Sending off Senderoff

After the release of the Ice Miller report, former IU assistant basketball coach Rob Senderoff was undoubtedly the most at fault in the three-way calling scandal now engulfing IU basketball. Nevertheless, Senderoff was also undoubtedly the scapegoat when he resigned this past week.\nWe at the Editorial Board can’t help but recognize the remarkable coincidence of timing between the Ice Miller report’s release and the resignation of Senderoff. How strange that the exact day that Senderoff became publicly implicated as the most egregious offender in the controversy, he decided to quit. Even though IU had the report complete on Oct. 3 when it submitted the paperwork to the NCAA Committee on Infractions, only after the specifics hit the presses did Senderoff feel the need to quit. \nThough the IU Athletics Department may hope that Senderoff’s departure marks the end to this sordid affair, the upshot will continue to resonate throughout the season. If Senderoff’s reward for setting up the calls was an untimely boot out the door, we wonder what’s in store for Kelvin Sampson. After all, while Senderoff was the self-described “operator” on the impermissible three-way calls, it was Sampson doing the talking.\nFurthermore, we are compelled to ask: Who had the bright idea to run these three-way calls anyways? From the Ice Miller report, it would appear the answer is no one. The NCAA Committee on Infractions had made it extremely clear that three-way calls were impermissible. \nOn the matter of discussing the calls, Ice Miller attorney Robin Green Harris said, “We questioned the coaches quite hard on that point ... and the fact is they reported very consistently that they had no conversations on this matter.” You’ll have to forgive us for not believing that there was zero discussion of violating a significant part of Kelvin Sampson’s NCAA sanctions.\nThe continuing firestorm surrounding this current controversy puts IU at a crossroads in our identity as a University. Are we willing to win at any cost, trying to weasel around NCAA regulations? \nOr are we a university with character, accepting our consequences and taking responsibility for our actions? Coming clean on these questionable calls may be a good start to this path, but if anything, these recent revelations demonstrate the price of playing dirty to win and the alarming ease with which violations were committed. \nIf we keep bending the rules and our reputations in order to go deep in the NCAA tournament, odds are that many fans will forgive the basketball program’s sins. The University must decide whether its integrity is worth the increased revenue, media coverage and pride of athletic success. \nIf, however, we want to actually abide by the rules and run an honest program, IU must dig further into the allegations and keep coach Sampson on an extremely short leash, regardless of his success or failure in winning games. President McRobbie, Athletics Director Rick Greenspan and coach Sampson must be ready to accept responsibility for whatever they decide, instead of just sending off an assistant.