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Urban Meyer on cheating: If you break the rule or lie, you can never coach again
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Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer had some strong thoughts about coaches who cheat, and he wasn’t afraid to express his opinion during his weekly radio show on Thursday.
The college basketball scandal that has taken the media by storm over the last few days has been just about as big of a story as any collegiate sports scandal we’ve seen recently. And the involvement of shoe companies, a few assistant coaches and Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino has opened the eyes of everyone across the country.
During his radio show on 97.1 The Fan, Meyer was asked about coaches who cheat at the NCAA level. He gave an extremely candid response:
I’ve always been a big proponent of the NCAA. It’s very frustrating to see that things happen and things happen and things happen — some of a very serious nature — and it just disappears because they don’t have subpoena power. You hear the term ‘toothless.’ It’s certainly not because of effort, because we have very good people there.
“I always believed if you willfully and intentionally broke the rule or you lie to the NCAA, you can never coach again. To this day, I still believe that. I’m not talking about mistakes made when you have a rulebook like this (thick). But if you intentionally pay a guy money or willfully have a second cell phone to make illegal phone calls, you’re done. You can never coach again.
That’s not exactly a surprising statement, most head coaches would probably respond in a similar fashion regardless of whether or not they’ve been involved in some sort of scandal.
Meyer, however, spoke so passionately about the subject that his opinions should be taken seriously.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB