Pubdate: Sun, 12 Aug 2012
Source: Times, The (Shreveport, LA)
Copyright: 2012 The Times
Contact:  http://www.shreveporttimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1019
Author: Glenn Guilbeau

LSU'S HANDLING OF TYRANN MATHIEU PROVES IT'S NO PENN STATE

BATON ROUGE - Less than a month ago, LSU released an interesting story
that went largely unnoticed.

The athletic department gave $4 million of its own money - largely
earned from a Microsoft-type football program - to the university to
help with a budget crisis that it has has been dealing with for years
through layoffs and early retirements. LSU also said it would take
over the university's financial responsibilities of the Cox
Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes at a cost of $1.5
million a year.

Outgoing LSU chancellor Mike Martin gladly responded by saying the
financial gift would mean LSU would not have to lay off more employees
and cut the budget more.

LSU's athletic department, which virtually prints money, has regularly
donated millions of dollars on a yearly basis to the university for
decades. Its latest routine allowance to the school - not counting the
$4 million gift - was $6 million for administrative services, fund
raising, campus beautification and campus construction. In recent
years, it also threw in $3.8 million for a new band hall and $1.9
million for a new business school building.

Like a Tank McNamara cartoon once said, it's great to have a school
that the football program can be proud of. After all, if the school -
which is what all those other buildings are away from the athletic
compound - is in debt with dilapidated halls, classrooms, and
dormitories and a less-qualified and smaller faculty, this could hurt
football recruiting at "Enormous State University."

LSU's athletic department grossed $106,421,671 in the 2010-11 fiscal
year, according to a recent study by BusinessofCollegeSports.com, for
second best in the Southeastern Conference behind Alabama. LSU spent
$96,019,689 and profited $10,401,982 - fourth-best in the league.

So, LSU's athletic department has some money to throw around. But $4
million is still $4 million. Some of that money could have gone to
football recruiting, or toward being more like Alabama and helping
area high schools get top athletes eligible. Some of that dough could
have gone to head coach Les Miles, whose 75 wins in seven years at LSU
is more than any other SEC school over that span. He is making $3.8
million a year, but he has had no raise since winning the national
title in the 2007 season.

Instead, the athletic department gave $4 million to the
school.

Were they buying something? Was it hush money? Was it a
look-the-other-way fund? Or a benefit of the doubt deposit?
Apparently, not.

Tyrann Mathieu, one of the greatest football players in the gaudy
history of LSU, just got kicked off the team by this indebted school
after he tested positive for marijuana in three or four or more drug
tests over the last year. Miles made the announcement Friday, but it
was obviously not his decision totally. Neither was the school's
decision to suspend quarterback Jordan Jefferson indefinitely last
year after a felony battery charge. That suspension, which Miles
reluctantly adhered to, was not lifted until his charges were
decreased to a misdemeanor.

Both decisions had a procedure to go by in LSU's various manuals. "I
comply and agree," Miles said in announcing Mathieu's dismissal.
Surely, Miles or athletic director Joe Alleva could have been less
subservient  considering the power each could exert if they chose to,
based on monetary gifts and overall success. Each could have done
their best Bill Murray imitation to grease the wheels for Mathieu to
stay at LSU.

"Hey, Lama, how about a little something, you know, for the effort?,"
Murray says in "Caddyshack."

Or, more specifically, "Hey, how's that four mill? What do you say, we
hold off on drug t esting the Honey Badger for about six months? I'd
hate to see you have to take over the Academic Center again. And by
the way, since we're paying for the Academic Center, you make sure
these two guys pass."

Maybe, this is what the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was
thinking after becoming as powerful as Michael Corleone, who gave a
handsome financial gift to the Vatican in "Godfather III." Paterno
gave millions of his own money for the Paterno Library. Maybe he
thought this could help keep everything quiet about Jerry Sandusky.
Maybe it helped keep many of his arrested players over the years in
uniform on game day. Four in 2007 were "expelled" from summer classes
but missed no games, according to a recent "Outside the Lines" report
on ESPN.

Surely, countless other powerful coaches and athletic directors at
"Enormous State Universities" and at LSU over the years have exerted
their power to make the university' s powers do what they want or not
do what they don't want.

Maybe LSU did this in recent months with Mathieu, who was first
suspended for a positive marijuana test 10 months ago. Maybe LSU
ignored a couple drug tests, hoping he would snap out of it.

Whether LSU tried to cover Mathieu's problems up or did not, it
eventually stopped. Whether it tried to get the university to look the
other way or not, it stopped. Penn State did not. Maybe other schools
would not. "I don't know about other schools," Alleva said. "I don't
know about other schools."

Who knows how many college players out there continually failed drug
tests but were allowed to stay? If it was never reported, we'd never
know about it. How many cover-ups have always remained covered up? By
definition, we do not know and often do not know for years.

In the last five years at LSU, there have been two major in-house
scandals. Both were either not covered up or not covered up for very
long. In 2007, LSU fired women's basketball coach Pokey Chatman
because it believed she was having improper relationships with players
or ex-players. LSU officials were not honest about it at first,
saying she just suddenly resigned. But eventually they told the truth.
L SU also let the story out at the worst time for maximum publicity -
just before the NCAA Tournament. That's no cover-up. It could have
tried to keep it quiet until after the season and gotten rid of
Chatman more quietly over the summer. But LSU didn't do that.

And now Mathieu.

LSU football is clearly not the cleanest program in the country. The
NCAA just penalized it last year for major violations concerning
recruit Akiem Hicks, and there was another recent NCAA investigation
involving its connections with street agent Willie Lyles.

But at least, LSU knows how to come clean.
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