The Slippery Slope Around Southern Cal’s (Initial) Propagation Of Baxter’s Lies

So Blue Me's post on Dillon Baxter's fabricated allegations against five other schools right when the Trogans were getting pounded in the national media about the NCAA hammer, has generated some interesting reaction. The By Law Blog, described as "the unofficial blog of the NCAA compliance," asserts Baxter's "fib" (kind of a cute word that minimizes serious accusations against major D-1 programs that was blown up nationally for a 48 hour period) is "likely (on technical terms) not a violation."

While we respect the strict technical reading of the NCAA bylaws by the "compliance guy" on BLB, there seems to be a number of problems with his reading and analysis that leads to his final conclusion. Before we even get to that, we should also make it clear that while we think NCAA needs to look a close and hard look at this, the responsibility here is also on Larry Scott of the Pac-10, as his office was dragged into this web of lies via the much publicized letter blaring Baxter's fabrications that Trogans pushed all over the national media. We expect Scott to take similar decisive actions as Mike Slive took as the Commissioner of the SEC, when he dealt with Hello Kiffin's first round of smearing of Urban Meyer.

Now going back to how NCAA fits in this equation, let's look at the NCAA bylaw brought up by Blue Me (emphasis added throughout):

NCAA Bylaw 10.1, which addresses "unethical conduct" and includes "Knowingly furnishing the NCAA or the individual's institution false or misleading information concerning the individual's involvement in or knowledge of matters relevant to a possible violation of an NCAA regulation."

Note the emphasis on the second part. True in this case Dilon Baxter is not part of an NCAA investigation. However, the provision comes into play when Southern Cal's administrative officials (including its "beefed up" "compliance office") used his allegations file essentially a letter of complaint with the Pac-10, and then blast it around the national media. We don't find BLB's minimization of this lying stunt very convincing:

Just like I have no idea why Baxter made the claim in the first place, I have no idea what prompted USC to send this allegation up the ladder to the Pac-10 without more hard prove. But my guess is not that it was blind faith in the words of an 18 or 19 year-old. Rather, it was most likely a decision to first make sure that if something was occurring it stops, and to sort out what actually happened second.

If we are reading that right, the author is saying that it's okay to make a false accusation because some violation might be occurring, drag other major programs into it in a national manner, and then attempt to humiliate them in the national media, just because you want the said unsubstantiated violation (which would be rather easy to investigate internally) to stop. Then if it turns out that the accusation is false and there never was a violation, oh well, that's just part of the sorting out process.

That is an extremely dangerous, slippery slope argument and opens up a Pandora's box. By that reasoning it would be perfectly OK for highly coveted University of Florida recruits such as Ronald Powell (from Moreno Valley, CA) to claim that Trojan boosters/agents connected to Southern Cal coaches were offering his parents free housing in Orange County and a fancy European Vacation, even after he had committed to Florida, and then for Florida officials to promptly fire off letters to the SEC and to their beat reporters about Trojan tampering with their recruits.  Surely, NCAA would not want to create that kind of situation  with such casual interpretation of their bylaws. There are also other issues here.

BLB also didn't see "any damage" inflicted in this situation unlike the one involving Dez Bryant:

Even in the world of the NCAA bylaws, which seek to show there's a competitive advantage in even the slightest deviation from the rules, it's hard to see what the damage is here. In Dez Bryant's case, the damage is clear: a student-athlete with questionable eligibility continues to practice and compete. Sure, the character of the other schools and coaches was wrongfully attacked, but an apology was made and USC has come off looking worse than anyone at the end of this episode.

Well let's lay out the damage beyond the slippery slope scenario detailed above. Trojans pushed this story hard (and boy they pushed it by blasting that letter out to ESPN and all other trad. med outlets) right when the sanction news was exploding inflicting severe damage on their program. This was a classic case of "damage control" on their part through distraction tactic.

They went on the words of an 18 year old and drag the names of 5 other schools through mud. It is naive to assume there was no damage done, given the names of those 5 schools ran on ESPN's sport ticker for 48 hours (based on what appears to be totally fabricated charges). It was pretty clear to many of us (not just us) that the letter was sent and pushed around as a way of distracting from the ongoing mess in Southern Cal. Those accusations were meant to smear the names of coaches like Urban Meyer and Nick Saban (programs the current Trojan head coach has had a "history" dating back to his days in Knoxville).  That kind of stunt had the impact on potentially imposing tangible damages on the reputation of those schools.

Moreover, it is really naive to assume that the whole web of lies was just concocted by Dillon Baxter. Even friendly Trojan beat writer in the OC Register is pointing to the possibility that "someone - perhaps a member of the USC coaching staff - told Baxter to make up the story." Scott Frost from UW Dawg Pound  (Husky fans are interested in this b/c Washington was one of the schools smeared by Southern Cal in this mess) also brought up a very interesting angle. He speculated (building on the OC Register piece) that the idea that McNair would be involved in this is not too crazy given McNair at the time was Dillon Baxter's coach as he was the RB coach at Southern Cal. If that was the case then:

I forgot to mention that McNair was the running backs coach and Baxter is clearly a running back. The more I think about it, the more plausible this angle seems. If McNair was behind this and USC knows that and is hiding the fact, that’s an NCAA violation — while they’re on probation. Good luck having those sanctions reduced! They may even increase them!

Well the NCAA cannot increase sanctions at this point. That is out of the question. However, the McNair angle is worth exploring in addition finding out who handled Baxter's nonsense at the time. So uh yeah, the NCAA officials wouldn't be prudent if they were just to casually dismiss this as some kind of "fib." They ought to closely examine the details around this latest scandal as noted by Blue Me in response to BLB:

Then they should launch an investigation

Interview Baxter and the compliance official separately. Allow Baxter to clear the air and tell them what happened, and what he told his compliance official and/or coaches. Any inconsistencies will show that someone is clearly lying. They already know what the compliance official reported to the Pac 10.

A couple of 10 minute interviews and a quick check of phone records and this thing comes into complete focus. Easy.

If the NCAA is too busy to look into this, then I guess this type of unethical behavior from one of its student athletes and/or institutions is deemed status quo.

A status quo that would devolve into a dangerous slippery slope of lies and innuendos, in which NCAA institutions will be able to get away with hurling dangerous and reckless accusations against each other, by dismissing it as harmless "fib" from 18 year old "student athletes."  That is the kind of scenario that will continue the efforts of rogue institutions like Southern Cal, which has proven to be cavalier when it comes to respecting the integrity of the game. We doubt that is what the NCAA had in mind when they were drafting its bylaws.  

So, if the NCAA and of course the Pac-10 is interested in preserving the integrity of the game, they should be launching an investigation into this mess (as Blue Me pointed out above, it shouldn't be that difficult).

GO BRUINS.