Bob Bowlsby at Big 12s: Cheating pays in NCAA

DALLAS, Texas – Big 12 Conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Monday that some colleges have figured out ways to take advantage of what he termed a lack of rules enforcement by the NCAA.

"I think the vast majority of people in intercollegiate athletics are of high integrity, they're doing it for the right reasons," Bowlsby said at the Big 12 Conference media days. "But right now, if you want to cheat, you can do it and you can get away with it. There are benefits for doing that.

"And that needs to change."

Bowlsby, a former athletic director at Northern Iowa and Iowa, also predicted that some non-revenue sports could be on campus chopping blocks if the NCAA loses lawsuits with which it is currently involved.

"We are operating in a strange environment in that we have lawsuits -- plus we have the O'Bannon lawsuit," Bowlsby said. "I think all of that in the end will cause programs to be eliminated.

"I think you'll see men's Olympics sports go away as a result of the new funding challenges that are coming down the pike. I think there may be tension among and between sports on campus and institutions that have different resources.

"It's really unknown what the outcomes will be."

The O'Bannon case began in July 2009 as a suit that seemed aimed primarily at release forms that allegedly forced Bowl Subdivision football players and Division I men's basketball players to "relinquish rights to compensation for use of their images after they no longer are student-athletes." It since has morphed into a case that basically challenges the NCAA rules that limit what football and men's basketball players can receive in exchange for playing their sports.

The NCAA also faces litigation involving athlete concussions and head injuries, as well as a battle with Northwestern football players regarding the legality of a "players' union."

Bowlsby says it pays to cheat

It was Bowlsby's cheating comments that drew the most attention among reporters covering this annual two-day event.

"Enforcement is broken," Bowlsby said. "The infractions committee hasn't had a hearing in almost a year, and I think it's not an understatement to say that cheating pays presently.

"If you seek to conspire to certainly bend the rules, you can do it successfully and probably not get caught in most occasions. So we need to get Jon Duncan some help and support."

Duncan is the NCAA's vice president for enforcement.

"I don't think it's rampant, I don't think that at all," Bowlsby said of cheating. "I think our coaches and programs are of high integrity, and I don't have any concerns on a local basis.

"But I think those that conspire to do things that are intended to get around the rules have less resistance to it now than they (had). They've gotten very sophisticated. It's easy to move money around. There are lots of people outside of universities that are handling things, and they can't be compelled to testify even if they get caught.

"Absent (the power of subpoena), you can't compel anybody to participate in an investigation.

"(The NCAA) is in the battle with a BB gun in their hands, and they're fighting howitzers."

Coaches attending Monday said they knew nothing of schools bending rules.

"We just follow for guidelines that are set before us," said Baylor coach Art Briles, whose team is picked to finish second, behind Oklahoma.

Kansas coach Charlie Weis was hesitant to respond to Bowlsby's comments.

"What cheating was he referring to?" Weis asked. "First of all, the commissioner knows a lot more than I do.

"I've been in multiple places, and the places I've been, I just haven't seen it. So maybe I'm oblivious. I hear about it all the time. There's things that annoy me sometimes at other places. But really, I just try to speak for Kansas."

Slashing sports: It could happen

By this time next month, the five "high-visibility conferences" will have the autonomy they want to institute their own rules, Bowlsby predicts. That vote is expected to take place when the NCAA Division I Board of Directors meet.

Their master plan includes having scholarships cover the entire Cost of Attendance, which Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard estimated two months ago will cost the Cyclones athletic department roughly $750,000 a year.

"I was on the Financial Aid and Amateurism committee to the NCAA in 1987, and we came up with a proposal that was revolutionary," Bowlsby said. "Room, board, books, tuition and fees and $2,000 a year.

"It got shot down that time and it's got shot down ever since then. The world would be different had we been able to get some of those things through."

Scholarship athletes now are eligible for free snacks if they're hungry while up late at night studying. That will cost Iowa State another $400,000 a year, Pollard estimated last week.

"There's only so much money out there," Bowlsby said. "I don't think that coaches and athletic directors are likely going to take pay cuts. I think that train's left the station."

He said cutting will start with men's sports.

"Title IX doesn't go away," Bowlsby said. "It would hit men's Olympic sports first, (and) no way would it be equally men and women."

Bottom line?

"If you like intercollegiate athletics the way it is now, you're going to hate it going forward," Bowlsby said. "There's a lot of change coming.

"I fear (whether) we will get past the change. There's all kinds of Armageddon scenarios you can come up with. Change is coming."