Crud. I wanted to focus on basketball today and for a little while. That went out the window with the SI/CBS News freakout piece on Criminal Records in College Football. I still would have ignored it as being yet another piece without a lot of context, but plenty of scary numbers and implied accusations.
But there’s a problem. Pitt got to be the poster-boy for this.
Few football programs had a more difficult season in 2010 than the University of Pittsburgh. Led by running back Dion Lewis, a Doak Walker candidate, the Panthers were the preseason pick to win the Big East and go to a BCS bowl. But things quickly began unraveling — on and off the field.
In a span between mid-July and late September, four players were arrested for four separate, violent crimes.
…
Before this rash of arrests, Pitt had no procedure for screening football recruits for past trouble with the law. But after Knox’s arrest Pitt’s athletic department implemented a new policy requiring coaches to seek more detailed background information on potential recruits.
“This evaluation is not a legal criminal background check,” the school said in a statement. “Rather, it is a checklist of questions that attempts to gain greater knowledge of the behavior and citizenship of an individual prospect from a variety of people.”
It’s a good first step, but doesn’t go far enough. An unprecedented six-month investigation by Sports Illustrated and CBS News found that Pittsburgh had more players in trouble with the law (22) than any other school among SI’s 2010 preseason Top 25. The joint investigation involved conducting criminal background checks on every player — 2,837 in all — on the preseason rosters of those 25 teams. Players’ names, dates of birth and other vital information were checked at 31 courthouses and through 25 law enforcement agencies in 17 states. Players were also checked through one or more online databases that track criminal records. In all, 7,030 individual record checks were performed.
Pitt chancellor Mark Nordenberg and athletic director Steve Pederson declined requests for comment, but the school issued another statement, which said, “We have publicly acknowledged the unacceptable number of off-the-field incidents involving members of our football program during the past season. We have addressed these with the appropriate sanctions and spoke out against such behavior.”
And if you believe the undercurrents of rumors/message boards with the subtext of AD Pederson’s comments after Wannstedt’s firing, then you know part of the way it was addressed.
There’s no getting around Pitt taking a hideous beating this past year plus for off-the-field actions. The Elijah Fields stuff, Sheard, Knox, Douglas. Stuff from the previous year. I’m not defending it. It was a bad scene. There was never a sense that this was an outlaw program, but the incidents added up to look bad.
As an alumni of Pitt, all I can say is, “yeah, it was a bad year.”
One other thing, this is not some bias against Pitt. It’s just the bad luck of Pitt being the team in 2010 with the most bad shit happening. So, please, if you want to travel down that rabbit hole, don’t do it here.
The problem is with the broader numbers to indict college football.
The results of the investigation include some striking revelations. Among them:
• Seven percent of the players in the preseason Top 25 — 204 in all (1 of every 14) — had been charged with or cited for a crime, including dozens of players with multiple arrests.
• Of the 277 incidents uncovered, nearly 40 percent involved serious offenses, including 56 violent crimes such as assault and battery (25 cases), domestic violence (6), aggravated assault (4), robbery (4) and sex offenses (3). In addition there were 41 charges for property crimes, including burglary and theft and larceny.
• There were more than 105 drug and alcohol offenses, including DUI, drug possession and intent to distribute cocaine.
• Race was not a major factor. In the overall sample, 48 percent of the players were black and 44.5 percent were white. Sixty percent of the players with a criminal history were black and 38 percent were white.
• In cases in which the outcome was known, players were guilty or paid some penalty in nearly 60 percent of the 277 total incidents.
Players who would have been on last year’s rosters but had been charged and expelled from their teams before Sept. 1 — and there were dozens — were not counted in our sample. Nor did SI and CBS News have access to juvenile arrest records for roughly 80 percent of the players in the study.
“[It is] a set of facts that obviously should concern all of us,” said new NCAA president Mark Emmert, when presented with these findings. “Seven percent, that’s way too high. I think two percent is too high. You certainly don’t want a large number of people with criminal backgrounds involved in activities that represent the NCAA.”
