COMMENTARY : Sanctions Put Terps, Petty Thieves at Best, in League With Lifers

They are crying great tears at the University of Maryland in the aftermath of the unexpectedly severe sanctions handed down by the NCAA on their basketball program. It is difficult, however, to work up much sympathy on their behalf. They broke the rules. They put themselves in a position to be penalized. And it is a little late, after the fact, to protest the terms of the penalty. It’s pretty simple really: Thieves, once caught, get a hand chopped off.

But still, that said, Maryland got a raw deal.

The NCAA, by its actions, has effectively branded Maryland as an outlaw school, lumped together with the likes of the University of Kentucky and the other great scoundrels of the sport, when, in fact, the Terps, under Bob Wade, were petty crooks breaking mostly small rules and to little effect.

They didn’t participate in the big-money auctions for recruits in the manner that the University of Illinois is being accused of doing. They didn’t forge transcripts or set up dummy classes or put student-athletes on a payroll. No one got late-model used cars. And most of Maryland’s violations involved Rudy Archer, who had flunked out of school, who had one year of eligibility remaining and who was not being actively recruited by anyone else.

In the corrupt world of college sports, Maryland is a minor player that had never, in its long history, been charged with a major infraction. And even under Wade, the Terps ignored the rule book more than they abused it.

The Terps’ downfall, in the final analysis, was in making the great mistake of hiring Wade and the greater mistake of failing to monitor Wade’s actions sufficiently. For these crimes, the Terps were, among other penalties, knocked out of postseason play for the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons and knocked off TV for 1990-91.

“I’m stunned,” said Maryland President William Kirwan, who has said that he plans to appeal.

“I’m shocked,” said Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner Gene Corrigan, who said that he backs the appeal.

Barring a successful appeal, (which is the way to bet), Maryland can expect some of its top players to transfer--they can now do so without penalty--and most of its recruits to go elsewhere. This is a killer penalty, and Maryland basketball, whatever its many flaws, is no mass murderer. If the penalty had been the same, except for one year out of the NCAA tournament, everybody would have gone home peaceably.

Let’s look at one of your basic outlaws. Last May, Kentucky was found guilty of sending $1,000 in the mail to a recruit, of allowing a player to remain eligible after learning that he had cheated on his college entrance test, of lying to investigators, of providing improper trips, housing and inducements to recruits. It’s a school where Al Capone might have wanted to send his kid. And the NCAA said that it came very close to applying the death penalty. Instead, Kentucky got three years’ probation, two years without postseason play, one year off TV, some restriction in scholarships and penalties for individual players. In other words, pretty much the same as Maryland got, which was more than North Carolina State--another school on the loose--received.

Why was the penalty so severe? Let’s face it: Nobody was after Maryland. This was not a witch hunt by an NCAA committee. Maryland was guilty, and guilty of wide-ranging violations. According to one NCAA source, it was the variety, more than the severity, of the violations that made Maryland a major offender.

Should someone have been watching more carefully? Yes. Lew Perkins, the athletic director, should have been living with Wade. Instead, he backed away, citing an inability to get along. In fact, the two men feuded, and Maryland lost the argument.

Perkins is the one who now bears watching by someone in the Maryland hierarchy. Also, there were major violations, particularly the sale of players’ complimentary tickets with the help of coaches. And there was Wade’s cover-up. Add to that a new get-tough policy now endorsed by NCAA member colleges and you come to understand what happened.

But along with that get-tough policy is a reluctance still to apply the death penalty. If Kentucky gets death, then Maryland’s two years don’t seem so out of line. But Kentucky and Maryland are not the same type of offender. Kentucky is a habitual offender. It’s one of the bad guys of college sports, the one you expect to be picked out of a lineup.

No one is saying that Maryland should get off, or even get off lightly. What Maryland officials are insisting upon saying is that a school that has no history of violations and that fired all the perpetrators and that was openly cooperative with investigators deserves a little better fate than, say, Kentucky.

“It’s the second year out of the tournament that is so surprising,” Corrigan said. “You take off that second year, and I don’t think you’ll hear anybody around here complaining.”

Who we don’t hear anything from is Wade. Any school that violates rules must have an oversight problem, so why was Maryland singled out? The NCAA report pointed out that Wade, coming from a high school program, was ill-prepared to observe the NCAA’s many rules. But it should be pointed out, too, that the broken rules came at the end of Wade’s second season and into his third. When does one stop being a rookie coach? When is the coach responsible for his own actions?

Finally, when is a school responsible for its own actions? The answer is always. Maryland, which had a runaway coach in Lefty Driesell, hired another coach in Wade who became a runaway. By failing to learn any lessons then, the Terps got clobbered. Stupidity was their biggest crime. Now, they’re paying for it.