EDITORIAL ROUNDUP - BAYLOR SCANDAL

Here is a sampling of Texas editorial opinion on the Baylor scandal:
Houston Chronicle, Aug. 18:

Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy is dead, another
player, Carlton Dotson, is jailed on suspicion of his murder, and coaches
have been accused of brushing off Dennehy's concerns over threats against
his life.

The NCAA is investigating whether rules against payments to players were
broken. Meanwhile, practically the entire men's basketball squad is
scattering to other colleges. Now, audio tapes indicate recently resigned
head coach Dave Bliss tried to get players not only to aid and abet a cover
up, but to besmirch the reputation of the dead player by contributing to
innuendo that he was a drug dealer.

If ever there was a more sordid set of circumstances surrounding a college
athletic program, it would be hard to say what it is. And that's saying
something in the sordid universe of athletic scandal.

University President Robert Sloan has placed the basketball program on two
year's probation and accepted the resignation of athletic director Tom
Stanton _ as though these last-minute actions absolved him of his
responsibility in this fiasco. As university head, Sloan bears the ultimate
responsibility for ensuring Baylor runs an upright program. Having failed
dramatically, it's time for him to step down. Failing that, the board of
regents must make the decision for him.

The scandal is only the latest in a series of painful blows to the
university under Sloan's leadership. Going back to the summer of 2000, his
endorsement of establishing the Michael Polanyi Center to investigate the
theory that life was created through "intelligent design" only succeeded in
creating a storm of controversy. More recently his plan to enhance the
school's reputation as an academic powerhouse has irritated faculty members
for its emphasis on research and publishing over teaching. His ambitious
building program has questionably increased the school's debt load and also
pushed up tuition costs for Baylor's traditionally middle-class students.
And his emphasis and approach to carrying out the school's religious
mission has alienated many alumni and divided the campus.

The crisis in the basketball program is one that could and should have been
avoided.

As chairman of the Baylor board of regents, Drayton McLane should show
decisiveness by ridding the school of those whose weak oversight, poor
judgment, sleazy morals and possibly criminal behavior have caused Baylor
so much damage. ___

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Aug. 19:

How many intensely competitive coaches at topflight collegiate programs or
first-tier wannabes shook their heads over the weekend as the world of Dave
Bliss collapsed? How many vowed to themselves, "I'd never stoop so low"?
How many lamented, "There but for the grace of God go I"?

Revelations in the Star-Telegram that the former Baylor University
basketball coach urged two of his players to falsely portray slain teammate
Patrick Dennehy as a drug dealer _ to protect the coach's role in violating
NCAA rules _ added nightmarish scandal to what already was a tragedy. How
could any self-respecting adult, claiming to be a decent, ethical,
rule-abiding coach, so abuse the memory of one player and the integrity of
others? It's important to remember that Bliss, who resigned as Baylor head
coach Aug. 8 after the university acknowledged major rules violations, is
responsible for his own actions.

But can the latest developments in the increasingly convoluted Baylor
fiasco not leave the public wondering about deeper, more insidious failings
in big-time college athletics?

Is Bliss merely an overly ambitious coach whose willingness to skirt the
bounds of decency and fair play finally caught up with him? Is he just a
flawed individual pushed over the line by desperation?

Is he emblematic of the lengths to which many college coaches across the
country will go to compete in the lucrative limelight? To what extent are
universities themselves complicit as they push for glory and its
accompanying gate receipts, national recognition and TV revenue?

Sadly, the problems in the Baylor program came to light only because a
young man disappeared and was found dead. The deceitful nature of the head
coach was revealed only because a young assistant risked his job and his
coaching future to do the right thing. Those facts speak dismaying volumes
about institutional safeguards. ___

Austin American-Statesman, Aug. 20:

Revelations about the level of corruption in the Baylor University
basketball program under former coach Dave Bliss are shocking, dismaying
and still unfolding.

Baylor is the largest Baptist university in the world, and it clings
tightly to its reputation as an upstanding, outstanding and godly
institution. Reports of payoffs to basketball players, free cars and
housing, and now recordings of Bliss smearing the name of a dead player in
an effort to hide his and his program's corruption have rocked the country.

The depth of Bliss' perfidy surprised many, Baylor President Robert Sloan
no doubt among them.

But there are questions that go deeper than a corrupt basketball program
run by a flawed coach. And most of those questions remain at Sloan's feet,
as Baylor goes forward with its investigation of the tragedy and the toxic
basketball program.

Foremost for Sloan and the Baylor regents is to determine how the athletic
program got into this mess. Obviously, there was much pressure on Bliss to
bring the basketball team to the point of respectability. It follows
naturally that the pressure could have led Bliss to cut corners to succeed,
though he may have operated as a rogue coach all along in his career.