Then Mark Emmert might be concerned to know this (H/T to @EDSBS):
According to a nationwide survey conducted by MyBackgroundCheck.com, a leading supplier of criminal background checks for students and faculty members, approximately one out of every 29 college students has some type of previous criminal record.
The study was conducted among 13,859 students in 125 universities, career colleges, nursing schools and other educational institutions across the country.
The study only included criminal convictions and excluded arrest information that did not have a disposition. It excluded any charges that were dismissed by prosecutors and juvenile records, which are not accessible to the public.
The percentages of certain convictions uncovered in the study included: child molestation, 2.4 percent; sexual abuse, 5.2 percent; assault, 4 percent; drug possession, 7.4 percent; theft, 8.8 percent; fraud, 2.7 percent; driving violations, 60 percent; and disorderly conduct, 9.5 percent.
[Emphasis added.]
1 in 29 college students with an actual criminal record. 1 in 14 college football players having been cited or charged with a crime. Hmmm.
You will excuse me if I don’t exactly freak out over the criminal element of college football.
Let’s continue a little further.
The number of players with criminal histories turned up by the SI/CBS News investigation reinforces a pervasive assumption that college coaches are willing to recruit players with questionable pasts to win. More surprising, however, is just how little digging college coaches do into players’ backgrounds before offering them a scholarship.
Among the 25 schools in the investigation, only two — TCU and Oklahoma — perform any type of regular criminal background searches on recruits. But even TCU and Oklahoma don’t look at juvenile records. No school does, even though football and basketball players are among the most high-profile representatives of a university. (Of the 25 schools, only Virginia Tech did any type of background checks on admitted students, and admissions questionnaires at more than half the other universities ask applicants if they have ever been arrested.)
The article then points out that in Florida, you can pay a small fee to get full criminal history of a person including “many” juvenile arrests. That is the exception. Most states — as the other study I just referenced points out: Juvenile records are not accessible by the public. For a good reason. Juvenile records are sealed with the idea that a juvenile can make a mistake, but have the opportunity to change. To improve their life and not have early mistakes cost them their future.
At best that is careless omission. At worst, a purposeful mischaracterization to make football programs coaches look even more amoral and uncaring about the players beyond their talent.
(Sorry to get so excised about that aspect, but my wife is a juvenile court magistrate, and I know she’ll get really pissed about that kind of characterization.)
For more, here’s a quick dissection of some more problems with this story from Spencer at EDSBS.
Are football players MORE likely to be charged when there is flimsy evidence (jealousy or vindictiveness)? Or perhaps more likely to resolve cases favorably because they have access to funds to pay for damages in exchange for dismissals, than say your average drunk college kid?
… and then blast him! (Checking my calendar to see when ‘Douchebag’ season opens….)
Minor, will be forgotten about in a week, at least by me. Player trouble at Pitt, old news.
That would be much worse, millions of subscriber, on the cover. Even then though, in this day and age, of need it now, what’s blowing up today, who killed who tomorrow, not a big deal.
Even if the cover, will be gone when the next cover comes out. I guess I don’t think it’s a big deal, because we all allready knew these things happened.
Doesn’t phase me a bit, waiting for Todd Graham and the spring game. I’m not apathetic, I’ve allready made my comments Sept-Dec on this situation.
As a proud alum, I’m available pro bono. Just give me a call.
Get your head out of the sand.
And stating Wannstedt was fired without due process? Holy Hell! I got news for you – Dave Wannstedt knew the minute he chose to play Jabaal Sheard in the Utah game that he was playing with fire from the PITT administration’s side. BTW – Pederson didn’t fire Dave Wannstedt by himself – he was just the public face of the action. DW burnt his bridges with the top of the PITT heap way before the WVU game.
