Academic Fraud and Coach Cal Isn't Rumored To Be Involved!

Written by Ian | 12 August 2009

In what seems to have become a weekly occurrence, another NCAA athlete has been accused of academic fraud.  Oklahoma State freshman Joe Mitchell has been sent home by the team due to problems with his academic transcript.  In truth, Mitchell is not the one accused of fraud at this point, but three of his high school coaches have been put on administrative leave due to the incident.

Lately this has been a big story in college sports.  The biggest name that has been on the faking grades/test scores list is likely Derrick Rose.  UK fans and new head coach John Calipari caught Hell for a good week over Rose's college entrance exam scores.  Over the past few weeks more and more athletes (or their coaches/handlers) have been accused of improperly reporting their academic prowess.  Mitchell's case isn't any more interesting than many of the others that have come out, but we want to take a more in depth look after the jump.

The first interesting thing about this story is that Mitchell was sent home.  This may be standard practice for college teams, but why would you send the kid home?  I originally read this thinking he went back to his dorm and wasn't allowed to practice but the article specifically states he was sent home to Houston.  What happened to "innocent until proven guilty?"  It sounds like State is washing their hands of Mitchell before all the facts are out, or do they already know all the facts?  If that is the case then I grant them some leniency for not throwing the kid under the bus yet, but I would think you would at least let the kid hang around campus and start classes before the final word from the NCAA comes down.  Again, I don't know all the clearing house rules so the Cowboys' staff may be doing their due diligence by sending the kid home, but to me it sounds like they may be jumping the gun a bit.

Second, it cracks me up when coaches, or anyone for that matter, are placed on "administrative leave."  This happens all the time in sports and even daily life in professions such as law enforcement.  How many times has someone came back from administrative leave?  I can't remember a single time I've read in a paper that a coach or police officer accused of doing something inappropriate returned from administrative leave with an apology from said administration.  Administrative leave is like being separated from your spouse.  You know it's over, she knows it's over, why not quit kidding the fuck around and just cut ties?  Sheesh.

My final thought on this situation: I'm glad this kid didn't end up at Kentucky.  He had an offer from the Cats, and as a three star safety out of Texas he would have been hyped like crazy by the fan base and UK blogs.  If he came to Lexington and then defaulted out it could have been a black eye on UK recruiting.  They don't need many more of those right now with the Boyd situation in the state it is in.  Another interesting question is why does Mitchell's Rivals page lists Baylor as the only Texas school recruiting him?  He may only be a three star but I'm sure Tech could use a decent safety.  Someone down there must have known something and Baylor was the only one recruiting this kid because they have no choice but to take shots at anyone with a shred of talent.

The full story isn't out yet on this situation so we'll give Joe the benefit of the doubt.  All signs point to him not qualifying though, and where he goes from here is anyone's guess.  If he ends up at a JuCo for a year or two he may be able to come back and qualify, but (again, not knowing all the clearing house rules) who knows where his eligibility with the NCAA stands.  If the high school coaches burn in flames and he claims to be a non-involved party in the fiasco then he may get leniency.  Otherwise this could be another talented kid who didn't do his work in the classroom and will end up shining Grubby's whitewalls for five bones.

Image courtesy Rivals (doesn't he look smart in his glasses at least?)