Vince Dooley often says a head coaching career can be defined by how a person handles a series of crises that come his or her way. He certainly faced some as both a head coach to players like Herschel Walker and as the athletic director at Georgia.
The latest crisis to test coach Mark Richt and the Georgia football program regards allegations that star tailback Todd Gurley accepted money in exchange for autographed memorabilia. Georgia indefinitely suspended Gurley on Thursday and the claim remains under investigation of the the school and the NCAA.
The controversy opened the ever-leaking flood gates to the discussion of athletes profiting off of one’s likeness and how a non-profit governing body such as the NCAA can stand behind bylaws that some college football observers deem unreasonable. Dooley, an avid supporter of the amateurism model that justifies such rules, sees arguments in support of profiting off one’s own likeness as detrimental to what he sees college athletics as being about.
“I feel like if we go ahead and cross the amateur line, we’ll be in court for the next 5o years,” Dooley said. “I think that model has been good for college football, but if you open it up [to allow profiting from autographs] there’s no limit to what will happen. I think it’s just not compatible with how I see athletics and higher education.”
As a former AD, Dooley would not speculate about how long an investigation of this nature might take. He did, however, deal with a similar controversy during his penultimate years as athletic director in 2003.
Nine Bulldogs on the 2002 SEC championship team sold their championship rings in May of the following year. The NCAA realized its regulations regarding the sale of memorabilia such as championship rings were too vague and ultimately did not punish the players. Instead, it made sure to amend bylaw 16.1.4 that same year to specifically prohibit the sale or exchange of “awards received for intercollegiate athletics participation.”
As to whether or not athletes are taken advantage of or put themselves in unfavorable situations, Dooley said blame cannot fall wholly on one party.
“I think there are some unscrupulous agents,” he said. “They see an opportunity to make money off of players and there’s no question the players are susceptible to that with such things as being told, ‘Everybody’s doing this’ and ‘All these schools are making money off you and you certainly have a right, you’ve earned a right to make money’ and all the other arguments that you could put forth, which would open the ears of some inexperienced players.
“While I fault the unscrupulous agents,” he continued, “I certainly cannot excuse the players in anyway because it is their responsibility that they know what the rules are.”
Rules are rules, but Dooley said Georgia and other programs like it are in the wrong to an extent, too.
“I don’t agree with the fact that you should be selling jerseys with their names on the back of them, the school or NCAA,” he said. “I don’t think that’s right.”
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