Any Way You See It, Administration’s ‘Coug’ Hurts WSU

Justice NCAA-style does not always lend itself to cozy analogy.

What are we to make of rules violations that are, by jury definition, “secondary, but serious?” Or “major, but limited?”

Jumbo, but shrimp.

Not so long ago in Texas, “major, but limited” could mean an alum gave the star tailback a car - but only a used one. At Washington State University, however, the stakes have never been so high, the pockets so deep nor the motives so crass.

Yet for the second time in a year, the NCAA has doled out noogies to the Cougs for sinning against its 512-page bible. A ticky-tack foul is a foul nonetheless once it’s whistled, and cheating is cheating if you’re inclined to that sort of language. The NCAA’s edu-crats aren’t, but once you take a scythe to their verbiage their conclusion is pretty stark.

Wazzu’s athletic administrators, in the game of institutional control, ‘Couged’.

There is no other way to put it, once you realize that the crucial indiscretion which set this mess in motion was a one-credit weightlifting class that was counted twice toward the eligibility of a mostly third-string football player.

That and another misjudgment in athlete certification cost the Cougars two football scholarships for the coming season - the only notable NCAA addition Tuesday to the penalties set down by the Pacific-10 Conference last summer.

“They used two ineligible athletes,” explained NCAA infractions committee chair David Swank, “so they lose two.”

The violations and circumstances received a thorough rehash when the Pac-10 ruled, so let’s look at the new circumstances.

The Cougs have had their probation extended through June 1997, but decidedly more sinister is the fact that WSU is subject to NCAA Bylaw the repeat violator clause, or the same section of the NCAA Manual where you find the death penalty. The Cougars would really have to be naughty to incur that kind of wrath - but they’ll also live in that shadow until the turn of the century.

Fact is, WSU dodged a bullet when the NCAA ruled that, despite the sanctions dished out last year for the overawarding of aid in men’s track and baseball, the repeat violator rule didn’t apply because these violations occurred before the initial punishment.

But Swank also said that had “the most serious (violation) been reported immediately, I doubt that the penalties would have been as significant.”

In other words, what the hell were Marcia Saneholtz and Jim Livengood thinking?

It was Saneholtz, WSU’s senior associate A.D., who upon being informed of the pivotal violation opted not to report it but to make it an issue in the evaluation of the since-fired compliance director. And when she told Livengood, the former athletic director merrily agreed. It wasn’t until former men’s track coach John Chaplin told the school’s legal counsel about the violation that it was reported to the Pac-10.

In an interview last June, Livengood said the incident “didn’t raise any red flags” when Saneholtz broached it. Asked why he thought nothing of a rules violation being handled as a personnel matter, he blustered, “I just didn’t.”

A denial which, if not Nixonian, at least smacks of Sgt. Schultz.

That none of the principals is involved in WSU’s compliance process anymore is a comfort, for the Cougars have taken their mulligan. Athletic director Rick Dickson’s restructuring has resulted in a new director of compliance, a beefed-up support staff and a new faculty rep who operates independently.

Now the staff’s compliance cop, Dan Peterson, gets a daily status report on in-season athletes by 10 a.m. from a coordinator in the registrar’s office.

“The system we had in place to determine (athlete) certification and eligibility was not capable of making impartial decisions,” Dickson said. “They were being made in the wrong place.”

That wasn’t a violation, but it was a mistake. Major, as it’s turned out, and serious.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review