Missouri Inflicts Punishment on Wrong People in Wake of Haith Violations

It's nothing new in the world of college athletics: a coach gets a program in trouble then bolts from the school before he can be disciplined. Guys like Pete Carroll and John Calipari, among a list of others, successfully executed this maneuver a few years ago and now sit, untouched, in their new coaching positions. And now, while Missouri's men's basketball program faces multi-year discipline, former head coach Frank Haith is sitting at Tulsa with, at this point in time, no discipline coming his way.

This shouldn't shock anyone. Everyone knew when Missouri hired Haith that he was a dishonest cheater, yet in 2011 the Tigers brought in the guy who was already gaining national attention for stirring up trouble at the University of Miami. When the investigations settled down, it was discovered that Haith oversaw a $10,000 payment to a recruit while also paying a booster to remain quiet when asked about the topic. Perhaps the biggest issue in all of this, besides Haith's idiocy, was the fact that he had already left Miami in the dust in favor of Missouri, where he received only a five-game suspension. The suspension, in retrospect, wasn't much of a punishment considering the first five games of Mizzou's season that year were against Southern Louisiana, Southern Illinois, Hawaii, Gardner Webb, and IUPUI. Not exactly your list of powerhouse schools, right?

Haith has bolted from two schools at which he violated NCAA rules

Well now here we are, with Haith causing more trouble. This time, however, Missouri is the school that's paying the price while Haith, once again, is avoiding the situation thus far. That's where the NCAA and Mizzou are wrong in where their discipline was placed. They vacated the 23 wins from the 2013-2014 season, took away two scholarships, and self-imposed a postseason ban. Why? The only punishment that could possibly make sense is the decision to strip the scholarships. As for the other two, what purpose do those serve? You can't go back and grant the losing team in those 23 games a win, and the postseason ban is now imposed against kids, and a coaching staff, who have done things the right way. Mizzou is making head coach Kim Anderson's rebuilding project even harder than it has to be, and that's not right.

It's not a secret that Mizzou's athletic department isn't exactly a well-oiled machine, but surely there's at least one person in that department with some common sense. More importantly, where is the NCAA on this? This has become Kim Anderson's problem when he, nor his players, had anything to do with the season(s) that Haith caused trouble in. Yet Mizzou's going to make them pay the price for Haith's violations and the NCAA is going to allow it while not disciplining Haith? You're going to keep this coaching staff and these players out of the SEC and, potentially (though not likely), the NCAA tournament because of something that happened when the majority of these kids weren't even at the school? That's a joke, and it's a bad look for both Mizzou and the NCAA.

What's even worse is that the NCAA allows guys like Haith to stay in a head coaching position. This is his second offense and, I'm sorry, but this isn't baseball. You shouldn't get three strikes. I can understand second chances, but guys like this have no place in the NCAA, especially without any serious discipline. Haith should be punished while he's at Tulsa, but no punishment should fall on their athletic department or on the players on the roster. This is about Haith and his lack of integrity, and the people who are being punished are paying the price for Haith's actions have no control over that.

I had the chance to shadow Mizzou's strength and conditioning coach, Matt Herring, this summer and I was able to see Mizzou play Illinois in St. Louis back in December. This isn't the most skilled team I've seen, but this is a program that has done what it can to rebuild and, from what I have witnessed, has worked extremely hard. These coaches and athletes have a work ethic that should serve as a frame of reference for anyone that wonders what NCAA Division I athletics should be about, and that's why it's impossible to understand why this is the group of individuals that are being punished. This situation that Haith put Mizzou in cannot be changed, but it certainly could be addressed more effectively and it starts with the NCAA targeting Haith with disciplinary action. It's sad to see the wrong people pay the price for a sub-par coach's stupidity.