UAT Football Now on Death Watch

Start spreading the news. . . U of Alabama football is now officially on Death Watch for the next 5 years. Is the end in sight?


Scarbinsky: Does Alabama president care one Witt about integrity?
Posted by Kevin Scarbinsky -- Birmingham News June 12, 2009 5:00 AM
The last thing Robert Witt wants to do at a press conference is answer questions, even on a day when the integrity of his institution has been called into question.
Again.
Mark Almond/Birmingham NewsUniversity of Alabama President Robert Witt speaks at Thursday's news conference - but he didn't answer any questions.

Instead, the president of the University of Arrogance chose merely to read a statement Thursday afternoon. In those 256 words, he made a statement that helps explain why his school leads the Football Bowl Subdivision with four major infractions cases in the last 14 years.

Through multiple presidents, athletics directors, coaches, administrators, student-athletes, boosters and sports.

Alabama has what Nick Saban might call a cultural problem.

It's a culture that demands doing the right thing -- but only after you've been caught doing the wrong thing.

Again.

The names and faces change.

The attitude never seems to adjust.

Witt put the latest public face on the problem Thursday when he said he was disappointed.
Not in the 201 different student-athletes who violated textbook distribution policies and thus broke NCAA rules.

Not in the athletic department administrators who failed to notice a 30 percent spike in textbook charges over a two-year period and thus failed to monitor that program.

Not in an athletic department that will have spent 16½ out of 19 years in the NCAA's repeat-violator window, from June 3, 1995, through Jan. 31, 2007, and from June 11, 2009, through June 10, 2014.

No, Witt pointed his disappointment in only one direction -- at the NCAA Committee on Infractions.

"We're disappointed in the severity of the penalties," he said.

Now that is disappointing.

When is someone in a position of authority at Alabama going to get sick and tired of appearing before the Infractions Committee?

When is the school going to raise its standards from expertly cleaning up its own messes to actively preventing them in the first place?

Perhaps when the CEO can see beyond the goal line.

Athletes from 16 different sports at Alabama broke NCAA rules in this case. Witt mentioned only one of those sports by name.

Football.

It's important to note what he did and didn't say about his beloved football program.

He didn't mention that the four highest amounts of impermissible benefits in the textbook case, ranging from $2,714.62 to $3,947.19, were run up by football players.

He didn't mention that football stands to vacate 21 victories from the 2005, 2006 and 2007 seasons, or 20 more team victories than any other sport will be forced to give up.

He didn't mention that only one sport at Alabama has been implicated in three of the school's four major infractions cases in the last 14 years -- and that sport is football.

This is what Witt emphasized: "It's also important to note that the penalties imposed affect the past. They do not impact our future. They in no way affect the ability of our football team to compete fully, without competitive disadvantage."

Roll Tide.

For that reason alone, Witt should've applauded the Infractions Committee members. Unlike their counterparts in 2002 -- current chairman Paul Dee was the only holdover to hear the rogue booster and textbook cases -- they didn't stop Alabama from competing.

Have they stopped Alabama from cheating?

Sorry, but Dr. Witt's not taking questions.

No doubt he's busy contemplating an appeal and a championship parade.