The NCAA And UK In A Row Over Calipari's 500th Win
by Glenn Logan on Jun 13, 2011 7:26 AM EDT
in Kentucky Wildcats Basketball
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PrintAs linked earlier by member A2D2, yet another tempest in a teapot has broken out this summer, this time between the NCAA Committee on Infractions and the UK Athletics Department, including Senior Associate Athletics Director and head of NCAA compliance, Sandy Bell.
In spite of receiving what appeared to be clearance from the NCAA to recognize John Calipari's 500th win earlier this year, the Committee on Infractions is essentially attempting to revoke that go ahead, and has threatened UK if they do not change their earlier statement:
Earlier this month, the chairman of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions sent University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. a letter asking the school to publicly acknowledge it was wrong to recognize John Calipari's 500th coaching victory this past season. Chairman Dennis E. Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, also told Todd that the wording of UK's statement "must be approved by the office of the Committee on Infractions prior to its release."
...
More than once in his five-page letter, Thomas wrote of how UK's handling of Calipari's victory total was "troubling," "extremely troubling" and "very troubling" to the Committee on Infractions.
If UK did not agree, Thomas said school officials would be asked to make an in-person appearance before the committee.
First of all, I think UK should have noted the official record in the release. It's important that the University recognize the NCAA's authority to determine the official win count in any statement regarding wins. The NCAA is given this authority directly by the member schools, of which UK is one, and not to mention the official record it in their release undermines the authority of the NCAA.
With that said, there is more to this particular story. The NCAA clearly authorized the release UK made, and now appears to be essentially trying to ignore their obvious earlier error and attempting to use a threat to bully Kentucky in to retracting its statement unilaterally. If so, the NCAA is patently wrong and UK is right to reject their request, if that is in fact what they have done.
What should happen in this case is that the NCAA and UK should issue a joint clarification. The NCAA should acknowledge in the clarification that it authorized, or appeared to authorize Kentucky's earlier statement, and that it was wrong to do so. UK should then acknowledge the NCAA's authority to determine the official record and correct its earlier release concerning Calipari's wins, as well as all current and future publications discussing this matter.
The NCAA cannot authorize a statement, then threaten a member university if it proceeds with the statement that they have clearly given the okay for. UK should request the joint correction directly from the NCAA president Mark Emmert, and carbon copy the Committee on Infractions, since the COI are not the ones actually involved in determining the official record except to the extent that they determine the number of games to be vacated in the case of an infraction, and were not the ones who authorized the UK statement.
For the COI to threaten UK in this manner is unacceptable and apparently outside their area of responsibility, and UK should insist on a concomitant acknowledgement by the NCAA of their earlier authorization. If the committee rejects that request, UK should decline the opportunity to appear before the COI. I don't know if the COI has authority to punish UK over this or not, but it is a matter of principle that Kentucky should not allow the NCAA to get away with an error that they themselves created by an apparently mistaken authorization.
Somebody has to stand up to the NCAA when they are wrong. I would be happy if it were Kentucky who did that. The NCAA has a duty to its member universities, including Kentucky, to acknowledge their errors in public before requiring a correction of any communications resulting from an NCAA error. The right hand of the NCAA cannot ignore what its left hand has done.
COI Chairman Dennis Thomas should be told this in no uncertain terms -- if not by Mark Emmert, then by Sandy Bell and the University of Kentucky.
[Update] Eric Crawford apparently missed the part where the NCAA authorized the release.
[Update]: I liked this comment by Matt Norlander:
Suddenly the NCAA is looking like the angry neighborhood kid who's not getting its way and wants to take its ball and go home. Two steps forward, one step back with the NCAA. Same as it ever was. I wish we could vacate this kind of birdbrained behavior.
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It could be the being 'picked on' by the NCAA statement
The NCAA didn’t like the accusation, even though they admit not having the manpower to monitor how schools handle vacations. I mean really…they asked how to handle it, first. The game ball saying he reached 500 was a gift from the university. I don’t think that can be wrong. The university says the media guide will be corrected next year.
I have never thought they were out to get us, but it sounds like that correction is not good enough. This sort of reeks of being ‘picked on’.
Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!
I think of it more like
the parent who has several children who have behaved badly and is clearly stressed out. Upset about major things that some of the children have done, the parent overreacts and lashes out harshly at a child who has done something relatively minor. The COI clearly is not in control of it’s institutions as evidenced by the rash of major violations by high profile universities. So they get outraged over UK honoring Calipari just the same as if a child backtalked to a parent.
The NCAA has bigger fish to fry and I see it as frustration that UK isn’t in the skillet with USC, OSU and others. Once again the NCAA demonstrates selective administration of it’s authority.
The NCAA cannot authorize a statement, then threaten a member university if it proceeds with the statement that they have clearly given the okay for.
