The Big Brother of college sports at it again
The N.C.A.A.’s Ethics Problem
By JOE NOCERA, NYT
In late March 2009, Yahoo Sports published a story alleging that the University of Connecticut had violated N.C.A.A. rules in its efforts to recruit Nate Miles, a 6-foot-7 basketball player from Toledo, Ohio. The N.C.A.A. enforcement staff, led by Tim Nevius, one of its top investigators, opened an inquiry.
By then, Miles was back in Toledo; he’d been expelled from UConn in October 2008, before ever playing a game. No longer a “student-athlete,” Miles refused to cooperate. Yet Nevius interviewed Dr. Chris MacLaren, a Florida orthopedic surgeon, who had once operated on Miles’s foot. Without any consent from the patient, Nevius asked for, and MacLaren provided, details of Miles’s surgery and its costs.
This, of course, was a gross violation of medical ethics. It was also, in all likelihood, a violation of medical privacy laws. But when several lawyers involved in the case brought this potential illegality to the attention of the Committee on Infractions — which metes out punishment to rules violators, and which includes a number of lawyers — the response was coldly dismissive. A medical release from Miles “was not required,” replied Shepard Cooper, then the committee director. How did he know? Because Nevius had told him so. So much for the law.
Earlier this week, Mark Emmert, the N.C.A.A. president, acknowledged that the enforcement staff had, once again, done something deeply unethical. Except he didn’t phrase it like that. In recounting the sordid details, involving an investigation into the University of Miami, Emmert made it sound as if they were aberrations, the actions of several rogue employees who were no longer there. Describing the transgressions as “stunning,” Emmert announced that he had hired a lawyer to review its investigative practices, insisting that his goal was to ensure that N.C.A.A. investigations were consistent with “our values.”
(More here.)
In late March 2009, Yahoo Sports published a story alleging that the University of Connecticut had violated N.C.A.A. rules in its efforts to recruit Nate Miles, a 6-foot-7 basketball player from Toledo, Ohio. The N.C.A.A. enforcement staff, led by Tim Nevius, one of its top investigators, opened an inquiry.
By then, Miles was back in Toledo; he’d been expelled from UConn in October 2008, before ever playing a game. No longer a “student-athlete,” Miles refused to cooperate. Yet Nevius interviewed Dr. Chris MacLaren, a Florida orthopedic surgeon, who had once operated on Miles’s foot. Without any consent from the patient, Nevius asked for, and MacLaren provided, details of Miles’s surgery and its costs.
This, of course, was a gross violation of medical ethics. It was also, in all likelihood, a violation of medical privacy laws. But when several lawyers involved in the case brought this potential illegality to the attention of the Committee on Infractions — which metes out punishment to rules violators, and which includes a number of lawyers — the response was coldly dismissive. A medical release from Miles “was not required,” replied Shepard Cooper, then the committee director. How did he know? Because Nevius had told him so. So much for the law.
Earlier this week, Mark Emmert, the N.C.A.A. president, acknowledged that the enforcement staff had, once again, done something deeply unethical. Except he didn’t phrase it like that. In recounting the sordid details, involving an investigation into the University of Miami, Emmert made it sound as if they were aberrations, the actions of several rogue employees who were no longer there. Describing the transgressions as “stunning,” Emmert announced that he had hired a lawyer to review its investigative practices, insisting that his goal was to ensure that N.C.A.A. investigations were consistent with “our values.”
(More here.)
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