It isn’t the AD’s job to communicate every single thing to the fans – what in the world did you want him to say to you?
Sooner or later PITT fans are going to have to stop putting the blame for everything that happens on Pederson – give credit and blame where it’s due… Dave Wannstedt created his own downfall and was fired for it. No one else is to blame in this but the Head Coach who was the supposed leader and decision maker in the football program.
And very typical of today’s biased, lying media who can distort and twist facts, use time lines that suit the story and create their own illusions to suit their desired end results.
Oh and Pitt doesn’t own the newspapers like some of these universities do in these college towns where some of these incidents involving student athletes……just disappear. How about that !
Would you want your son or daughter attending such a crime-ridden institution?
A Tylenol-type response is needed immediately.
We wouldn’t want to offend the major power brokers in the NCAA would we.
SI could have used their End of the Season Top 25 poll, just as easy as their Pre-Season Top 25 poll.
If the former is used, Pitt would have been totally omitted from this hit piece.
So ask yourself why did SI choose their Pre-Season Top 25 poll rather than their End of the Season Top 25 poll.
– prior to this year, there was never a big problem with the players on his team
– I believer there were only 2 seniors in the past few years that didn’t graduate
– and if Pitt pulls close games out this year at Utah and UConn (and wins BE outright), this discipline issue would be deemed as an aberration
I do beieve that it is clear that Wanny (and his staff) was too much of a player’s coach and much too lenient, and the player’s conduct both on and off the field reflected this … remember all the penalties this past year which NEVER was a problem in previous seasons but in fact was always a strong point of his teams.
In the end, he is back in the NFL where he probably belongs and I’m looking forward to see what a REAL college coach can do here … although I do admit to being real concerned about our defense.
Not saying that Pitt (and all schools) can’t do better, just saying lets see all the facts in a fair light.
The idealist in me would love it if football recruiting was limited to kids who could meet the same admission requirements as the rest of the incoming student population and who have squeaky clean criminal records.
The pragmatist in me knows this is never going to happen.
It’s unfortunate that Pitt heads the list but nearly every one of the kids recruited by Pitt would have received a scholarship somewhere else had they not landed at Pitt. And they bring their criminal records with them.
I’m reminded of the SI article about Aliquippa and the athletes who used sports as their means of escape from depression, drugs, crime and gang violence that prevails there. And in so many other communities around the country.
I think most college coaches believe themselves to be good judges of character, and most see some virtue in giving a chance to a kid who’s had it rough.
And how many athletes who have criminal records of one kind or another coming into school sieze the opportunity and turn themselves around? The article didn’t address that either.
With Graham coming on board there’s an ideal opportunity to use this story to get a fresh message to the players. Citizenship counts. I heard TG say it in a radio interview this afternoon. We’ll see in September how well he can deliver.
As the ancient philospher said, “and this too shall pass..”
Timing could have been better…
Look, I think Pederson is an incompetent buffoon for a thousand different reasons. As much as I’d like to throw him under the bus on this, I can’t put it all on his shoulders. He’s implicated, and holds some accountability, but it’s not ALL on him. I’ve always thought that, as far as football recruits go, there’s lots of talent. It’s easy to find kids with speed, or size, or good hands, or whatever. They’re out there. What’s hard is finding the kids with the complete package – brains, attitude, and other intangibles that, kind of like art, you know it when you see it. Texas gets the kid that has all of those things; we get the kid that has some of them. Not to say that some of our athletes don’t pan out brilliantly; we’ve had some shining stars come through this program in recent years. Still, we’ve had our disappointments as well, and I always try to remind myself when I get frustrated that we just don’t usually have the overall quality of athlete (either talent or character) that I’d like us to have, and that the big guys have their issues off the field as well. Unmentioned in this is that, at this point, we don’t cheat. Maybe I’m whistling past the graveyard, but even though clearly we’ve recruited some moronic thugs, we didn’t do anything illegal to bring them here….
