Former UNLV women’s track and field head coach Dorian Scott has been implicated for violating ethical conduct regulations, as detailed in an agreement released by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions.
The violations stem from Scott’s actions in knowingly providing money to two student-athletes and instructing them to falsify information regarding this money. Additionally, Scott orchestrated improper distribution of supplements to team members and failed to cooperate with an NCAA investigation.
In a specific incident, Scott paid for international travel for a student-athlete and told her to lie about the purpose of the trip, along with providing financial assistance for housing and groceries upon her return.
UNLV, in collaboration with enforcement staff, acknowledged the violations, which also included exceeding coaching limits and hindering the investigation process.
As part of the negotiated resolution process, the university and enforcement staff agreed to penalties, which include two years of probation, fines, a 10-year show-cause order for Scott, and the vacation of records where ineligible athletes participated. The Division I Committee on Infractions reviewed and approved these penalties.
Why Is This So Controversial?
The incident sparked controversy on the famous LetsRun thread. Some users saw a coach helping out student-athletes with good intentions, while others heavily scrutinized him for asking athletes to lie about it.
Here’s what some users had to say:
“Even with NIL, college coaches probably shouldn’t be making personal loans to their student-athletes; it seems like a really poor professional boundary.
Obviously, instructing the student-athlete to lie about it to investigators is a large part of why the ban was so harsh, if not the primary reason.
Of course he deserves to be fired/banned. How is this even a question? Not only did he violate the rules, but asked the athlete to lie about it. I don’t know or care how many other NCAA coaches are doing similar. That’s like asking if drunk driving should be legal just because so many people get away with it.”
“The NCAA is completely over regulated
I support no limits on NIL at all – a normal student can create a startup and get fully compensated for it: why shouldn’t an athlete be able to be paid for their greatness on the field / track and/or their social media presence?”
“I can see that it’s against NCAA rules and all but if SAs are getting paid thousands of dollars in what are absolutely pay for play situations, why do we have any rules around SAs receiving benefits?
Seems like a ridiculous double standard. Can’t fly one kid home to see family but you can pay a hoops player 400k to transfer to play hoops for one year at another institution. Just drop all rules related to benefits received, what difference would it make?”
What are your thoughts on the situation?
I don’t understand what crime he really commited and the sentence seems to me as utterly ridiculous. I understand he lied about helping financially somebody and he got fired because of that. What??