On the back of one of the most turbulent weeks traversed by University athletics in recent memory, LSU football coach Les Miles received new performance bonuses while his overlord and athletic director Joe Alleva got an outright pay increase.
I understand these perks were previously negotiated and perhaps the Tigers’ on-field performance may merit such increases as contractually designed, but it begs the question: Would athletic programs be more tranquil if coaches had a little more skin exposed to players’ sin?
With the upheaval surrounding Ohio State and the abortion of any respect Miami has built, it has been a stomach-turning offseason for what many myopically see as the paragon of amateur sports.
Now senior quarterback Jordan Jefferson’s alleged kick has been followed by junior receiver Russell Shepard’s slap to LSU’s unfortunately placed public face.
In past months, the talking head atop the NCAA ladder, Mark Emmert, a former LSU chancellor no less, has called for stiffer policing of institutions to protect the sanctity of their product.
So while Emmert is addressing technical violations of Shepard’s variety, why shouldn’t coaches have some liability when any team rules are recklessly ignored, as curfew was the night of our local football celebrities’ shady activities?
In an ideal world, players would police themselves, and we wouldn’t have the ongoing embarrassments the football team provides.
But this doesn’t happen.
So who could better police players than their campus lords?
Cool Hand Les and company have skated through the past
week with only mild public discomfort, as has been the case through a number of public embarrassments in my time at the University.
What concerns me about how these situations play out is that there is little or no liability imposed by the NCAA or the University on those who receive absurd largess to recruit, organize and implement the program that is, whether you like it or not, the public face of the University.
Chancellor Michael Martin indicated last week that he would like to see Miles afforded more staff for such off-field issues.
This is certainly a start and indicates there is some administrative culpability when things go horribly wrong.
But I reason the University would see far fewer slip-ups and felony charges if Miles and his lieutenants faced the prospect of missing a game or two when their authority is recklessly disregarded.
Perhaps the prospect of “in-house punishment” would be a little more persuasive to players considering breaking team rules if coaches had more monetary or professional motivation to see they do not embarrass the rest of us.
Implementing such a scheme would not be easy and would require much discretion from those outranking Miles in the University’s athletic administration.
But anything could motivate enforcers more than the one platitude followed by deafening silence from Alleva and the top floors of the athletic administration building. There will be those who say players are only kids and can’t be treated any differently than your average student, but given the status of athletics here, they are wrong.
Though it’s a recruiting and financial engine for many aspects of the school, it’s not ideal that the University’s reputation, in many ways, hinges on a sports program.
But the unfortunate fact is that people know more about the University’s trophies than its mass spectrometers.
Players won the genetic lottery for athleticism, which also comes with a free education, campus celebrity status and perks the brightest kids on campus will never see. Simply, they are representatives of the University by virtue of their status as football players.
The academic side of the University is keenly aware of this leading them to pathetically respond to last week’s bad public relations with a “While you weren’t looking: what happened at LSU away from the cameras” blitz to remind everyone that the University is a school, not a football team.
So while you can’t expect coaches to recruit nuns and brood over players at all hours, there should be some liability when their own rules are not being properly enforced.
 
Xerxes Wilson is a 22-year-old mass communications major from Lucedale, Miss. Follow him on Twitter @ber_xerxes.
 
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Contact Xerxes Wilson at [email protected]