… right?
In a way, if this was going to happen, it couldn’t have happened at a better time. If Wanny was still here (as others have alluded) next season would be a complete debacle. As it stands, it’s a complete reboot. Yeah, we’ll suffer through some bad press, but once again we’re fortunate enough to be able to worship at the alter of Jamie Dixon and hope that he delivers us from purgatory once again. Without his influence, this would be worse than it is.
The guy I feel for right now is Graham. I wonder how much he knew about this coming in. Hell of a way to kick off a new program. Not only do you have to rebuild a program, but now there’s reputation work to be done as well. Especially since, technically, the last coach beat up his baby mama.
Ugh.
You rewrite rules as you talk to yourself. Good luck with that.
“Sooner or later PITT fans are going to have to stop putting the blame for everything that happens on Pederson – give credit and blame where it’s due… Dave Wannstedt created his own downfall and was fired for it. No one else is to blame in this but the Head Coach who was the supposed leader and decision maker in the football program.”
Pederson is the AD. At ANY time he could have stepped in and imposed discipline if he thought Wanny wasn’t doing the job. He buried his head in the sand. If Wanny wins the Big East, this wouldn’t have been a problem and Wanny would still be the coach.
Why is Pederson still here and taking a paycheck from Pitt? He should have been gone after the Haywood Debacle. IF the reason you fired Wanny was because of all of the arrest, then Pederson shares the blame. He could have done something but he had his head up his a$$ as usual.
Sever ties with him now.
Again – putting the blame on anyone but whose job it was to ensure that the FOOTBALL program was run properly – Dave Wannstedt – is just deflecting the blame.
And firestevenow – the last thing in the world the PITT AD or Administration would do would be to usurp the Head Coach’s authority in a public manner – all hell would have broken loose and DW would have lost every single shred of whatever influence he had left over his players. And you and every other fan would have been clutching your chest and wailing because he did it. Instead the Administration did exactly what they should have done – factored it in to their decision making when it came time to fire Wannstedt.
“The officers said (Diaz) ignored a friend who told him former coach Dave Wannstedt wasn’t there anymore and Graham was going to make an example of him.
”
Read more: Police use Taser on ex-Pitt football player in confrontation – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review link to pittsburghlive.com
I’ve always thought, for example, that Enron and Worldcom happened mainly because their book-cooking happened so far away from where the regulators live.
However, the PG story from 3/2, that has SP’s fingerprints on it, what with the quote of how Wanny would have handled it – how often do you see quotes in these types of write-ups?
Lesson learnt – don’t make your judgement until you know the FULL story! (but isn’t that what blogs are for)
Reed, He wouldn’t have had to taken action in a “public manor.” A statement from the football team that player x was disciplined wouldn’t have to have had Pederson’s fingerprints on it.
To say that he doesn’t share blame is disingenuous. If you are going to blame Wanny for the problem, them stevie shares some of the blame too and needs to pay the price. The AD is the boss and if something’s not right, he has a obligation to do something. Like I said, had Wanny won the BE, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
Kids are kids, these ones in particular are fools to say the least. Whether it’s bad luck or they were not vetted properly (or at all)is anyone’s guess. The administration continues to be in clean-up mode for the football program.
My opinion, anyone involved with any serious charges of ANY kind, athlete or not, should be expelled from the school. Heck, look at BYU dismissing a player for violating conduct & having sex. Whether or not you agree with the rule, I have to respect the testicular fortitude of the school to kick him off the team despite the impact athletically (and monetarily) the decision has. We live in a society where no one takes blame. For me, it’s refreshing to see accountability for actions.
After conference hoops tourneys start next week, the NCAAFB page on any media website will go unvisited until August.
Having said that, that is an absolutely awesomely embarrassing photo of Wannstedt under the gigantic “CRIME AND PUNISHMENT” headline on the CNNSI website NCAAFB page: link to sportsillustrated.cnn.com
