In the Best Interest of Student-Athletes

Ike Diogu plays for the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA, but when I knew him he was a 17-year-old kid trying to figure out where to go to college.

Each night I would call his house because it was my job as the guy who covered the UConn men’s basketball team for the Hartford Courant. I would ask him where he was going to college. The conversation would go something like this:

“Hi Ike, this is Matt Eagan.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Just wondering if you reached a decision yet?”

“No, sir.”

“Do you know when you might reach a decision?”

“You can try back tomorrow, sir.”

Then the whole thing would repeat itself the next night. I wasn’t the only one calling his house. Nearly every newspaper in Connecticut was calling, the same with the papers in Arizona and the Internet sites and the college coaches. They were all calling.

Ike could have learned something from Brandon Bass, who plays for the Orlando Magic, but years ago was part of a lively recruiting battle between Louisiana State and UConn. Bass would have his sister answer the phone. His sister, judging by her voice, was probably four or five years old. The call would go like this:

“Is Brandon there?”

“He’s not here.”

“Do you know when he’ll be back?”

A long pause.

“Brandon, do you know when you’ll be back?”

Another pause.

“He’s not here.”

How do you argue with that?

So, yes, for a long time I was part of the machine that turned the most magical year of many people’s young lives into a nightmarish fog of phone calls, questions and pressure.

I’m much better now. Unfortunately, the machine rolls on.

Earlier this week, the . The details of the case against Calhoun and the University of Connecticut were first reported by Yahoo, which did a six-month investigation into the recruiting of a once upon a phenom named Nate Miles. The NCAA, through its diligent reading of the Internet, then decided it was time to act and act they did, leaving us with a decision so muddled it’s impossible to garner any lessons from it at all.

There is no doubt that UConn’s behavior in the Miles case was outside the boundaries of the NCAA’s regulations. How far outside is a matter of interpretation, but the lack of a post-season ban is telling.

What nobody is asking is why NCAA regulations, all 431 pages of them, are more focused on making sure schools don't cheat one another than making sure schools don't cheat the kids they are recruiting. After all, no harm befell Nate Miles during the recruiting process. Even if all of the allegations leveled at UConn are true, the worst thing that happened to Miles is he got free surgery on his foot and a few free meals.

This is not an apology for UConn or Calhoun. The governing body says they broke the rules and must pay the penalty and so they will.

Wouldn't be nice, though, if the NCAA rulebook did as much to protect the interests of the student-athletes as it did making sure they didn't receive “extra benefits” such as a ride across campus from a coach?

Wouldn't it be nice if they did as much to stop schools from offering more scholarships than they have? Wouldn't it be nice if parents in Ellington or Manchester or Enfield were secure in the knowledge that the scholarship agreement their son or daughter signed was binding beyond a single year?

And wouldn't be nice if the Ike Diogu's of the world didn't have to spend every night of their senior year talking to idiots like me on the phone? The NCAA bans coaches from talking about recruits to the media. Why? Let the coaches talk. Let them say, “Yeah, we really want this kid.” Let them say, “Yeah, I talked to him last night and he says he's down to three schools.”

Sportswriters are like most folks, which is to say they don't want to do any more work than they have to. If writers can get information on a recruit from the coach to use in a story then that's what they're going to do.

After all, it beats trying to coax information out of an intractable little sister.