Calhoun and UConn: Failing to Promote an Atmosphere of Compliance

The University of Connecticut announced that it had received notice from the N.C.A.A. that its men’s basketball program committed eight major rules violations.

Most of the charges involved Nate Miles in 2006, a recruit who never played for the Huskies.  The charges identified former student manager Josh Nochimson as an agent of the university which was first reported by Yahoo Sports last year. The impending charges led to the resignations of two UConn assistants in the week leading up to Friday's news conference.

Calhoun specifically was cited for “failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance.” This charge is just one step removed from the dreaded (and death-penalty eligible) charge of "lack of institutional control."

The money quote from Jim Calhoun,

“I’m going to be educated by certain matters if indeed we did make mistakes, and we’ll finalize that over the next 90 days and we’ll move forward. No one wants this to happen. Did I see it happening? No. But we’re going to handle it like we always handle things, up front, transparently, and do it the best way we can.” 

As evidenced by his quote, Calhoun is still testing the waters to see if denial will work. It's too late for that. Something did happen. Rules violations occurred. It amounts to cheating. Moreover, I think there may be additional relevant data points, places where the story could take unexpected turns:

• The sudden resignation of the University President who is now President of the University of Illinois (itself a paragon of college sports' virtue).
• The ticket scalping scheme at Kansas, whose AD - Lew Perkins - originally hired Calhoun and the current AD Jeff Hathaway. It's possible that the 'atmosphere' of selective compliance was baked into the organization.
• The cars-for-tickets scheme run by Hathaway a few years ago at UConn.
• Lack of audits for the tickets Calhoun controls and the basketball camp he runs.
• The new contract Calhoun signed just prior to the NCAA charges being made public, a contract that could never have been signed after the charges were revealed.
• The looming shake up in conference affiliations.

There is no doubt that men's basketball encourages cutting corners. Its genesis at UConn is unclear. But it extends far beyond the scope of the NCAA's charges and possibly far beyond current - and recently current - employees. The demands of big-time athletics force many people to make highly nuanced ethical decisions. It's unlikely, though, that anyone at UCONN or at the NCAA cares enough or has the willingness to connect all the dots.