NCAA ends relationship with Pump Foundation
Amid widespread allegations of funnelling funds to amateur players, the NCAA has announced that this will be the last year its members will have a financial relationship with the Harold Pump Foundation.
The foundation, operated by David and Dana Pump, sponsors camps and summer leagues that are regularly used as recruiting pools for college programs across the country.
The National Association for Basketball Coaches, which made the announcement on behalf of the NCAA, says the association is concerned with the “funnelling of money” issues that may arise when dealing with intermediary services, like the ones the Pumps offer, but was careful to note that the ruling is not necessarily targeted directly any one group.
"There are foundations that have been formed to create funding mechanisms for summer programs, for club teams as a means of soliciting funding," said Jim Haney, executive director of the NABC to The Associated Press. "One of the things that's occurred, directly or indirectly, is college coaches have felt pressured to contribute to those funds - `You fund it, you'll have access to the players that I control.'"
The NCAA has also put a moratorium on a coaching search company operated by the Pumps that reportedly aided Tennessee in recruiting Bruce Pearl to head their men’s program.
“Of course I’m very disappointed,” David Pump told Yahoo! Sports. “Dana and I work our whole lives to build a business and people are doing things like this. Don’t you think it seems a little unfair?”
While the NCAA’s restrictions on financial aid being provided by the recruiting institution itself are very clear, those concerning the use of outside intermediaries have been ill-defined until now.
Under the new restrictions, schools are barred from paying a consulting fee “to an individual associated with a prospective student-athlete or to a consulting firm in which an individual associated with a prospective student-athlete has a proprietary or financial interest."
“We are going to be concerned about the structure of any business who would potentially meet that definition," said LuAnn Humphrey, the NCAA’s director of Basketball enforcement, to The Associated Press. "If you have a consulting firm that is in some way tied to prospects - some of the benefits or the monies could be going to prospects.”
The announcement comes on the heels of one the biggest payment scandals to hit the NCAA, that of then University of Southern California running back Reggie Bush and basketball guard O.J. Mayo.
According to several reports, both players, who now play professionally in their respective sports, received monetary payments from marketing agents while playing for USC.
As a result, USC Trojans have been stripped of their 2004 National Championship along with 12 wins they accumulated through the ’04 and ’05 seasons while Bush played for the football program. Perhaps more devastating is that USC will be docked 10 scholarships in each of the next three seasons and has been banned from the lucrative post-season for the next two years, forcing current and future players to pay for old mistakes.
In reaction, USC has removed any athletic jerseys or murals displayed in recognition of Mayo or Bush and also returned the Bush’s 2005 Heisman Trophy, NCAA football’s highest honour, to the Heisman Trophy Trust. Mike Garrett, the school’s athletics director resigned last week and has been replaced by former USC and NFL quarterback Pat Haden.
While the marketing agents involved with the USC scandal and the Pump Foundation operate in different capacities with regards to amateur athletes, it is clear that the NCAA’s new regulations are actively distancing the organization from groups that have or could potentially be in violation of the associations stringent bylaws concerning the compensation for and recruiting of prospective players.
Tags: