Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari and his team wave to fans after practice for the 2015 NCAA Men's Division I Championship semi-final game at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Every year the pageantry and spectacle of the NCAA Tournament lives up to the moniker of March Madness. But that doesn't mean teams are just giving it the 'ol college try and running out those innocent amateurs, aka student-athletes, for the glory of the university. In today's big business of college sports, the old adage still applies: If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t winning.
The fact of the matter is the system is set up to incentivize breaking the rules as long as you manage not to get caught. We could spend thousands and thousands of words writing about all the indiscretions rampant throughout college basketball, especially when it comes to recruiting, but for now here is a list of the teams that are either particularly egregious in their practices over the years or simply have a history of being worse than their peers at hiding it.
Kentucky
National Titles: 8
Final Fours: 17
Biggest Scandal: Points shaving, improper benefits, cheating on SATs
Kentucky, the first name that comes to mind when you think of NCAA scandals, can chart its trouble back to the 1940s when a team led by legendary coach Adolph Rupp was caught shaving points. The scandal involved three players accepting bribes during the National Invitational Tournament and a suspension for the entire 1952-53 season. The Wildcats received a three-year suspension in the 1980s as a result of paying recruits and a player cheating on the SAT. This scandal came six years after a smaller 1976 probation for improper benefits. All together it formed the stigma that the program was synonymous with foul play.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s the program was able to stay out of trouble, until the arrival of perhaps the most divisive coach of our time, John Calipari. In only eight seasons at the helm, Calipari has engendered vitriol for his embrace of “one-and-done.”
In spite of major hand-wringing and lots of winning, Calipari has no major infractions to speak of in Lexington. His success comes with speculation because of the scandal that follows him from previous stops. Before arriving in Lexington he already had a Final Four appearance vacated at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and wins vacated at Memphis. Drake has actually been a bigger problem for Kentucky, forcing the Wildcats to self-report preferential treatment more than once.
Louisville
National Titles: 3
Final Fours: 10
Biggest Scandal: Allegedly hiring escorts for recruits, failure to monitor an aide
Across the bluegrass state, former Kentucky coach Rick Pitino has seen success on the court and chaos off it at Louisville. In what is perhaps the most unseemly NCAA scandal of the last decade, the program is alleged to have hired escorts for recruits and players in a mess they have been embroiled in since 2010. Still unsettled, the Cardinals are facing four Level 1 infractions, the highest designation possible, and Pitino is being charged with failure to monitor an aide. Since those findings were released in October of last year, the university and head coach have filed an appeal leaving the punishment up in the air. In something less directly related to basketball, Pitino found himself in the midst of a sex scandal a few years ago involving extortion and his colleague’s ex-wife. The matter ended with Pitino as the victim rather than the culprit, nonetheless the optics were far from ideal.
UCLA
National Titles: 11
Final Fours: 17
Biggest Scandal: Improper benefits from booster
Much like the program's elite status, the questionable tactics employed by the Bruins date back to the dynasty led by John Wooden starting in 1948 and peaking in the late '60s and early '70s. The punishments were not levied until 1981 but centered around Sam Gilbert, a booster rumored to have broken numerous NCAA rules around improper benefits, like giving players money, clothes, and new cars.
Though delayed, the punishments were severe: nine infractions, two years' probation, a one-year NCAA Tournament ban, and the vacation of their 1980 NCAA national title game appearance. By most accounts the revered coach Wooden was not a party to the violations but rather turned a blind eye.
In the 1990s the Bruins' first non-Wooden title was marred by the firing of coach Jim Harrick for lying on an expense report. The latest knock to the program came from a scathing 2012 Sports Illustrated expose that alleged: “Fistfights broke out among teammates. Several players routinely used alcohol and drugs, sometimes before practice. One player intentionally injured teammates but received no punishment.”
Syracuse
National Titles: 1
Final Fours: 6
Biggest Scandal: Lack of institutional control, failure to enforce drug policy
An eight-year NCAA probe of Syracuse came to a close last fall and changed the history of the program with 108 wins vacated, three scholarships forfeited each of the next four seasons, and fines upwards of $1 million. In this case they were charged with “lack of institutional control” in a 94-page report that discussed the seasons from 2000-01 to 2011-12. Specific charges included improper benefits, academic misconduct, and a failure to enforce the school's drug policy. The NCAA specifically cited extreme lengths taken to get star center Fab Melo back on the floor despite academic obstacles, a group of athletes being paid for supposed “volunteer” work at a local YMCA, and a failure to punish players who violated the program’s drug policy.
North Carolina
National Titles: 5
Final Fours: 20
Biggest Scandal: 18-year legacy of improper classes
The alpha and omega of North Carolina scandals surround the academic impropriety of their basketball program, which came to light in 2005 and goes back 18 years. It was first exposed in a 2014 “Outside the Lines” interview with Rashad McCants, a guard on the 2005 National Champion Tar Heels. Through three NCAA notices of allegations and a 131-page university report, it was revealed that over 3,100 students, half of which were student-athletes, had taken improper classes in the African and Afro-American Studies Department.
The findings started with the football team, but unraveled with the basketball program, and included unauthorized faculty signatures, grade changes, classes with little curriculum, and a suspicious amount of student-athletes in the implicated courses. The investigation is still ongoing, and the dreaded “lack of institutional control” designation hasn’t been ruled out. Thus far a one-year probation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has been the only consequence.