Apparel-Gate Final Resolution - Thursday Jan 29th

[Play Angry]

I would be very, very surprised if the decision not to appeal was motivated by any ill-will between the University and Gene. These are not just Gene's wins at stake- we will likely have an NCAA Regional appearance scrubbed from the records and the upper deck of Eck Stadium.

Most of us will never know the exact reasoning. As stated before, it could be as simple as a cost-benefit analysis. There may be much more to it. But I really doubt the intent is to extend a middle finger towards a legend let go in painful fashion who has more or less behaved publicly in the year-plus since his departure (even if there is clearly still some animosity simmering beneath the surface).

Bardo does not seem like a petty asshole to me. I will give him all benefit of the doubt here.

[RoyalShock]

According to the WSJ article I linked to Penn State was to pay $60 million to fight child abuse. Part of the lawsuit against the NCAA was to insure that $60 million was spent in Pennsylvania. The NCAA agreed to that stipulation.

I don't have a WSJ login, but thanks for putting facts to my sometimes sketchy memory.

But at least I was mostly right about the overall point that getting those wins back is costing PSU a ton of money. If that is the new precedent for having wins reinstated, that's not a game I would want WSU playing. I just really don't believe Bardo would pull the plug on an appeal just to rub salt in Gene's wounds. If so, I may have to re-evaluate the amount of respect I've given him over all the positive change he's brought to the university.

[shockfan89_]

I don't have a WSJ login, but thanks for putting facts to my sometimes sketchy memory.

But at least I was mostly right about the overall point that getting those wins back is costing PSU a ton of money. If that is the new precedent for having wins reinstated, that's not a game I would want WSU playing. I just really don't believe Bardo would pull the plug on an appeal just to rub salt in Gene's wounds. If so, I may have to re-evaluate the amount of respect I've given him over all the positive change he's brought to the university.

So then the question remains, what changed in the last few weeks that made WSU decide not to appeal? It could be cost, but since Gene is apparently moving forward on his own, I doubt cost is much of a factor. Very strange. Could be something innocent, but there haven't been many (or any) scenarios presented that really make sense. I'm not saying there is more to this story, but there is definitely more to this story. :)

[1972Shocker]

I don't have a WSJ login, but thanks for putting facts to my sometimes sketchy memory.

But at least I was mostly right about the overall point that getting those wins back is costing PSU a ton of money. If that is the new precedent for having wins reinstated, that's not a game I would want WSU playing. I just really don't believe Bardo would pull the plug on an appeal just to rub salt in Gene's wounds. If so, I may have to re-evaluate the amount of respect I've given him over all the positive change he's brought to the university.

They had already been assessed that $60 million in the initial consent decree with the NCAA. The only thing the lawsuit did was stipulate it would be spent in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania taxpayers incurred whatever it cost to bring suit to get that stipulation and to get the wins reinstated. They did not pay the $60 million in exchange for having the wins reinstated. The NCAA settled this suit because they did not want to litigate in court. Government pockets run deep and using the courts to get what they want is a very effective strategy.

[_kai_]

So then the question remains, what changed in the last few weeks that made WSU decide not to appeal? It could be cost, but since Gene is apparently moving forward on his own, I doubt cost is much of a factor. Very strange. Could be something innocent, but there haven't been many (or any) scenarios presented that really make sense. I'm not saying there is more to this story, but there is definitely more to this story. :)

One cost other than money is time. I think Gene has a lot more of that.

[RoyalShock]

They had already been assessed that $60 million in the initial consent decree with the NCAA. The only thing the lawsuit did was stipulate it would be spent in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania taxpayers incurred whatever it cost to bring suit to get that stipulation and to get the wins reinstated. They did not pay the $60 million in exchange for having the wins reinstated. The NCAA settled this suit because they did not want to litigate in court. Government pockets run deep and using the courts to get what the want is a very effective strategy.

Ok, thanks for that clarification. What I heard on the radio I must have misconstrued in regards to cause-and-effect.

[1972Shocker]

[Shocker85]

True, I was intentionally taking a passive-aggressive swipe at our alma mater's decision makers for not supporting the innocent athletes, as well as the heavily-handed, persecuted ones. I'll just say what it is: Whether Gene is doing it for selfish reasons or not, he's at least stepping up and doing what he can where our alma mater should be.

