Athletic Recruiting Scandal at Harvard?

The recent news of Harvard's alleged blurring of NCAA recruiting rules comes after one of the nation's most notable basketball coaches was fired for making too many phone calls. Of course, it's not as if Harvard's supposed infractions are dated to have happened any time recently, but it still magnifies just how serious of an issue recruiting violations have become in the world of basketball.

But Harvard? The school that is essentially the founding father of higher education in America...? It's the oldest post-secondary institution and was founded on the morals that established this country, and yet it may be embarking on one of the biggest basketball recruiting violation incidents in Ivy League history.

A report in New York Times discusses some illegal recruiting practices executed by Harvard's current basketball program, which is headed by their current coach, Tommy Amaker. The accusations include illegal contact with prospects and their parents, as well as going after students who score below the Ivy League's Academic Index minimum of 171.

Of course, Harvard is denying any wrongdoing. But it's hard to do that with s straight face when they are about to bring in a class that is set to rank amongst the top basketball programs in the nation.

According to several recruiting websites, Harvard is set to bring in a top 25 class of freshmen in 2008. That would probably be the best recruiting class in the history of the school, and maybe even the Ivy League. And at the very least, it would be the best class in the recent history of the conference. On Harvard's potential list of incoming players, include players who have turned down full-scholarships to play for teams in the Big East and Big Ten, as well as multiple mid-major conferences.

You know, I always wondered why more good athletes didn't go to the Ivy League. There are plenty of talented players who don't have the size to make it to the NBA, and playing sports at an Ivy League school could give them a boost into the real world that they couldn't get at most other schools. Unlike at big time programs, Ivy League schools can hand out jobs instead of money, and they can do it in a fashion that's not deemed against NCAA regulations.

I wasn't a 5 star blue chipper athlete, but I was good enough to have offers of full rides to winning 1-AA football teams and some of the best Division II programs in the nation. And despite my illusions of grandeur of playing professional sports, I decided to go to an Ivy League school and get my foot in the door of the business world.

But that is not the decision a lot of athletes are making. I won't fault a superstar high school athlete who has everyone in his ear telling him to go to the program that will best serve his athletic. Yet what about those bright athletes, who kind of have the whole package, with both brains and brawn, but they aren't exactly on the radar of every major program out there?

Those are probably the students that could benefit most from an Ivy League education. They'd get the best of both worlds; the benefits of being a scholar-athlete, and the benefits of attending an Ivy League school.

So perhaps those are the types of recruits that Tommy Amaker and his program are going after. That could mean that there is a potential change in the recruiting landscape, where 3 and 4-star athletes are choosing the benefits of an education over those derived from a collegiate basketball career. And that could mean that Amaker is ahead of the curve in the Ivy League.

Now, whether or not he is doing it illegally remains to be seen. Surely, if it comes out that there were violations committed at Harvard he will kicked to the curb. Harvard really wouldn't have any other option but to rid of Amaker. With Kelvin Sampson essentially getting the boot at Indiana, for far less provocative accusations, Harvard, a school where athletics is never assumed to take precedence over education, would be forced to act swiftly and with verve.

Could Harvard ever overcome having their basketball team proven to have cheated? This is a school where honor and integrity is held so high that movies based on those very concepts have been set at the school. And while Harvard is know for much more than athletics, it's always damning when you see promiscuity from an entity that has the motive to want to make a name for itself on a new frontier. Certainly, Amaker wants to rectify his losing ways from his days as a Big Ten coach. And Harvard certainly could be better at more than just a few sports.

But I'm not speaking to whether or not they did it, only their motive. A motive that could change the way recruits make their decisions, and one that could change the way people perceive Harvard, athletics, and integrity for a long time to come.