Okay, time for some perspective. Belichick was told to "knock it off" right after he won a SB. So far, neither college "cheaters" have done a damn thing. How about if you are going to cheat, go for it. Falling short means you just aren't very good...at cheating, coaching, or both.
I’m still surprised that Beli-cheat gets such a pass. He was caught cheating TWICE. No one even mentions it when they do stories about him or the Patriots.
I don't like Pearl and he has clearly broken NCAA rules in the past on multiple occasions, so don't take this as a defense of him. But because the article doesn't say (shoddy journalism), nor do any of the posts, let me pose the question: Was having cameras on and filming in your gym prior to 2019 actually AGAINST the rules? Or against specific laws? Certainly it's unethical if being used for spying on your opponent, but would it have technically been illegal or broken any NCAA rules? If nothing prohibits it, it's not actually cheating. Another question: the NCAA specifically limits practice time. If a coach suspects his team is getting spied on, and takes his team out to do walk-throughs in the hotel hallway as a work-around, that's actually a practice. Did they log and report these impromptu practices? It not, they're probably and knowingly breaking rules themselves.
I don’t consider Bruce Pearl to be a douche bag and bringing up an alleged event that happened more than five years ago, where no one’s name was ever mentioned, and neither the NCAA or SEC asserted any wrongdoing is kind of ridiculous. If there is a douche bag with respect to the story, it’s the idiot from USA Today who wrote an irrelevant story about an alleged minor incident that took place in 2018.
The reporter probably didn’t like Auburn hiring another past NCAA felon, so he jumped at the chance to show anything wrong with the program, specifically hiring crooks in recruiting. I like Bruce and his coaching talent. He speaks well of all his players and he commands a presence on the court the refs listen to. Recruiting wise, he is doing whatever it takes. Example the ex coach they let go due to payoffs, he said he didn’t know anything about it. Chuck Person didn’t give the handler the eighty thousand dollars out of his pocket, people within Auburn made arrangements for the money with Bruce’s knowledge, just common sense. How he was let to keep coaching like Bill Self at Kansas is beyond anyone at the NCAA or the SEC to stamp out illegal payoffs. These same same payoffs are happening now with the NIL in place which is a cover for all the shenanigans going in in recruiting. Auburn, Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee come to mind when recruits choose them over us. Uugghhh.
You should get all the facts on the Deon Thomas recruitment when Pearl was an assistant at Iowa. Deon decided to attend Illinois even though Bruce was in charge of recruiting him. After that Bruce kept calling Deon in the middle of the night asking him what Illinois offered him to go there in terms of illegal recruitment. After getting tired of this abuse Deon said that they offered him something just to get the harassment to stop. Bruce had this on tape, which is illegal, and then told his boss to turn in the Illini to the NCAA. There was an investigation and nothing wrong was found in the Deon Thomas recruitment by Illinois. They did find that two players from Illinois that would be pros the next year were given loans to buy Chevy Blazers if their parents co-signed on the loans. The NCAA decided that these players were given a benefit that other students didn't get and put Illinois on probation.
