Miami Hurricanes Head Coach Mark Richt discussed his thoughts on the college basketball recruiting scandal on Wednesday. Tuesday morning the FBI and US Attorney’s office had a joint press conference to announce the allegations.
The Miami Hurricanes were never implicated directly. There was a very thinly veiled reference that made it clear the Hurricanes were involved on some level. The indictments mentioned a school seven that has 16,000 students and is private in Florida. The school offers 15 varsity sports that include basketball.
Mark Richt was asked to comment on the scandal after practice. He was asked to comment on how it affects the perception of college sports, if college football and basketball needs to be cleaned up and that the scandal is a reminder for everyone to be cognizant of the rules.
Susan Miller Degnan of the Miami Herald quoted Richt’s thoughts.
He was initially asked how the scandal will reflect on the perception of college sports.
"How do you think it reflects on the college and the perception of college sports?Richt: “It’s FBI? Who was it? I’m sure they know what they’re talking about. I doubt they’re making up stories, so the bottom line is, if people aren’t behaving like they should – whether it’s players, whether it’s coaches, whether it’s business people, or whatever it is – then there needs to be consequences.“If everybody makes good decisions to discipline things the way they should be and there are consequences for what happened, then things can get cleaned up rather quickly I think.’’"
Richt seems to be the perfect coach for the Miami Hurricanes football program. He did not have any allegations during his 15 years at Georgia. While many coaches throughout college athletics seem seedy and unethical, Richt has never faced allegations or probation as a college Head Coach.
Many have claimed this could be the wake-up call that cleans up college athletics. That’s difficult to say. The NCAA was formed because Teddy Roosevelt told colleges to clean up the violence in football or he would order it to be shut down.
College Basketball scandals go back to at least the late 1940s and early 1950s point-shaving scandals. It seems that there will always be someone who wants to skirt the rules to try and get ahead. Richt was asked about the need to clean the sport up.
"Do you think that the basketball, football, whatever it is, the college game itself, do you think that needs to be cleaned up?Richt: “I’m sure it’s program by program. I don’t think every basketball program is doing things they shouldn’t do and I don’t think every football program is doing that. I think there are a lot more doing things right than doing wrong. You just read about these.’’"
Richt was finally asked about the importance of everyone being aware of the rules.
"Is that kind of a reminder, though, even if everybody is doing things that they think is right, is it a reminder to be cognizant of rules?Richt: “For me personally, I say no, because that’s all we care about is doing it right. Do we ever mess up? We mess up. So, yes, should we be even more sharp in our rules and all that kind of thing? Yes. More heightened awareness? Yes. But we hope and we think we have a heightened awareness all the time. You just never know.’’"
The heightened awareness Richt is speaking of needs to be prevalent at Miami. The Hurricanes three-year probation from the Nevin Shapiro scandal ended in October 2016. Richt dismissed the three leading returning tacklers from the 2015 team in the summer of 2016 because of a rental car scandal.
Next: University of Miami President Releases Statement in FBI Recruiting Scandal
The Hurricanes have had a prevalence of scandals over the last 25 years. Most of that has involved the football program. The entire athletic department needs to be careful. The dreaded lack of institutional control will always have a cloud over the Miami Hurricanes Athletic program.