COLLEGE FOOTBALL: THE BOWL GAMES : Commentary : Football Gives Oklahoma Black Eye

This is a proposal for the governor of Oklahoma, the honorable Henry Bellmon. Roll up your sleeves, take a broom from the maintenance shed and, in one quick motion, sweep out the entire administration of the state university ... specifically the interim president, athletic director and football coach. Not under the rug, but out the door.

It’s particularly distressing that violations of recruiting rules have once again brought deep embarrassment to the school, its faculty and proud alumni. The University of Oklahoma has been slapped with a three-year probation for blatant disregard of the NCAA code. Too bad.

There’s something wrong in the thought process when Oklahoma puts such an emphasis on winning football games that it pays $1,000 to an athlete and provides an individual scalping service for varsity players so they can conveniently pocket the ticket money. If the governor isn’t ashamed, then he’s not conversant with what’s going on in the state that elected him to provide proper guidance and supervision.

It’s personally distressing because we never met a man (or woman) from Oklahoma we didn’t like. We once hitch-hiked from Tulsa to Claremore to visit the Will Rogers Museum in an effort to learn more about the old rope-spinning, yarn-telling cowboy philosopher. Our interest in Oklahoma has been so extensive that it resulted in the state’s officially confirming upon us the title of “Honorary Okie,” with an actual certificate and button to go with it.

Now Oklahoma, in a football way, has gone and inflicted injury to itself by drawing still another suspension. This is the fourth time the football program has been penalized in as many decades. How much longer is this type of despicable conduct going to continue?

The violation shows Oklahoma has found still another way to disgrace itself. It’s also reminiscent of what the former OU president, speaking facetiously, once said: “We’re going to build a university the football team can be proud of.” Humorous or not, it’s disgusting that education at Oklahoma is besmirched by what’s going on in the hunt for prospects who can block and tackle.

As for Coach Barry Switzer, the NCAA statement declared he “failed to exercise supervisory control.” It’s as though he went out to lunch and stayed when the problems were occurring. The duty to conduct a clean operation belongs to him. If his assistants and office help were involved in illegal tactics, then he is the one who should be compelled to pay the penalty.

If it was the military and something such as this happened, then the duty officer in charge would be brought up on allegations of incompetency and maybe even stripped of his commission. Switzer should be taking the rap for what has happened. How can he be held blameless?

The governor should ask for his resignation by nightfall and advise him to take his services to Texas A&M;, Houston or SMU. The assessment of the charges, bringing severe discipline, tells the public Switzer doesn’t know what’s going on in his own shop, or coaching offices. It’s time to assess Barry’s value to Oklahoma.

It would be within the bounds of the governor’s authority to suggest Switzer clean out his desk and be off the parking lot before the band strikes up the refrain of “Bye-Bye, Barry.” It’s obvious the transgressions need to be addressed from the governor’s office and dealt with expeditiously.

Oklahoma has been thrown for a severe loss. And what did the president, David Swank, who has the role on a temporary basis, say about it? He reacted by disclosing the university could lose between $750,000 and $1 million in each of the next two seasons. Athletic Director Donnie Duncan said, “I think the way of summing up the way I feel is they wanted us and they got us.”

This is a play for sympathy, trying to paint a picture of the NCAA investigators as being biased against the Sooners. That’s a cop-out. When one of the dominant football-playing universities in the land puts itself in this position, how can it permit the man it pays to head its football show to open his arms and say he didn’t know what the men and women he hired were doing?

There has to be a line of responsibility somewhere. And the man out in front leading the entire effort is the head coach, Switzer. Does he walk away while two assistant coaches, Mike Jones and Scott Hill, and a recruiting coordinator, Shirley Vaughan, who was removed from her job, are painted as scapegoats and burned at the goal post?

Switzer is an adult and has been at Oklahoma for 16 years. He knows the burden is on his shoulders. The university should consider terminating his contract and suspending football for the next five years. This would demonstrate good faith and do wonders for reclaiming the clean and ethical reputation Oklahoma deserves to have.