There is some precedent in the NCAA for this type of action. Derrick Rose, anyone?
I woke up feeling BLUE this morning. It's gonna be a great day.
Glenn, Wineman, a little help here!
I’ve read the Tipton article carefully and I can’t find where it says the NCAA pre-authorized the release. Was there another press release somewhere that provided this interesting piece of information?
The NCAA told Bell of the complaint on Feb. 4. She alerted DeWayne Peevy, UK’s associate athletics director for media relations on that day.
Kentucky defeated Florida 76-68 on February 26 and the game ball ceremony occurred immediately thereafter.
[You might be interested to know that the University of Kentucky Official Athletic Site (ukathletics.com) article posted that same night about the Florida game and following ceremony had this quote:
“Brandon Knight added 16 points and six assists without turning it over as the Wildcats (20-8, 8-6 Southeastern Conference) won their 33rd straight home game and gave Calipari his 500th career victory.
That number includes 42 wins Calipari-coached teams at Memphis and Massachusetts were required to forfeit by the NCAA for violations during his tenure, though he has never been found at fault for the infractions." – article
Seems a straightforward recognition of the vacates to me.]
Peevy asked the NCAA on March 2 if UK needed to subtract the 42 victories from Calipari’s total or merely note them. The response from Gary Johnson, the NCAA’s head basketball statistics guy was: “You can say he has 1,000 wins if you want. But if you want to agree with what his official record is, then you have to account for those vacates.”
There is this section of Tipton’s article that says:
“According to Thomas’ letter, Peevy again [emphasis mine] checked with the NCAA about whether beating Florida marked Calipari’s 500th victory at 5:52 p.m. the day of the game. Thomas wrote that the timing was “troubling” because it was “just minutes before the Florida game concluded. …”
Which implies someone had checked with the NCAA before the February 26th game but says nothing about any “authorization” from this earlier contact nor what the response might have been to Peevy checking “again” in his 5:52 p.m. email. (In fact, it seems reasonable that Thomas’ complaint about the timing of Peevy’s email might be a response to a UK statement about their efforts to get clarification before the ceremony took place.)
The NCAA first asked UK to explain its handling of Calipari’s record in a letter dated March 15.
Sandy Bell’s letter to Todd describing everything was dated April 5.
Anyway, I can’t tell where the pre-authorization by the NCAA was. I need some help, I’m missing something.
Hey, TW:
Here it is:
Bell wrote Todd on April 5 that the response from Gary Johnson, the person who heads men’s basketball statistics for the NCAA, was: “You can say he has 1,000 wins if you want. But if you want to agree with what his official record is, then you have to account for those vacates.”
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
Also ...
… I didn’t see the UKAthletics.com article. Thanks for pointing that out. It seems to me that UK has the high ground here. I think they should hold it.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
Okay.
I see my original comment was not really responsive to your question. In fact, I misunderstood your point entirely.
According to this story (forget the “updated on” date, look at the date of the first comment, which happens to be Ken Howlett), Tipton quotes Gary Johnson in the article written on or about February 28th. That would lead us to assume that UK checked with Johnson sometime before then.
Tipton’s recent article says:
According to Thomas’ letter, Peevy again checked with the NCAA about whether beating Florida marked Calipari’s 500th victory at 5:52 p.m. the day of the game. Thomas wrote that the timing was “troubling” because it was "just minutes before the Florida game concluded.
Note the “again” before “checked.” that presumably indicates a second contact prior to the game, but it could refer to the March 2nd contact.
Where there is a problem is in the media guide. The media guide for this year indicates that Calipari had 480 wins coming into the year. That cannot be right. What we don’t know is if UK checked with the NCAA before they put that number in there, but if they did, they did not say so. In fact, nowhere in the Calipari section of the media guide does it note that his official win total should be 438, not 480.
The website totals also indicate 480 wins, but notes in his record the following:
Calipari’s on-court career record includes 42 wins (4, UMass ’96; 38, Memphis ’08) later vacated by the NCAA.
That is not noted in the media guide (aka the “factbook”). I would assume that was just an honest omission, but it could have been deliberate. Anyway, it can’t be changed until next year.
But somebody in the NCAA told Peevy it would be okay even if just minutes before the end of the game, or presumably UK would not have gone forward with the ceremony. Also, Johnson’s statement would seem to clear UK of wrongdoing in the factbook and in the ceremony — if it doesn’t matter, according to him, what UK says, then it wouldn’t have mattered when the factbook was published, or even when the ceremony was held.
What we really don’t have is the exact time and date when Johnson told a UK Athletics Department member what is quoted in the article. We don’t know for sure if that was the game day contact, the March 2nd contact, or the implied prior contact. We do have to assume that UK would not go forward without prior authorization, considering it contacted the NCAA before the ceremony, however proximate to the event.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
No problem.
