Column: IU Athletics is doing it right on the road to recovery

Let’s take a step back from the win-loss column for a minute, as hard as that may be with job securities, publicity and recruiting having a more than significant impact in today’s college sports landscape.

First of all, let’s get one thing straight: College athletics has evolved from an attraction to an industry. It’s hard for many to fathom, especially when that class includes a four-letter organization that conducts its business of overseeing the “well-being” of student-athletes right up the road in Indianapolis.

College athletics and its logistics are no longer the sole means of providing talented athletes with a way to obtain an education while also utilizing their talents. In the present day, that objective is still accomplished — although not as well — but all signs suggest the dollar factor and “win right now” demeanor has taken the biggest focus.

For example, who is to tell a student-athlete that he or she cannot try to earn his or her degree in a specific major because it would be too time-consuming? It’s a highly debated issue and rightfully so.

There’s also the “win-at-all-costs” mentality, which has arguably become an even bigger problem than the “cooperate” factor.

With the spring sports’ conference and national tournaments just around the corner, IU students, boosters, administrators and athletes alike should keep one thing in perspective: They are part of an institution that conducts its business the right way.

Aside from one mistake on the part of a past IU administration ­— the hiring of Kelvin Sampson — you would have to go back to the Stone Age to find a major violation taking place in Bloomington.

In fact, it was in October 2008 when Athletics Director-to-be Fred Glass said IU was going to make contracts mean something again.

In other words, IU would try to refrain from firing a coach who had a subpar season(s) or lost a couple rivalry games from year to year.

Don’t think financial consideration should be a totally disregarded aspect of college sports. It has to be considered with travel costs, recruiting budgets and the need for upgraded facilities. But where does the line dividing ethics and a sleazy brand of sports lie?

Yeah, it’s been a while since IU propped up a banner in, well, a lot of sports. But, you’re dealing with a program still winning Big Ten championships and contending at the highest level while doing it the right way.

As former IU basketball coach Bob Knight pointed out last week during a speaking engagement in Indiana, there are programs that have basketball players not attending spring classes but still competing in March.

There is the NCAA’s mind-boggling blessing toward major football programs to use technically ineligible players in bowl games — another testament to the TV money issue — a controversial issue that just took wind this January in the Sugar Bowl.

Isn’t it at least somewhat comforting to know that IU has an athletics director — and thus administrators and coaches below him — committed to doing things the right way while still setting the program up for a bright future? The 2012 basketball recruiting class — near or at the top of every scouting service’s list — is a prime example.

Look at the academic side of things. IU’s Graduation Success Rate is in the 82nd percentile, a number that exceeds the national average by six percent. The basketball program helped this average by raising its Academic Progress Rate standing 164 points just a year after the Sampson meltdown.

As it has always been and always should be, the bottom line at the collegiate and professional levels is winning. With respect to that, all programs have their down seasons or eras. What separates the good, the bad and the ugly is how respective universities, coaches and administrators handle those periods.

On the road to recovery, IU is earning a nearly perfect score on that report card.


­— ftherber@indiana.edu