Over the past couple of years folks in North Carolina have become painfully aware of the governing body of college athletics, an organization known as the NCAA. Its investigative work into alleged malfeasance on university campuses is legendary, sometimes questionable but often on target. It has cheerleaders and detractors. It can be picky, but its work often provides a swinging door into the sordid world of big-time athletics on the collegiate level.
And given the well-known problems of college sports — where money and influence peddling corrupt the world of student-athletes — a referee of some kind is needed to set and enforce fair rules.
The NCAA has tried to fulfill that role for decades. At times the organization has done its job well when it has delivered swift justice, most recently when it came down hard on Penn State University’s football program for the cover-up of the Jerry Sandusky pedophile scandal. On the other hand, its investigation of problems in the University of North Carolina football program dragged on far too long before finding a disturbing pattern of problems that led to changes at UNC and the ouster of coach Butch Davis.
And then there’s the Frank Haith matter. It’s another study in interminable investigations.
The NCAA for more than 18 months has been investigating Haith as part of a larger probe of irregularities in the University of Miami football and basketball programs. We take note because Haith is a native North Carolinian, an Elon University alum and basketball coach with successful stops as an assistant at Wake Forest and as the head coach at Miami. He is now in his second year coaching at the University of Missouri, a Top 25 program.
The probe has been unconscionably long. And last week the NCAA admitted that the investigation itself had been tainted by how its enforcement division had collected some evidence about the Haith matter.
The NCAA’s mistake undercut its credibility and has placed Haith in the unenviable position of having alleged problems from a previous job hover ominously where he is today.
But pulling the plug on the Haith probe would go too far. If the NCAA has enough evidence gained through legitimate means to raise questions about his actions at Miami, the charges should be made, giving Haith a chance to defend himself. It’s not fair to Haith to have this bubble he has no means of fighting.
The NCAA does its job imperfectly — as do too many universities that are supposed to be looking out for the welfare of student-athletes. The NCAA must continue trying to rein in the excesses that plague college sports, but it must do so with higher ethical behavior.