Regarding Joe Schad's report yesterday that the NCAA is broadening its investigation into UT's use of hostesses for recruiting under Lane Kiffin, Mike Hamilton's duly concerned but seems to think that the latest news doesn't really amount to much:
"I don’t want to say this is a rehash of old news, but we’ve already acknowledged that the NCAA is looking into this, and that we didn’t have a letter. I guess if there is any news, it’s that we anticipate we might get an official letter of inquiry. But we don’t have that at this stage."
That's good news, I guess, but there's still a great deal of discomfort at having the NCAA sniffing around at the stink Lane Kiffin's left behind. Really, now that it's Tennessee and not West Virginia football or Memphis basketball or, gulp, USC, isn't there something wrong with the concept of punishing a school for the trail of excrement left behind by a former coach while that guy merrily climbs the ladder of ambition? Are they really more concerned with disciplining an institution for making a bad hire than they are in disciplining the guy who broke the rules? Yeah, there's a bit of justice in the fact that Lane Kiffin dropped his on Knoxville only to step into a smelly pile of Pete Carroll's (and his own contributions as an assistant), but who calls off the hunt just because they've found a steaming pile of evidence that the game has relieved itself there?
By focusing only on the stuff left behind by a destructive coach and stopping short of holding him accountable, the NCAA actually encourages the very behavior it's trying to eliminate. Ambitious and unethical coaches will cheat, they will win, and they will take the next best job and hope that the trackers continue to distract and satisfy themselves by taking the coveted scat to the taxidermist.