The matter disappeared from Tom Yeager’s sight. But in 2006, the former Colonial Athletic Association commissioner presided over one of the biggest NCAA infraction cases of the decade.
SO Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson (and his staff) were accused of making hundreds of phone calls to prospects against NCAA rules. All this resulted in a series of major violations. Not only that, but Sampson did the same thing after joining Indiana. He and this school were also sanctioned in 2008.
A five-year show-cause order enforced by the NCAA essentially rendered Sampson expendable in the college space. He spent six years in NBA as an assistant before returning to university with Houston in 2014.
You should be aware of what has happened since then. Once an outcast, Sampson returned the Cougars to their place as a national power. They are currently in their sixth consecutive Sweet 16 this week playing Purdue Friday night in the Midwest Regional semifinals in Indianapolis.
Time heals all offenses, it seems. The transgressions that altered Sampson’s career and life are so distant that they seem almost laughable today. In an era where NIL marketers run amok and the going rate for top football and basketball prospects is $1 million, wrongdoing has not only been redefined, but the concept has all but been eliminated.
“I had dinner with Dave Berst,” Yeager said, referring to the all-powerful former NCAA enforcement chief. “We were joking. What’s against the rules now?”
Not much. But in 2006, Yeager judged Sampson and Oklahoma as chairman of the NCAA Committee on Infractions in that Oklahoma case.
“This was a hearing where the type of behavior escalated the situation more than the actual violations…” Yeager said. “I have a very vague memory. It was kind of an argument. I won’t say a fight. He left right in the middle of the case (for the Indiana job), right before the hearing. So it was kind of going out of town before the group arrived.
“This was by no means in the top 10 most egregious.”
But those were the days when – the saying goes – the NCAA could condemn a ham sandwich if it wanted. This is no longer the case. With the Power Four ready to assemble their own team of investigators in the House rules, there may not be much left for the NCAA to investigate.
“I’m disappointed when I see a few cases that look like aggravated parking tickets,” Yeager added. “I’m well aware that the increase in parking tickets can be a problem. But sooner or later you’d like to see some criminals convicted. If there are more of them. It can be difficult to become a criminal.”
But this isn’t so much an NCAA overhaul as it is a (career) remake. This is also a ladder. Sampson still has it. Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione sent him as a gift when Sampson got that job in Houston in 2014. The same Joe C who saw OU’s hoops program get slapped after Sampson’s transgressions.
The same Castiglione who is rooting as hard as any Houston fan this week.
“I believed in him. We had a great working relationship,” Castiglione said. “He had done a wonderful job at Oklahoma.”
After the NBA, Sampson started again in Houston. When he arrived, the program hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game since the Phi Slama Jama days of 1984. It took until year four in Houston to finally end a 33-year tournament drought.
The ladder was both symbolic and practical. The ladders are used to cut the nets after the championships. Castiglione’s congratulatory note that accompanied the gift read: “I hope you will need this a lot during your journey as a Houston Cougar.”
The ladder has been broken to cut down the nets every time Houston wins a regular season championship. This has happened eight times since Sampson arrived. (Either after clinching at home or in the next home game after clinching on the road.)
Nineteen years after the fact, the lens through which to judge/remember Sampson has refocused. How many of us are at the peak of our careers at age 69? How many of us are among the most popular people in our profession? Sampson is both.
“There’s a lot to explain,” Castiglione said. “There was really no animosity. Obviously we were very disappointed to have experienced that and we imposed our own sanctions. After the infractions were committed, there were a few more (penalties). Nobody wants that to happen.
“It wasn’t like we were dismissing disappointment. (But Sampson) was completely open. Even the NCAA investigative staff was noticing the degree of cooperation that existed.
“Whatever the season, he thought he would outperform his competitors.”
Additionally, we live in an age where coaching images are remade like multi-million dollar Play-Doh.
Under Rick Pitino, Louisville became the first men’s basketball program to have a national championship canceled. Now he toasts New York with Saint John.
Disgraced Elder Baylor Coach Dave Bliss has held four combined professional, high school and college jobs since resigning in the middle of a player murder and NCAA scandal.
Chris Beard leads Ole Mademoiselle in the Sweet 16 after being shot in Texas in 2023.
Sampson’s misdeeds were nowhere similar to the problems faced by these coaches. An allegation that he misled NCAA investigators at Indiana has been denied by the coach.
“There was nothing else,” Castiglione said. “There were phone calls.”
For 12 years, Sampson and Castiglione formed a powerful partnership. Sampson took OU – a football school – to 11 NCAA tournaments and the 2002 Final Four. Four years later, the partnership was over. Sampson resigned at Oklahoma.
The ban on cell phone contact was so ridiculous that the NCAA eventually changed the rules. What Sampson did is now legal. Coaches can make unlimited calls and texts to recruits after a prospect’s sophomore year of high school.
“Everything he did was (ultimately) allowed…” former Houston AD Mack Rhoades, now at Baylor, told CBS Sports at the time. “Yes, these rules no longer apply but rules remain rules.”
“It’s important to consider the context of the Oklahoma and IU phone call violation cases…” said Josh Lens, principal of The Compliance Group, a company that assists schools with NCAA compliance reviews and audits. “The rules for recruiting phone calls at the time were very technical and complicated. Additionally, the NCAA and Committee on Infractions expected coaches to document their recruiting phone calls…The rules for recruiting phone calls have changed significantly since then. Coaches have more freedom to make calls today.”
Based on two NCAA cases, it can be argued that Sampson’s excellence allowed Houston to make the final step in the Big 12 a few years ago. Certainly, Houston was appreciated as a market, as a recruiting territory and for its football potential. But the possibility of both programs buzzing at the Power Five level was significant.
“He built this program from the ashes,” Castiglione said of Sampson. “It’s beyond impressive.”
And it’s not over yet. This six-year run to the Sweet 16 leads the country. For a third consecutive year, the Cougars occupy first place. They talk a lot more about the Cougars as this national power, and not about their coach who landed two prison programs in the NCAA.
Much of the past has indeed disappeared from view – depending on the eye of the beholder.
