Re: What is the definition of a blue blood program?
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:42 am
Great stuff, Billy Jack. To add to your comments on the Dons . . .
Not only did the sexual assault so offend the Jesuits as to self impose the death penalty, but Father LoSchiavo, the university's president, also acknowledged that boosters were out of control despite prior attempts to rein them in, and were in some ways running the program. We know that exactly the same situation with big money boosters existed at UCLA under St. John Wooden as well as at many other big time programs in that era, but no one took the steps to even acknowledge the wrong doing, much less suspend the program.
That's what happens in a University that teaches values and then holds itself to the same standards that it teaches its students. Compare that with the standards of a place like Kentucky where the standard is, "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'."
This same positive adherence to an ethical model could be seen at Catholic schools from the Big East. The decline of programs like St John's and Seton Hall in the 1960's was directly tied to the point shaving scandals of the '50's and '60's. St John's built its on campus arena and pulled its games from The Garden specifically for the purpose of getting its student-athletes away from the gamblers who infested that arena in those days. We can see the rise of basketball in the South coincidentally occur at precisely that same time. The corrupting influence of big money in college sports didn't seem to be a problem for them.
Not only did the sexual assault so offend the Jesuits as to self impose the death penalty, but Father LoSchiavo, the university's president, also acknowledged that boosters were out of control despite prior attempts to rein them in, and were in some ways running the program. We know that exactly the same situation with big money boosters existed at UCLA under St. John Wooden as well as at many other big time programs in that era, but no one took the steps to even acknowledge the wrong doing, much less suspend the program.
That's what happens in a University that teaches values and then holds itself to the same standards that it teaches its students. Compare that with the standards of a place like Kentucky where the standard is, "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'."
This same positive adherence to an ethical model could be seen at Catholic schools from the Big East. The decline of programs like St John's and Seton Hall in the 1960's was directly tied to the point shaving scandals of the '50's and '60's. St John's built its on campus arena and pulled its games from The Garden specifically for the purpose of getting its student-athletes away from the gamblers who infested that arena in those days. We can see the rise of basketball in the South coincidentally occur at precisely that same time. The corrupting influence of big money in college sports didn't seem to be a problem for them.