Bruce Pearl: Cover-up and Consequences

Pete, here boy, here boy,we got a story for u boy!!!!!!!!!!

If there is any truth to the allegations that Bruce Pearl asked other people to participate in his web of lies he’s an amoral idiot and should be banned from college athletics for life. A ten year old might be able to get away with that kind of behavior, but never an adult in a position of responsibility.

didn’t release the NTEA at the press conference because he was too busy trying to find and destroy the pictures taken of him at the BBQ hosted by Pearl.

You have a coach that knowingly committed NCAA infractions, and you cover up his punishment?

I am going to be in the minority here, but I am going to take a little bit different tact. Not massively different, but maybe a little to the left.

I have to confess, I don’t think that what Pearl and his staff did was all that big a deal, not because they didn’t break rules, they did, and they know it. But as you said above, it really is a stupid rule, for a coach not to be able to take a recruit into his home and share a meal. The phone call thing does not bother me so much either, because again, I think the rule is stupid. Coaches should either be allowed to call recruits, or not allowed. If a recruit does not want a call from a certain coach, they should simply put it in writing, fax it to the coach, and be done with it. If they call again, then its a violation.

Now having said that, Pearl’s behavior with the NCAA, while understandable from a certain perspective, is another matter. You cannot lie to the NCAA, at least not in this day and age. There is too much at stake. If you do something you shouldn’t, man up and take it. And to be honest, I kinda thought that was the type of coach Pearl was. Asking anyone else to participate in this kind of a deception is also crossing the line. The problem here may also tie into the Selby situation, I have no idea, but it would not surprise me.

But I want to be clear about one thing. This case, combined with the debacle that Tennessee’s football program has become, is a clear case of lack of institutional control from Hamilton’s office. The arrogance of his behavior far exceeds anything done by either of those coaches, in my opinion because he was the one responsible for keeping an eye on things. There is no way that anyone will convince me that Hamilton knew nothing about that barbeque. Even if it was after the fact. And if he knew, and intended for his program to be run right, he reports the violation right then and there. Coaches are going to push the envelope, it is their nature. An AD is supposed to be above all of that.

Hamilton not only let that school and it’s sports programs down, he let the fans down, because he now places in jeopardy the entire school’s athletics department. They have a time honored tradition of being one of the nest schools in the conference, if not the country. They have the premier women’s basketball program, a very competitive men’s program and a football program that has national titles in their background. Hamilton holds the responsibility for all of that in his hands. If you want the situation cleaned up, the Hamilton has to be the first to go. If Pearl is actually terminated, it is understandable, and he has no one to blame but himself. But for Hamilton to do anything to anyone unless he does it as he himself resigns, is blatantly absurd.

If I am the new President or Chancellor or whatever they call the head of The University of Tennessee, I make 3 phone calls. One to Pat Summitt, requesting her to immediately become the new AD, assuming she can find a suitable replacement for herself on the women’s bench. One to the NCAA, begging them to not shut my athletics programs down and allow me to clean up the mess. And finally to my secretary instructing her to send notice to all staff members that they are now under complete review, and anyone found to have violated an NCAA rule is out.

It might not completely stave off the NCAA, but it would go a long way to changing the culture. Thier situation reminds me a lot of what we had in the late 70’s early 80’s

I would have so much more respect for Pearl if, when busted, he had come out and said, “Yeah, I hosted a barbecue at my home for junior recruits, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with it because it’s a stupid rule. There, I said it.”

No, you wouldn’t have. You would have said the exact same things that you have now, probably moreso about how “Rules blahblahblah There for a reason blahblahblah.”

While your article isn’t as blatantly stupid as one that came up on ESPN recently, and I imagine that you’ve seen this article already. Allow me to save you some time and re-iterate the same points I made in rebuffing that article:

• Quit trying to spin the facts your way.

