If anything, Jim Boeheim got off easy in Syracuse mess
About 2½ years ago, they had a big, fancy celebration at the Carrier Dome for Jim Boeheim's 900th victory as Syracuse head coach. Congratulatory clips from his elite coaching buddies, including Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, played on the video board.
Boeheim, standing next to his wife Juli and athletics director Daryl Gross, held up a framed Syracuse jersey with his name and the number 900 emblazed across the back. For once, the curmudgeonly and often combative Boeheim seemed unbothered by anyone or anything.
What we didn't know was that as Syracuse celebrated Boeheim's coaching milestone — shared by only two others in the history of the sport — the program was being investigated by the NCAA for violations that would span more than a decade and encompass pretty much all the big ones. Academic fraud. Booster payments. A drug policy that was ignored so basketball players wouldn't miss games.
And so now here we are, with everything out in the open, and the fact that Boeheim got to have that moment a couple of years ago while Syracuse was deep in the throes of an investigation into some of the most sordid institutional behavior in recent memory isn't even close to the biggest sham in all this.
Rather, moments after the NCAA came down hard on Syracuse in Friday's Committee on Infractions report, stripping 12 scholarships over four years and dozens of wins (if not hundreds) from Boeheim's record along with this year's self-imposed postseason ban and a potpourri of recruiting restrictions and financial penalties, it appeared that Boeheim was still was powerful at his alma mater as ever.
Syracuse chancellor Kent Syverud, seemingly channeling the defiant tone that has made Boeheim one of college basketball's uniquely compelling and enduring figures, fired off a missive at the NCAA strongly criticizing the length of time it took to complete the investigation. More important, he maintained that the school "strongly disagrees" with the committee's finding that Boeheim was responsible for the violations.
In other words, Boeheim isn't going anywhere. And despite embarrassing the university and running what the Committee on Infractions essentially called a rogue program for the last 15 years, Syracuse would not dare pin the blame on the man whose impact on the school and its national brand over the last 38 years would quite literally be priceless.
Think about this. When Boeheim took over as head coach in 1976 — before the Big East Conference was even formed — he got the job because his predecessor, Roy Danforth, left for Tulane. Thanks to 31 subsequent NCAA tournament appearances, 17 Sweet 16s, four Final Fours and a national title, a private school with excruciatingly long winters and little nearby talent is considered one of the elite programs in the sport and is now in the ACC, on the right side of the Power 5 dividing line.
Without Boeheim, that might not have been possible.
Even so, if the debt owed to Boeheim stands through this ruling, perhaps the Committee on Infractions didn't hit him hard enough.
"He most certainly should be responsible," Committee on Infractions chairman and Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said. "There's a higher level of responsibility attached to the head coach."
That's not just a theoretical point, either, in this case. Plenty of times when the NCAA investigates violations, there is opportunity for a coach to wiggle out on a technicality or lack of direct knowledge about what was going on in his program, even if common sense dictates that the head coach knew what was going on.
In this case, it was quite clear that anything Boeheim didn't know was a matter of willful ignorance or arrogance. When Boeheim didn't report sketchy relationships and questionable payments to compliance, or when he expressly didn't follow the school's drug testing policy (with something of a wink and nod from his athletics director), it smacked of a coach who has had too much power for too long. When a support staffer failed to report possible academic violations out of a belief and fear that their job would be in jeopardy and basketball players receive special treatment, it speaks to what Banowsky called "misplaced priorities."
And it went on and on and on, going back to 2001.
From the report: "Basketball culture predominated the written drug testing policies and procedures."
"(Syracuse/Boeheim) Permitted a culture to exist whereby student-athletes received impermissible assistance and violations went undetected and unreported."
"The director of basketball operations influenced the culture of academic support."
Sensing a theme here?
If anything, Boeheim got off easy here.
Yes, his reputation and legacy will take a hit. Twice in his long career, Syracuse has been banned from the postseason for NCAA rules violations. Only a historically good coach could survive something like that. Pictures from those historical milestones like Boeheim's 900th win will have to be removed from Syracuse's media guides and erased from the record books.
All of that is embarrassing.
But in the end, Boeheim will survive. Yes, losing scholarships will hurt as will the recruiting restrictions. And Boeheim being suspended for nine conference games next season isn't ideal.
Given the scope of the violations, however, it's far from overkill. And as Banowsky noted, because most of the violations occurred before the NCAA installed its new penalty structure last year, it didn't have to face a harsher punishment that could have included a full season suspension for Boeheim and a two-year postseason ban.
The truth is, as things stand, there's no reason Syracuse can't continue as a national power with Boeheim in charge.
And yet still, Syracuse officials whined and complained Friday while absolving their beloved head coach of responsibility for a program he's run for nearly four decades.
At least we know who's still in charge.