I try not to break the (NCAA) rules but merely test their elasticity.”
Coach Bill Veeck
For more than a century, the collective cult of many coaches and wealthy alums tested the limits of the NCAA recruiting rules with a wink. The SWC led in “winks.”
The first era that Winkers ruled college sports was from 1930-1946 when the NCAA did very little to regulate college sports. In fact, the NCAA’s primary goal during this period was to deter legislation or government intervention and protect the legal and financial interests of big-time college sports. It worked!! Starting in 1933, attendance and gate receipts increased and set new records every year. Commercialism and popularity of the sport, and the interest in the new bowl game formats caused revenues to soar.
THE WINKERS RULE
In the 1960s thru 1970’s It was not Abe's or Coach Royal’s fault that they missed the unwritten but tacitly approved memo permitting liberal and lenient recruiting "techniques.”
Abe Lemons believed in the literal intent and interpretation of NCAA rules, so he reported OU for basketball recruiting violations. He was shocked when fans and newspapers were upset at him for such a transgression.
Abe Lemons said, “if one coach accuses another coach of cheating, everyone wants to know who the dirty rat was that turned him in." “The ‘winkers’ control the flow of communication."
Abe Lemon found out the hard way that reporting "rule violators" was justifiable grounds for aggrieved parties to stone, disparage, ostracize, and intimidate informers.
Longhorn Basketball Coach Leon Black also missed the unwritten memo authorizing NCAA rule flexibility and received the same get-in-jail card Coach Lemons’ received.
After reporting Texas A&M for a bribery infraction, Coach Black was accused of being a dirty rat. Coach Black was shocked at the number of threats he received.
He said, "I love coaching, but it's all the things that go with coaching that have become very distasteful to me." Coach Black responded to all the mean-spirited remarks by eventually resigning as head basketball coach.
Coach Black’s great story as a Longhorn brand builder is at:
https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/coach-leon-black
By the early 1980s, the unofficially sanctioned Winker's elasticity rule began to unravel, and by 1985 it snapped. The NCAA was all over the SWC for recruiting violations. Aggie coach Slocum said, "It was so competitive within the state that some people got out of bounds. Once they started, well ... "He's doing it too!"
Below are three links that share the "Death by suicide of the SWC" and a chronological montage of rules infractions leading up to the NIL. Many coaches think that 2021 was a Faustian moment for college sports. Time will tell.
https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/demise-of-the-swc
The NIL is a legal Winker’s paradise
In 2023 with the portal and cash available, leaving a team for most reasons is authorized. We now live in a collegiate sports society where money is raised and dispensed legally to buy an athlete. College athletes making money Is good, but I am concerned that the #1 priority of a university is to buy skilled players with little concern for their education. This occurred in the 1930s when fans and college administrators colluded to win no matter the cost. Skilled players were invited to play during the football seasons and then allowed to leave college after the season.
What a paradox that the students and faculty both admired the athlete’s skill set while deriding their mental capacities.
The result was a delusional faculty and student base that accepted and supported “dumb Jocks”. The NCAA rules on eligibility were easily overcome by lenient faculty acting as team players dispensing undeserved passing grades to mentally challenged student-athletes.
In 2023 with the portal and cash available, leaving after a season is now part of the game. Unfortunately, In the NIL era, One-and-done, money, and portals disrupt team chemistry and the team bond. As in the 1930s, there is a chance that in 2023 and beyond, winning, no matter the cost, will be the #1 priority for a university, and the educational role will fall to last place.
The Ole Miss coach, Lane Kiffin, believes the winking class will have a field day with the bogus NIL. He says the NIL “is not what it was sold to be. It’s not name, image, and likeness.” “99% of the guys are not paid for marketing rights.” “It’s the biggest school with the most aggressive boosters…it’s a poor system that’s getting worse.” “With the NIL, you’ve got a lot of play-for-pay, a “free agency…. And professional” system. “It has to be fixed!” The NIL winkers have full reign to buy their teams with both eyes open. The NIL system has replaced all past standards of recruiting ethics into the toilet and replaced it with a tub full of money.
Cole Cubelic, a former college football player for the Auburn Tigers and current sports analyst, is dismayed about the direction college football is headed with no NIL guidelines and guardrails in place. Noting news of ballplayers hopping around the globe on trips to the Amalfi Coast, the Bahamas, and other vacation spots, thanks to newfound riches, Cubelic sighed about what he perceived as a lack of focus that the newfound riches brought. "When I was at Auburn, I couldn't afford to go to Panama City (FL)," he said wryly. He only sees NIL deals blowing up bigger. "Even if the players aren't demanding it," he said, "I can see parents of these guys wanting real estate, shares of stock, things like that instead of 20 thousand dollars."
I hope TEXASONE is not a winker!
Passions run deep with Longhorn fans, and sometimes that is unhealthy for an educational institution. There is a fine line between wanting to win and wanting to win, no matter the cost. In 2023 many Horn fans have chosen to donate to the “Texas One.” A legal fund that pays Longhorn athletes.
Many Texas fans are all in on buying a share of an athlete if it leads to a winning program. “Texas One” is a GREAT funding idea if it raises money for the right reasons. Education is the number one goal at the University of Texas. Perhaps TexasOne can offer athletes more than a one-and-done portal that disrupts team chemistry and team bonds and has a negative impact on the continuity of the educational process. I hope the fund is used to recruit great athletes with long-term visions and not short-term goals.
The unfettered cold hard cash raised by TexasOne needs a heart, moral conscience, rules to follow, and ethical standard guidelines. Texas needs to take the high road in a low road collegiate universe. Texas needs to win on the field and in the classroom.
” The DKR Do-Over second chance Rule”
It is a universal truth that most 18 to 20-year-old boys and girls will make bad decisions. NIL cash makes a bad decision easier, but NIL cash is short-term, and short-term visions will resurface to haunt the athlete. I know because I watched some of my teammates on the national championship teams of 1969 and 1970 enjoy the social part of school without receiving a diploma. For those players who, one or two years later, reached out to DKR for help to return to school, Coach Royal was their advocate.
In 2023 cash is king, and immediate gratification short-circuits visions of pursuing an education for many. “TEXAS ONE” should establish a “second chance DKR fund” to permit qualifying athletes who made a short-sighted educational mistake a chance to return to school and earn their diplomas.
