As I have said many, many times on this blog– if people are interested in going into Sports PR or Sports Reputation Management, they will always have a job because there is always something going on or a crisis just happened! This is the case for the University of Indiana and their basketball team. Indiana had definitely had its issues in the PR Nightmare department, especially with their basketball team. Who could forget Bobby Knight?
Anyway, right now they are facing another challenge with their coach and team. Indiana decided to fire their basketball coach Kelvin Sampson after they found out that he was breaking a couple of major NCAA rules. The problem was not only that he was breaking the rules, but he was lying about it to the NCAA and to the university. Huge mistake!!!! So that is why Sampson was fired recently. What is happening now is that not only is Sampson out as the basketball coach, but the players are saying that they are going to skip out as a way to “protest” against the firing of Sampson.
There are many issues that are arising in this particular case. First, sure– in the short term– Indiana is going to feel the heat and suffer the consequences, but in the long run– they are going to be better off without a coach that not only breaks the rules, but flat out tells you that he had nothing to do with it. Second– this is going to definitely impact the overall reputation of the athletic department at Indiana. What are the boosters going to say about where the program and how their funding is being used? What about the fans– Indiana has a huge tradition in basketball, and they are used to having a dominate team that makes it to the NCAA tournament.
One last point that I would like to make is the fact that universities, not just Indiana, have to look at what they really value most–would they be willing to keep a coach that brings in the points and recognition, but breaks all the rules– or would they rather have someone that is ethical and can still do the job right? There are many universities out there that would take the first choice in a heartbeat– trust me, I have seen a lot of these universities, but there are a few out there that care about the university, who are honest and want what’s best for their athletes and the department, and have ethics and values to maintain.
Sometimes, it is harder to do the right thing, but it does pay off in the long term.
Hope you all are having a great day! 🙂
Best Wishes,
Karen 🙂
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