Someone once infamously said, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” In recent years, this quote has surfaced in sports such as stock car racing and major league baseball, but this year it can translate to several issues in college football.
A few weeks ago, I sat down with senior wide receiver T.J . Graham to discuss social media rules at N.C . State and how the University’s compliance department deals with the players.
During this interview, Graham disclosed his own personal opinion about why the Wolfpack don’t seem to have as many problems as some of the other programs nationwide.
“Selfish acts like the ones that happened at UNC don’t happen here because we are a team,” Graham said. “And we know that one person can take down a program.”
While this statement was clearly targeted towards UNC-Chapel Hill, the statement rings true for several other programs, football and basketball, that have taken a tumble over the course of this past year.
For starters, The University of Southern California Trojans probably took the biggest hit thus far when it was discovered that Reggie Bush, a starting running back, was receiving improper benefits. The Bush investigation led to stripping of his Heisman Trophy, the team’s BCS National Championship from 2004 and a two-year ban of bowl games proactive to the penalties.
Since this retribution was handed down, several other BCS schools have been under investigation including: UNC , Auburn and Ohio State. Most recently, Georgia Tech has been stripped of its 2010 ACC title and put on two years of probation for having an illegible player playing with the team.
The common theme between all of these violations: one player started each one of them.
Marvin Austin of UNC tweeted about his excursions with agents, Cam Newton had a greedy father who was getting paid while he played for Auburn, Terrell Pryor was getting inked up and driving around several expensive whips before he and his coach left Ohio State and Georgia Tech had one player, Demaryus Thomas, received $312 worth of clothing that turned into a $100,000 fine, amongst other penalties.
With all of this in mind, Graham’s comments meant much more than just to say that N.C . State plays as a team, but they also know that one person violating NCAA rules can mean the demolition of an entire program.
While the Pack have not been on stages such as playing for the ACC championship or a national title, it was a competitive team this past year, finishing 9-4 after winning the Champs Sports Bowl.
And it was able to do all of this while staying clean and keeping their noses out of deals with agents or being paid to play. This is all thanks to a compliance department that has ranked at the top nationally consistently in the last few years. A weak compliance department can lead to problems in the program and an NCAA investigation.
For example, the compliance department and honor court at UNC did not pay close enough attention to football player Michael McAdoo’s plagiarism, which led to his dismissal from the team.
With the knowledge instilled in players like Graham and other student-athletes that the compliance department is watching over them every move they make, they know that they are a team that should not make the same mistakes that several other college programs have made over the past year.
Overall, one thing that the University’s compliance department should keep in mind is that one misstep can lead to a tragic fall for an entire program. Last year around this time, Auburn had one of the highest ranked compliance departments in the South Eastern Conference. This year – they are last.