ArmyVet wrote:After all that, what did the FBI really accomplish? If the NCAA doesn't pick up the baton and start hammering coaches and schools, it's tantamount to approving cheating.
In the past decade, the NCAA has actively refused to punish and sanction programs like Penn State, Miami, Louisville, UNC and Baylor - all schools that made a mockery of what education-based athletic programs should be, instead valuing winning at the highest levels over the well-being of its students - under the veil of doing what's right for the kids. The NCAA has essentially lost all of its teeth in the enforcement and oversight of intercollegiate athletics and is purely a translucent figure-head for show. To add even further insult to its mission, it then chooses to over-penalize schools that attempted to correct internal academic-athletic infractions (and also to self-report) in attempt to show it still has oversight and autonomy (see Notre Dame, Missouri). What precedent those cases have now set, in addition to previous aforementioned examples, is clear: never cooperate with the NCAA, and you will beat the charges.
Arizona's President has already publicly supported Sean Miller. With a lack of true evidence (and not just what witnesses say), there is very little schools can do in the immediate term; however, it would not be hard at all to cross-reference the money payments to see if there is any validity to what is being said. Intentional ignorance does not make an institution innocent either (which is probably what happens an overwhelming majority of these institutions as well).
Despite being an institutionally-fit-based conference, our schools and programs are not always exempt from such notoriety either; Creighton got dragged into this mess, and even Baylor (which is supposed to be a Christian school) sacrificed the safety and well-being of its student-body in the name of high-level football (which led to its football coach, athletic director and President all being removed).