Look, it’s not necessary. That you want Bruce Pearl fired is a fine conclusion to make after presenting the facts as they are without trying to discredit the Vols by disregarding some facts to make your argument look better. Nobody can doubt that Bruce Pearl screwed up. Nobody. But in writing an article when you’re announcing ZOMGconfusion over the fact that he has been retained, and announcing ZOMGconfusion about someone issuing a termination of contract in order to write a new contract, at least include the following:

• While Pearl definitely screwed up, he also — by all accounts and here-to not questioned — went back and admitted to the NCAA his mistake. He admitted to the AD his mistake. While we don’t know all the details surrounding this change-of-heart, the media has yet to find reason enough to suspect that he did this 100% just to save his own hide. People can speculate on this reasoning as much as they want to, but there is no evidence to the contrary that he didn’t realize he’d screwed up and wanted to go back and fix it — before the public became aware of it. How far the NCAA was on his tail prior to his admission of lying will likely play the largest role in UT’s further punishments. At this point in time, though, the “lying” is, to a large extent, off-set by “telling the truth.” Not completely, and perhaps I’m wrong about this, but all the articles bashing Pearl seem to omit the fact that he did go back and admit to lying, both publicly and to the NCAA.
• All the recruits who were at the house were already – at the time – verbally committed to the University of Tennessee. As far as violations go, I think we can all agree that the rules he broke were minor ones at the most. The NCAA apparently agrees, and has already re-instated Jordan McRae, who remained committed to Tennessee and was present at the BBQ. If any of us want to imagine that far worse isn’t done on a daily basis by other coaches, we’re probably idiots (this isn’t an excuse for him: I think Pearl and Tennessee should be and will be punished. But one doesn’t fire a coach just for one major violation, I’ll note, moreso a successful one. It simply does not happen in college athletics.
• The Termination of Employment thing has blown up to a stupid level. Correct me if I’m wrong, but one has to rip up a contract in order to sign a new one, right? Right? Beuler?

The bottom line is that in the last 5 years Bruce Pearl has become a fixture in the Knoxville Community. As you’ve pointed out, he’s taken the program to heights its never seen. He’s also created a Cancer Awareness and Fundraising program, Outlive, thats well on its way to reaching a million dollars for cancer research in the next year. The players love him, the fans love him, the community loves him.

They’re going to do whatever they can to keep him, bottom line.

As far as Hamilton goes, I’ll defer to Bobo. But the fact is people forget that an Athletic Director does a lot more than just hire and fire coaches. Hamilton has invested heavily to improve Football, Basketball, Baseball and Swimming facilities while increasing the overall departments revenue. He’s also heavily involved in raising money for many charities in the community. He’s not going anywhere either.

I can easily forgive most of these silly violations as being relatively minor in nature. What irks me is that a person with considerable influence and positional authority over impressionable young men chose to make them complicit. Please explain what life lessons you are teaching when you choose that path. Can you honestly say that person should remain the face of your prestigous program? In my opinion, that violation of trust alone makes this a must termination..if you keep him, how do you square it with all the athete’s parents that follow..???

this is bringing on the SEC. The last thing UK needs is to have the SEC as a whole getting a black eye. I feel the same way about UL, as a black eye on the state.

I do not think he will lose his job. He is probably the best thing to happen to Vol basketball since Ernie and Bernie. The only way he leaves, is if the NCAA makes UT fire him…He puts people in the seats and has made UT relevant in men’s basketball…

to cancel my membership in “famous Daves Birthday Club” Darn!

as it is UT’s decision. however, i do believe as soon as the ncaa punishment comes out, he will be fired. just my opinion and nothing more.

like glenn, it is not my school so will leave to those in knoxville to make their own mind up.

He’s a crook, and no amount of good things he has done can change that. And, like Nixon, he corrupts everyone around him. He has no moral compass and he goes around breaking the needles off everyone else’s compasses. Corrupting high school kids and their parents is so off the meter they should ship Pearl to Guantanamo to be water-boarded.

good point greg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have read all the comments here about Pearl and AD Hamilton. If Hamilton hired Pearl then he knew what he was getting when he made the hire just as with Kiffin. What I don’t understand is why Pearl did the violations and then says “don’t tell anybody”. That is plain stupid. Then lies to the NCAA, another stupid thing. For UT to save their butts, Hamilton, Pearl and his coaches MUST go. Then Pray that they don’t HEAR the DEATH BELL RING. UK almost got the Death Bell ringing with Eddie Sutton but they cleaned house and still got some very harsh punishment.