and dictate everything about his team Or anything related so if something happens he should always be held accountable
4. I think it does because top colleges will recruit at any costs
Thomas Nguyen
1. Arizona State, Oregon, and Vanderbilt
2. No
3. Yes, because it is his team and any misconduct should be held on his account, especially when it involves his players
4. Yes, because other colleges can and will do whatever it takes to recruit the best players
Nick Bien
Julian Levin Pd. 6
1. Vanderbilt, Oklahoma State, Arizona State
2. No, he does not
3. I think he should be, since he should know what is going on with his team, and should be in control of situations. However, it shouldn't be as bad a punishment as if he had known, because in a big basketball program, a lot of delegation happens, and it was the assistant that decided to organize the events.
4. It might although I don't think it is very prominent, because it is not moral. I also think that when it does happen, it probably isn't the head coach's doing, as they have too much at stake to do something like that.
1.Oregon Tennessee and Vanderbilt
2. NO
3. NO, because he cannot do anything
4. No, some of other university may do better than them
Bruce Chen
Kwame Frimpong
1.)Oregon, Tenessee, Vanderbilt
2.)No
3.)Yes because anything that happens to his team is essentially his responsibility.
4.)Yes I think it goes on at other universities because they will do whatever it takes to get the players they want
Kwame Frimpong
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