NYT: NCAA looking into Eric Bledsoe recruitment

The NCAA and IOC have how-to videos if one needs more help.

 

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/09/records_differed_on_bledsoes_p.html

An update to the Bledsoe story. Apparently the miraculous advanced algebra As on his final transcript don't match the grades reported on the actual grade reports for those classes.

 

Dave Bliss, perhaps?

 

Two things:

1) This story, and the lack of any follow-up from anything else in the original Thamel story, makes it look like Kentucky is in the clear. If the Darrell Arthur case is any indication, the standard is whether Bledsoe or Kentucky "should have or could have known" about the discrepancy. It's going to be hard to prove Kentucky should have known about Bledsoe's night school progress reports, which aren't in any way connected to the college application or admissions process.

2) Again, using the Arthur case, this is likely going away. If Bledsoe had a C average on the progress reports but his grade was changed to an A, that likely wasn't going to affect his standing for college unless the A made up for other bad grades, thus moving his GPA up enough to qualify. Arthur's grades were changed, but the NCAA ruled in his (and Kansas') favor using two criteria: A) that he didn't know about it, and B) that it made no difference in his eligibility. On the surface, this looks to be a pretty similar case.

The Birmingham schools report is due next week, I believe. I guess that's when we find out if the NCAA has to do any investigating.

 

I'm probably gonna get killed for this post, but it's been on my mind for a while, so here goes:

* Kudos to Ford, the HS coach. As others have noted in this thread, big-time basketball players have had luxury items -- cars and women and God-knows-what-else -- purchased for them for as long as most of us can remember. Even if Ford paid Bledsoe's rent specifically to get a star player on his team, I say that is mitigated by the fact that he was helping a homeless kid and his mother get off the streets. I don't care about his motives. I'd do the same thing for the homeless kids my wife teaches if I could afford it, rules be damned.

* Kudos to whoever tweaked Bledsoe's grades to get him eligible to play college basketball. At some point it must have become painfully obvious that the only way this kid would have a chance to make a better life for himself (and his mother) was by making it to the NBA. Considering his background, Bledsoe most likely wasn't going to be a Rhodes Scholar, but with the current system in place, his only real option for maximizing his exposure to NBA scouts was to play at least one year for a high-profile college program. Who would it have helped for Bledsoe to be declared ineligible? How do you protect the integrity of a system that has none, considering the vast numbers of big-time football and basketball players who are admitted to college with inferior academic records every year?

Kudos to Calipari for signing Bledsoe and putting him in a system where he could shine alongside other gifted young players. Whatever you think of his ethics, Calipari is a realist and he knows how to work the margins. Along the way, he's helped a bunch of kids who were never going to become serious students land multimillion-dollar NBA contracts. IF MANAGED PROPERLY, this money can change these kids' lives for the better.

In closing, I will acknowledge the many sad stories of kids who chased NBA millions only to be injured or undrafted. But for a lot of kids, it's the only chance they've got. And until the NBA and NCAA get together (not holding my breath) to form a real (not NBDL) minor-league basketball system, they need to get into college one way or another.

 

Outing alert! hokie pokie is Leann Tuohy ...

 

Well, that's one way to look at it, Hokie.

 

You might be the only person to say kudos to Maurice Ford. Ever. And for good reason.
He didn't pay rent to help out a needy student, he did it to make sure an athlete played for him. Kudos would have been paying for him and Bledsoe playing for the school he should have in the first place.
Bledsoe had the grades to play college basketball, he didn't have the grades to play at an SEC school. He would have been a Juco player, then gone to a bigger school. He was helped in the hopes Bledsoe would make it big and pay him back -- whoever him was and I have a pretty good idea.
Birmingham City Schools are a joke.

 

I'll save my kudos for Ford when he opens up his wallet for a homeless kid who can't play sports. In the meantime, he's a self-serving opportunist and Calipari is a cheater who is doing the same thing at Kentucky he did at UMass and Memphis.

 

I don't know if Calipari is a cheater so much as very good at ignoring the negative.

If Cal were a cop, I picture him standing on a street corner blowing on his coffee too cool it and nodding politely to a couple of masked guys struggling to carry a safe out of a jewelry store.

How was he supposed to know anything shady was going on?

 

Sorry, they have chances. It's called going to school and studying. I'll give you that inner-city schools don't have the same resources as suburban schools. But at the same time, there's personal responsiblity involved. It's called sitting in your apartment with some school books while your buddies are hanging out on street corners.

 

Where are you getting that Bledsoe was "homeless"? As I understand, Bledsoe changed residences from one school district to another before his senior year (with the new coach apparently paying the rent on the new pad), I've not read anything about homelessness being part of the equation. Do you have a link to back up that claim?

Either way, we all know what motivated Ford to pay his rent, and it had nothing to do with concern for the impoverished.

Seriously? I know college athletics is a cesspool, but have we really reached the point where we're giving "kudos" to blatant academic fraud?

You act like he never would've been able to play basketball again without the grade fixing. Is there some reason why he couldn't have played junior college ball like nearly every other prospect in his academic circumstances? Plenty of former jucos have had tremendous NBA careers.

The way to deal with the Eric Bledsoes is to provide avenues for these kids to pursue their basketball dreams without going through the farce of pretending they're real college students (getting rid of the one and done rule would be a nice start). But it is not to legitimize academic fraud.