This whole episode exemplifies why I'm rather ambivalent about the whole
amateur sports concept.  It seems obvious that the Black Bears and Shawn
Walsh broke the rules and some sort of punishment is deserved, but I still
think that a good hard look at the system is necessary.
  The most obvious thing is the interviewing of witnesses by Walsh.  This
is one of those things that people mean when they complain about the NCAA
abusing due process.  What did Shawn Walsh do?  As one of the prime
defendents, he and/or his attorney's interviewed potential witnesses; from
what's been posted, this is all that really is known.  Within the legal
system, this is a fundamental right (at least, I'm pretty sure it is.  Any
lawyers in the house?).  It becomes more complicated, of course.  The
obvious inference being drawn is that Walsh convinced some of these
witnesses to not testify.  Unlike the legal system, the NCAA (or the
University of Maine) can't compel testimony, so it tries to prevent these
meetings from taking place.  Even before the questions about the integrity
and impartiality of the NCAA begin, it seems to me that we have a real
problem here.
  On the issue of breakfast, why weren't the players simply put on a pass
list?  Anytime cash is put into the hands of athletes with the instruction
to use it for something specific, potential troubles arise.  The University
of Michigan baseball team got hit very hard a few years back when the
players were selling programs at the football games and Bud Middaugh kind
of, umm, forgot to collect the proceeds from them.
  I still maintain that we'd be better off dropping the pretense of
amateurism, which is just as hollow at the collegiate level as it was at
the Olympics.  The corrosive nature of the under the table money or the
worries of it are enormous.  There is the problem of simple integrity; the
athletes are being abused.  The payment for their services is a scholarship
that many of them are too busy to get the full advantage of; then there are
the players who aren't on scholarship, who receive no recompense for their
efforts.  People can talk about the privilege of playing sports; that's
what IM and club sports are for.  Varsity athletes are part of a serious
business; even if it doesn't make any money.  So someone gets a break on
his rent from a booster; I don't smell the impending end of Western
civilization.
  Another problem, one example of which is outlined in my first paragraph,
is the tyrrany of the enforcement procedures.  I tend to dismiss people's
claims about the ticky-tack nature of some of the violations.  I've tended
to see these as being attached to the bottom of the sheet to make a long
list after some major violations are listed.  I can't remember a program
getting into significant trouble from solely nit-picking accusations.  What
worries me more is the procedure the NCAA uses to go about it's
investigations; most of them would be thown out by the courts for due
process violations if they showed up there.  Again, it's not necessarily
that NCAA officers are heartless demons with no concern for these issues (I
take no position on this issue).  There just is no other way that they
could run an investigation.
 
J. Michael Jackson
 
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