Thursday, May 13, 2004
Malik Hairston, Part III: All's Fair in Love and War?
Oh, Andy. Why rain on Oregon's parade?Oregon landed Malik Hairston on Wednesday after he landed in Eugene via a private jet. And while the Ducks secured their highest profile recruit since getting Luke Ridnour and Luke Jackson, they also fell prey to a trend that is likely going to end soon. