Matt Hayes, "the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network," is a disgrace to his profession. The most recent example is his article titled "Dabo Swinney learns hard lesson: If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin,'" regarding Swinney's accusing Ole Miss, through its head coach, of violating the NCAA rule on tampering. [The allegations are not about NIL, as has been widely misreported.] That NCAA rule is to prevent a school from contacting an athlete enrolled at another school unless that athlete has entered the transfer portal.

Swinney laid out a timeline of communications with an athlete enrolled at Clemson that would appear to support his description of "blatant tampering" by Ole Miss. Swinney, who teaches and demands ethical behavior in his program, aired the allegations in public (after privately asking Ole Miss to stop tampering) to call for other schools and coaches to demand ethical behavior by compliance with, rather than complete disregard for, NCAA rules, and for the NCAA to enforce the rules in place. In summary, to act ethically and to follow the rules. Seems reasonable.

The title of Hayes' article adequately summarizes his opinion on cheating. While Swinney's public detailing of the allegations has received broad support, there are some, like Hayes, who openly support continued cheating 'because everybody [else] is doing it.' Those people and that message not only further damage college sports, but also send a terrible message not just to those interested or involved in college sports, but to everyone.

I wondered if Hayes' opinion supporting cheating reflected that of his profession, but it appears, in my view, to contradict his own employer's standards. Included in USA TODAY's "Principles of Ethical Conduct For Newsrooms" (cm.usatoday.com/ethical…) that "WE ARE COMMITTED TO" are that "[w]e will act honorably and ethically..." and that "[w]e will obey the law." Act ethically and follow the rules. Seems reasonable.

#CFB #collegefootball #NCAAfootball