Still getting over the ND/MSU game. I'm almost to the point where I say forget holding the ND program to a higher standard. Start bringing in the kids that can barely read even if that means paying them off like USC does
They already tried that and it still didn't work:
According to the N.C.A.A. committee report, Dunbar, the woman at the center of the more serious violations, had become romantically involved with several Notre Dame football players from June 1995 to January 1998 and had a child with one, Jarvis Edison.
The N.C.A.A. said she provided such extra benefits to them as airfare, hotel accommodations, meals and tickets to events in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas. She also provided such gifts, the report said, as a ring, a charm and a video recorder to the athletes and, in one case, to an athlete's relative.
Last year, Dunbar, a bookkeeper, who is now 30, pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $1.2 million from a former employer.
She spent some of the money on as many as a dozen Notre Dame players. She was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released two months ago after she had served a little more than a year.
In hearings before the N.C.A.A. committee, the university said it did not regard all the gifts as infractions because of her romantic involvement with the players.
However, the committee ruled that once Dunbar paid $25 in June 1995 to join the Quarterback Club, a booster group, she became a representative of the university's football interests and as such, N.C.A.A. rules severely restricted such gift-giving.
The Rev. Edward Malloy, the Notre Dame president, said the university was ''embarrassed by these incidents, troubled that they occurred.''
''And we have taken action to deal with the issues involved,'' he said.
Later, he said in a telephone interview: ''My reaction is one of sadness and disappointment. It really began when we found out about this because we felt we had failed as educators. From that moment until today, we have done everything we could to find out all the information and have taken very aggressive steps to make sure it won't happen again. So this is sad closure, and we are concentrating on the future.''
Friedenthal said Notre Dame reported the infractions ''and should be commended for that.''
''We didn't find any lack of responsibility,'' he said. ''They were not charged with lack of institutional control.''
Father Malloy said that before the decision was announced, Notre Dame had disbanded the Quarterback Club and similar booster groups for men's and women's basketball and men's soccer.