Thank you for pointing out the unusual timeline, which I didn’t bother to check.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
Off topic Glenn, but if you didn't know
Cal posted this last week.
To our friends at Lexy, who today announced they have “ceased operations,” we thank you for the chance to be part of your start-up & for your support of the CFFC. Go Big Blue!
The widget isn’t working now. It may need to go.
Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!
Thanks for that.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
by Glenn Logan on Jun 13, 2011 11:38 AM EDT up reply actions
"A fan of a rival program"
95% chance it was a Louisville fan
3% chance in was a Tennessee fan
2% chance of was a fan of some other program
It's your right and your ability, To become my perfect enemy
Probably right
Some, most likely in that 95%, are celebrating today claiming UK is in trouble. *Sigh…
Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!
Matt Jones
insinuated over at KSR that the “fan of another school” could actually be a reporter.
The update.....
Camby. HOF. Seriously?
Sounds like Eric thought like I thought. So glad we didn’t have a cake too.
Still embracing here, Boss.
Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!
Wait a second
Just so I understand it – there was a five page letter from the COI, including multiple uses of the word “troubling”, regarding the wording of a press release to announce the career number of wins our coach has? A “record” that absolutely no one cares about, least of all high school players. That’s the issue at hand? To quote McEnroe – “You cannot be serious!”
So if UK had made a statement that Calipari rides a purple unicorn to work, would that have merited the death penalty?
Good to see the NCAA has everything else under control, so they can spend time working on this.
Wait just a minute
Are you saying there is no such thing as a pruple unicorn?
APOLOGY, I DEMAND IT
/NCAA’d
It's your right and your ability, To become my perfect enemy
I quoted it under TeamWeaver's comment above.
It was noted in the Tipton article.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
It wasn't a formal authorization, apparently.
UK asked the NCAA if it would be okay to do, and the person in charge of NCAA statistics responded in what clearly looks like the affirmative. UK interpreted it as such. The NCAA, in the reporting I’ve seen, isn’t challenging that response, the COI is simply acting as if it doesn’t exist.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
They like to act like lots of things don't exist, sometimes. '-)
Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!
It would be nice
if they would act like they didn’t exist.
I woke up feeling BLUE this morning. It's gonna be a great day.
Guys, I don't think that was ...
in any way a “clearance from the NCAA to recognize John Calipari’s 500th win earlier this year.” And certainly not a pregame authorization to recognize 500 wins at the ceremony.
The section of Tipton’s article you are using as the smoking “clearance” gun - the exchange of emails between Peevy and Gary Johnson where Peevy asked the NCAA if UK needed to subtract the 42 victories from Calipari’s total or merely note them and Johnson made his “1,000 wins” response – happened on March 2, a week after the game.
Extract from Tipton article:
“Bell later told the NCAA that Peevy asked the NCAA on March 2 [emphasis mine] if UK needed to subtract the 42 victories from Calipari’s total or merely note them.
Bell wrote Todd on April 5 that the response from Gary Johnson, the person who heads men’s basketball statistics for the NCAA, was: “You can say he has 1,000 wins if you want. But if you want to agree with what his official record is, then you have to account for those vacates.”
Bell said UK interpreted that to mean it could recognize 500 or more victories as long as it “accounted” for the vacates." – Full Tipton Article
Given the timing of the Peevy/Johnson email exchange, March 2, I think Peevy was just attempting to draft the update/amendment to the UK Media Guide and wanted to get guidance on acceptable format/verbiage for accounting for the vacates.
I think that section of Bell’s letter to Todd dealt with how the Athletics Department had intended to handle accounting for the vacates vis a vis post the 500 wins recognition ceremony, not as clearance for the ceremony itself.
I actually repied to this point above in your earlier comment.
I misunderstood you the first time.
Also, for the record, the media guide is still not updated on the website, although the website proper does have a disclaimer in the Calipari section. Also note that Peevy contacted the NCAA about the matter on the day of the Florida game. Presumably, they got the okay then.
Bell’s noting of Johnson’s comment was directed to Todd on April 5th, but this article by Tipton clearly suggests it was received sometime before February 28th.
There is also another contact alluded to, but it isn’t clear if that reference is to the March 2 contact or another one prior to the gameday contact.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
turf protection?
Sounds like one part of the NCAA defending its right to be the final arbiter of staatements of record. Someone else may have given you the okay,.. BUT it wasn’t their call, Its MINE, and I say NO!"
Seems like “a lot of tempest in a pot of tea” , ala Ado Annie.
Al (Cat fan in Canada, counting the days ’til tipoff)
Anybody with an IQ above room temperature and a pulse knows that the NCAA's word means nothing.
(e.g. clear Derek Rose – twice – then declare him ineligible). I guess they are now trying to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt.
Slogan for the NCAA: If it ain't broke, break it.
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