Boosters Beware of Reprisal

It’s bound to happen. Someday, a university is going to sue a wayward athletic booster and win.

Already, legislatures in states such as Alabama and Florida have enacted strict sports agent laws with sharp teeth for agents who compromise athletes’ eligibility. The 83rd General Assembly, in session in Little Rock, should consider the same.

Too much money and prestige are at stake in college athletics for a school to have its revenue and marketability sacked by overzealous alumni or fans with more dollars than sense. We suggest extending accountability to boosters, too.

Usually when the NCAA levies sanctions, someone in the university’s athletic department knew that a player or a recruit was receiving improper benefits.

But what if a university is truly unaware that a booster, for instance, is overpaying a player that he employs or is giving cash to a recruit’s family, coaches or friends? What price should an institution pay for acts that are beyond its control?

When a school loses scholarships or is banned from postseason or television play, the price generally comes with seven digits. Lost revenue from postseason appearances, whether part of a punishment or the result of one, can be devastating.

That doesn’t even include the hard-to-quantify positive exposure that is replaced by bad press, which can tarnish both the school’s athletic and academic programs.

The University of Arkansas contends that it didn’t know booster Ted Herrod of Dallas overpaid Razorbacks in his employ. Yet Arkansas’ July report to the NCAA contained self-imposed sanctions to the tune of eight reduced scholarships over the next two years and the refusal of $250,000 in Herrod donations. Herrod’s punishment? He must dissociate himself from the Hogs for five years.

Arkansas responded in this way because NCAA bylaw 6.4 assigns blanket culpability for the conduct of boosters to schools, regardless of whether the institution knew about any wrongdoing or not. It’s not fair, but that’s the rule.

The University of Alabama is now under NCAA scrutiny. Crimson Tide booster Logan Young of Memphis allegedly gave Trezvant High School coach Lynn Lang $200,000 to steer defensive lineman Albert Means to Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Bama says it wasn’t in on Young’s shenanigans. What if Lang had been an Arkansas booster paying a Hog recruit?

The first time a fat cat faces fines for slipping players money, instead of getting a mere fingerwagging, boosters will think twice about breaking the rules.