Pubdate: Fri, 22 Aug 2003
Source: Beaumont Enterprise (TX)
Copyright: 2003 Beaumont Enterprise
Contact:  http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1024

EDITORIAL ROUNDUP - BAYLOR SCANDAL

Here is a sampling of Texas editorial opinion on the Baylor scandal: 
Houston Chronicle, Aug. 18:

Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy is dead, another 
player, Carlton Dotson, is jailed on suspicion of his murder, and coaches 
have been accused of brushing off Dennehy's concerns over threats against 
his life.

The NCAA is investigating whether rules against payments to players were 
broken. Meanwhile, practically the entire men's basketball squad is 
scattering to other colleges. Now, audio tapes indicate recently resigned 
head coach Dave Bliss tried to get players not only to aid and abet a cover 
up, but to besmirch the reputation of the dead player by contributing to 
innuendo that he was a drug dealer.

If ever there was a more sordid set of circumstances surrounding a college 
athletic program, it would be hard to say what it is. And that's saying 
something in the sordid universe of athletic scandal.

University President Robert Sloan has placed the basketball program on two 
year's probation and accepted the resignation of athletic director Tom 
Stanton _ as though these last-minute actions absolved him of his 
responsibility in this fiasco. As university head, Sloan bears the ultimate 
responsibility for ensuring Baylor runs an upright program. Having failed 
dramatically, it's time for him to step down. Failing that, the board of 
regents must make the decision for him.

The scandal is only the latest in a series of painful blows to the 
university under Sloan's leadership. Going back to the summer of 2000, his 
endorsement of establishing the Michael Polanyi Center to investigate the 
theory that life was created through "intelligent design" only succeeded in 
creating a storm of controversy. More recently his plan to enhance the 
school's reputation as an academic powerhouse has irritated faculty members 
for its emphasis on research and publishing over teaching. His ambitious 
building program has questionably increased the school's debt load and also 
pushed up tuition costs for Baylor's traditionally middle-class students. 
And his emphasis and approach to carrying out the school's religious 
mission has alienated many alumni and divided the campus.

The crisis in the basketball program is one that could and should have been 
avoided.

As chairman of the Baylor board of regents, Drayton McLane should show 
decisiveness by ridding the school of those whose weak oversight, poor 
judgment, sleazy morals and possibly criminal behavior have caused Baylor 
so much damage. ___

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Aug. 19:

How many intensely competitive coaches at topflight collegiate programs or 
first-tier wannabes shook their heads over the weekend as the world of Dave 
Bliss collapsed? How many vowed to themselves, "I'd never stoop so low"? 
How many lamented, "There but for the grace of God go I"?

Revelations in the Star-Telegram that the former Baylor University 
basketball coach urged two of his players to falsely portray slain teammate 
Patrick Dennehy as a drug dealer _ to protect the coach's role in violating 
NCAA rules _ added nightmarish scandal to what already was a tragedy. How 
could any self-respecting adult, claiming to be a decent, ethical, 
rule-abiding coach, so abuse the memory of one player and the integrity of 
others? It's important to remember that Bliss, who resigned as Baylor head 
coach Aug. 8 after the university acknowledged major rules violations, is 
responsible for his own actions.

But can the latest developments in the increasingly convoluted Baylor 
fiasco not leave the public wondering about deeper, more insidious failings 
in big-time college athletics?

Is Bliss merely an overly ambitious coach whose willingness to skirt the 
bounds of decency and fair play finally caught up with him? Is he just a 
flawed individual pushed over the line by desperation?

Is he emblematic of the lengths to which many college coaches across the 
country will go to compete in the lucrative limelight? To what extent are 
universities themselves complicit as they push for glory and its 
accompanying gate receipts, national recognition and TV revenue?

Sadly, the problems in the Baylor program came to light only because a 
young man disappeared and was found dead. The deceitful nature of the head 
coach was revealed only because a young assistant risked his job and his 
coaching future to do the right thing. Those facts speak dismaying volumes 
about institutional safeguards. ___

Austin American-Statesman, Aug. 20:

Revelations about the level of corruption in the Baylor University 
basketball program under former coach Dave Bliss are shocking, dismaying 
and still unfolding.

Baylor is the largest Baptist university in the world, and it clings 
tightly to its reputation as an upstanding, outstanding and godly 
institution. Reports of payoffs to basketball players, free cars and 
housing, and now recordings of Bliss smearing the name of a dead player in 
an effort to hide his and his program's corruption have rocked the country.

The depth of Bliss' perfidy surprised many, Baylor President Robert Sloan 
no doubt among them.

But there are questions that go deeper than a corrupt basketball program 
run by a flawed coach. And most of those questions remain at Sloan's feet, 
as Baylor goes forward with its investigation of the tragedy and the toxic 
basketball program.

