Zuniga: The Big Ten needs a big cleanup
Issues bigger than football arose in the Big Ten this offseason.
Ohio State Head Coach Urban Meyer addresses the media during Big Ten Football Media Days in Chicago on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Meyer fired Wide Receivers coach Zach Smith on Monday amid allegations of domestic violence.
August 29, 2018
With all of the Big Ten teams kicking off the season this weekend, the focus should be on what the teams are expected to do on the field. Instead, the focus heading into opening weekend is on the disturbing stories that have come out from behind the scenes.
Just this offseason, there have been three scandals that have revealed some dirty secrets about a few of the Big Ten’s pemier programs.
It started in January, when a report came out that 16 women had been sexually assaulted by Michigan State football players since head coach Mark D’Antonio was hired. After a press conference or two of probing questions, D’Antonio was able to dodge trouble and it became old news.
Fast-forward to the summer, and Urban Meyer came under fire for a similar reason, not doing enough about an assistant coach who reportedly abused his wife several times.
To make matters worse, Meyer lied and deleted text messages in a further attempt to hide his sin of failing to do more about the situation with his assistant coach.
What is perhaps most disturbing about the Michigan State and Ohio State scandals is that the NCAA did little to nothing in each situation. But don’t worry, if any of the players got a free meal, it’ll be all over that. It seems the NCAA is more worried about programs maintaining the “amateur status” of their players than it is about programs’ maintaining moral integrity.
At least Meyer got a three-game suspension handed to him by Ohio State, but it seems unlikely that D’Antonio will ever even hear about his scandal again.
Then, in another disturbing story headlining sports pages this summer, Maryland head coach D.J. Durkin and his staff may have played a principal role in the death of player Jordan McNair.
The strenuous workout routine, combined with what seems to have been a nasty culture of bullying in the program, culminated with the death of the 19-year-old.
There are zero excuses for that.
While the death of a player certainly outweighs the other scandals, it doesn’t diminish the others’ seriousness. All of the offseason headlines are an embarrassment to one of the most prestigious conferences in all of college football.
As a fan, it’s disturbing to watch this type of thing happen to the Big Ten, a conference I grew up regarding as the one college football conference that did things the right way.
That’s not true anymore, but perhaps it never was, and the dirty laundry is just beginning to overflow the laundry bag.