Who and what is responsible for the chain of events that resulted in a
death, a cover up plot, multiple investigations, sanctions and more? Bliss
has resigned, as has Athletic Director Tom Stanton, but did they have an
impossible assignment from the beginning?

Sloan has said Baylor will remain in the Big 12. But it is illogical to
deny that Baylor's attempts to compete may have led to its current bind,
and Sloan should reconsider his position. Sloan, so far, remains determined
to see that Baylor joins the ranks of the country's top universities,
academically and athletically.

Ambition to such a degree can be admirable. But in Baylor's case, it has
produced one crisis after another in the Baylor family: a faculty revolt,
divided alumni and now a national scandal.

Sloan and the regents must ask themselves whether Baylor's strenuous
efforts to become competitive in one of the largest, richest, most
competitive athletic conferences in the country brought it to this pass.
And they need to be sure they get an honest answer. ___

San Antonio Express News, Aug. 19:

The cesspool known as the Baylor men's basketball program continues to spread.

As if drugs, murder and payoffs weren't enough, a tape secretly recorded by
an assistant coach reveals now-departed coach Dave Bliss encouraging
members of his staff and some of his players to mislead investigators
looking into the disappearance and death of basketball player Patrick Dennehy.

The young man's body was found July 25 in a gravel pit near the campus.

Teammate Carlton Dotson has been charged with shooting him to death.
Incredibly, Bliss encouraged his coaches and players to suggest to
investigators that Dennehy paid his tuition and bought an SUV with money he
made dealing drugs. Since dead men can't talk, the coach reasoned, no one
would know the difference.

To its credit, Baylor is conducting an internal investigation into these
amazing allegations.

That's the least the Waco institution can do. The NCAA should be conducting
its own investigation as well.

Baylor should expand its investigation into the entire athletic program and
seriously consider whether a relatively small private university should try
to compete with the large, "semiprofessional" state programs that make up
the Big 12 Conference.

The scandal and compromise inherent in big-time college athletics have
rarely been seen in such bold relief, but few, if any, academic
institutions escape the taint.

The brave thing for Baylor University to do would be to repudiate the whole
system. ___

The Dallas Morning News, Aug. 18:

Despicable.

That is the only appropriate word to describe what Dave Bliss was willing
to do to keep his job as Baylor basketball coach.

The embattled coach was so desperate to cover up illicit tuition payments
and save his own skin that he was prepared to destroy the reputation of an
individual who no longer could defend himself Patrick Dennehy.

While Dennehy's family prepared for the funeral of their son, Bliss cooked
up a story about the Baylor basketball player selling drugs and urged
former teammates and assistant coaches to go along with the cruel
deception. It is particularly distressing that Bliss attended the Dennehy
memorial services and consoled family members after he had asked the team
to make the young man the fall guy in the Baylor cheating scandal.

The public revelations about the tapes have made this story worse, when
many thought that wasn't possible. Former teammate Carlton Dotson is
charged with Dennehy's murder. Family members say Baylor coaches were
warned that Dotson was a danger to their son.

Dave Bliss' decision to compound that tragedy with lies is both heartless
and, many would say, racist. He assumed that the public would buy a story
that one of his African-American players was dealing drugs in order to pay
his tuition at Baylor.

Bliss is finished. He never will coach again. But what transpired during
his brief tenure at Baylor shouldn't be forgotten. It reflects what happens
when a coach believes he has a directive to win at all costs ___

Waco Tribune-Herald, undated:

In a blur of revelations, Baylor University has bolted to No. 1 in the
United States in sporting sleaze lies, cover-ups and coercion stemming from
murder, drugs and payoffs within the men's basketball program. This scandal
is a stunning tragedy for an outstanding institution with a proud history
of integrity.

To restore Baylor's severely damaged reputation, the university must
undertake extensive measures to demonstrate that everyone responsible for
this disgrace is held accountable and that all sports at the university are
above reproach.

Baylor also must put in place the nation's strictest safeguards to ensure
that the university never again endures such a calamity.

Baylor is conducting an internal investigation into allegations involving
the basketball program. That's fine. But to restore the trust and integrity
lost in the scandal, a full NCAA onsite investigation needs to act
independently of Baylor's investigative team.

Baylor also needs to expand its investigation into wrongdoing to include
every NCAA sport it plays. If players received improper help paying their
tuition and expenses in the basketball program, a full investigation should
remove doubts that other sports do the same.

Baylor also should request an outside audit of its books to ensure that the
university cannot be accused of sweeping financial infractions under the rug.