Much of the blame in the wake of the NCAA’s report on Syracuse University has fallen on men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim.

But Jay Bilas doesn’t think that should be the case.

“The penalties were over the top,” Bilas, a college basketball analyst for ESPN, said in an interview with The Daily Orange on Tuesday. “I don’t feel that it in any way addresses the problems the NCAA claims to be facing.”

The NCAA Committee on Infractions found that Boeheim had failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the men’s basketball program. In addition, he failed to monitor the activities of those who report to him directly and indirectly, according to the report. As part of the penalties administered by the NCAA, Boeheim was stripped of wins and faces a suspension for the first nine ACC games of the 2015-16 season.

But Bilas said in this case, the NCAA punishing the head coach of the program doesn’t solve academic issues. That’s because head coaches aren’t typically involved or knowledgeable when violations occur.

Bilas said it’s unreasonable for coaches to be involved in “vetting every paper and proctoring exams,” just as it would be unreasonable for coaches to take on the role of telling medical professionals when players are healthy.

“You want medical professionals doing their jobs,” he said. “There’s no reason that shouldn’t be the same in academics or drug testing.”

He said he doesn’t think the NCAA should be involved in academic issues, but rather that should be left to the schools themselves.

“If you really want to have accountability, you’d hold administrators responsible for what goes on on the academic side,” Bilas said. “You’re more likely to see those types of issues reduced than laying it at the feet of the coach.”

He said that universities should be able to determine the structure of academic services on their own. Determining policies such as who will oversee tutoring to ensure there are no impermissible academic benefits can be left to the academic side of the school. But then blame shouldn’t be placed on the coaches if they aren’t involved, he said.

Rather, administrators such as the president or provost should take responsibility, Bilas said.

“If presidents want to claim they’re in charge, why don’t they take responsibility for this,” he said. “They hire coaches, are responsible for compliance at their university and the atmosphere of academic integrity, so why don’t they take this on.”

NCAA policies, though, have actually been moving more toward putting responsibility with the coaches. A new structure went into effect on August 1, 2013 that changes the burden on head coaches from “presumption of knowledge” to “presumption of responsibility,” when it comes to punishing them for infractions.

Bilas said he doesn’t believe the new policy will be effective.

“You’re not going to get anything to change by blaming people for something that is not their fault,” he said.

Published on March 10, 2015 at 4:45 pm

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