Next question at the public open house for the innovation campus: Will you take a stance and support our engineering students when the imminent patent troll comes along and files a patent infringement lawsuit against them for working on projects that you have endorsed, or will you bail on them like you did the innocent baseballs players?

I don't think there is any dispute that Gene is fiercely loyal to his players, assistant coaches, and was so to the WSU program. To a fault, in some circumstances.

I really don't question his motives at all - he wants the best for the legacy of the program and especially for the men who played for him. I really do think keeping the wins on his side of the ledger are a consideration, but not his primary motivation.

[shockfan89_]

One cost other than money is time. I think Gene has a lot more of that.

Of course there would be a cost of time but I would assume WSU would have considered that prior to making public statements that they planned to appeal the vacated wins. Very odd set of events...

[_kai_]

[1972Shocker]

I don't think there is any dispute that Gene is fiercely loyal to his players, assistant coaches, and was so to the WSU program. To a fault, in some circumstances.

Fiercely loyal to his players - Yes.

Fiercely loyal to his assistant coaches - Yes.

Fiercely loyal to the WSU program - I'm not sure Gene ever thought of it as the WSU program. I think he looked at it as the Gene Stephenson program. If he was fiercely loyal to the WSU program the OU dalliance would never have happened. Furthermore, the frigid relationships between Gene and the athletic department administration have been around for more than a little while.

However, it is quite unfortunate Gene's career, or at least his tenure at Wichita State ended as it did. I have no idea who should get the blame for that but I suspect there is plenty of blame to go around among all parties involved.

Hindsight is easy but maybe everyone would have been better off if Gene had stayed with his acceptance of the OU job.

[1972Shocker]

That might be true, but you don't have to yell at me. :cry:

[shockmonster]

I have a feeling that it was as easy as the lawyers didn't see that the University had a leg to stand on and would lose. I don't know how much an appeal to the NCAA costs but to me it is disappointing that they decided not to fight it. It couldn't have cost a huge amount of money and even if it was futile, they would go down fighting and appearing to care. The optics of this is not good. Just an uneducated take.

[1972Shocker]

Just an uneducated take.

It's nice to have company.

[Kung Wu]

21 players. Under Armor shirt at full retail: What, $60? They got a 40-60% discount I'm betting. Let's assume 50%. Each kid saved $30 per shirt on average. Sure there was other gear involved, but fashion revolves around shirts, so assume 50% of the purchases were shirts. Each kid buys up to 3 items per year on average -- some will have bought lots more, some only a single item. That's $180 of money saved per kid on average (again, sure they bought jackets, whatever, but on average across 21 kids over a couple years of discounts I bet I am close). Are we really vacating two years of wins over $3780ish in DISCOUNTS? You know what, the other 50% of crap they bought was probably jackets and what-not. Could be double what I am guesstimating. Let's assume so and say I am off by 100% .... are we really vacating and NOT FIGHTING the loss of wins over $7500ish worth of DISCOUNTS?

They still paid cold cash above wholesale rates. Which anyone can do if they wait for an end of year sale. But really? Vacated wins? And we aren't fighting it? If it was truly only about $7500 (maybe its way worse than this, what do I know?) ... the NCAA values WSU games at ... $100 FREAKING DOLLARS?!?!?!?!?! ($7500/75 games) Sure they say it's because we had ineligible players in that game, but those players had no playing advantage during those games. And the entire lot of them had NO IDEA what they were doing was wrong. This wasn't intentionally cheating on an SAT score in order to qualify. This was the equivalent of getting a FREE FREAKING COUPON!!! We are not challenging the vacation of wins over free coupons. That's so pathetic I had to make it a very small font. Because that's how brave we are. We are a very small, scared school. That's what we are. Small. And scared.

Since the price for being allowed to rape same-gender children and not have to vacate wins is $60 million (which seems REALLY, REALLY hard to put a dollar amount on), how about we pay Shoppers Anonymous $7,500 (or whatever the amount is) and get our wins back? I mean, if paying a charity is how you get your wins back, and we can easily calculate what the amount was, let's do it!