Foremost for Sloan and the Baylor regents is to determine how the athletic 
program got into this mess. Obviously, there was much pressure on Bliss to 
bring the basketball team to the point of respectability. It follows 
naturally that the pressure could have led Bliss to cut corners to succeed, 
though he may have operated as a rogue coach all along in his career.

Who and what is responsible for the chain of events that resulted in a 
death, a cover up plot, multiple investigations, sanctions and more? Bliss 
has resigned, as has Athletic Director Tom Stanton, but did they have an 
impossible assignment from the beginning?

Sloan has said Baylor will remain in the Big 12. But it is illogical to 
deny that Baylor's attempts to compete may have led to its current bind, 
and Sloan should reconsider his position. Sloan, so far, remains determined 
to see that Baylor joins the ranks of the country's top universities, 
academically and athletically.

Ambition to such a degree can be admirable. But in Baylor's case, it has 
produced one crisis after another in the Baylor family: a faculty revolt, 
divided alumni and now a national scandal.

Sloan and the regents must ask themselves whether Baylor's strenuous 
efforts to become competitive in one of the largest, richest, most 
competitive athletic conferences in the country brought it to this pass. 
And they need to be sure they get an honest answer. ___

San Antonio Express News, Aug. 19:

The cesspool known as the Baylor men's basketball program continues to spread.

As if drugs, murder and payoffs weren't enough, a tape secretly recorded by 
an assistant coach reveals now-departed coach Dave Bliss encouraging 
members of his staff and some of his players to mislead investigators 
looking into the disappearance and death of basketball player Patrick Dennehy.

The young man's body was found July 25 in a gravel pit near the campus.

Teammate Carlton Dotson has been charged with shooting him to death. 
Incredibly, Bliss encouraged his coaches and players to suggest to 
investigators that Dennehy paid his tuition and bought an SUV with money he 
made dealing drugs. Since dead men can't talk, the coach reasoned, no one 
would know the difference.

To its credit, Baylor is conducting an internal investigation into these 
amazing allegations.

That's the least the Waco institution can do. The NCAA should be conducting 
its own investigation as well.

Baylor should expand its investigation into the entire athletic program and 
seriously consider whether a relatively small private university should try 
to compete with the large, "semiprofessional" state programs that make up 
the Big 12 Conference.

The scandal and compromise inherent in big-time college athletics have 
rarely been seen in such bold relief, but few, if any, academic 
institutions escape the taint.

The brave thing for Baylor University to do would be to repudiate the whole 
system. ___

The Dallas Morning News, Aug. 18:

Despicable.

That is the only appropriate word to describe what Dave Bliss was willing 
to do to keep his job as Baylor basketball coach.

The embattled coach was so desperate to cover up illicit tuition payments 
and save his own skin that he was prepared to destroy the reputation of an 
individual who no longer could defend himself Patrick Dennehy.

While Dennehy's family prepared for the funeral of their son, Bliss cooked 
up a story about the Baylor basketball player selling drugs and urged 
former teammates and assistant coaches to go along with the cruel 
deception. It is particularly distressing that Bliss attended the Dennehy 
memorial services and consoled family members after he had asked the team 
to make the young man the fall guy in the Baylor cheating scandal.

The public revelations about the tapes have made this story worse, when 
many thought that wasn't possible. Former teammate Carlton Dotson is 
charged with Dennehy's murder. Family members say Baylor coaches were 
warned that Dotson was a danger to their son.

Dave Bliss' decision to compound that tragedy with lies is both heartless 
and, many would say, racist. He assumed that the public would buy a story 
that one of his African-American players was dealing drugs in order to pay 
his tuition at Baylor.

Bliss is finished. He never will coach again. But what transpired during 
his brief tenure at Baylor shouldn't be forgotten. It reflects what happens 
when a coach believes he has a directive to win at all costs ___

Waco Tribune-Herald, undated:

In a blur of revelations, Baylor University has bolted to No. 1 in the 
United States in sporting sleaze lies, cover-ups and coercion stemming from 
murder, drugs and payoffs within the men's basketball program. This scandal 
is a stunning tragedy for an outstanding institution with a proud history 
of integrity.

To restore Baylor's severely damaged reputation, the university must 
undertake extensive measures to demonstrate that everyone responsible for 
this disgrace is held accountable and that all sports at the university are 
above reproach.

Baylor also must put in place the nation's strictest safeguards to ensure 
that the university never again endures such a calamity.

Baylor is conducting an internal investigation into allegations involving 
the basketball program. That's fine. But to restore the trust and integrity 
lost in the scandal, a full NCAA onsite investigation needs to act 
independently of Baylor's investigative team.

Baylor also needs to expand its investigation into wrongdoing to include 
every NCAA sport it plays. If players received improper help paying their 
tuition and expenses in the basketball program, a full investigation should 
remove doubts that other sports do the same.

Baylor also should request an outside audit of its books to ensure that the 
university cannot be accused of sweeping financial infractions under the rug.
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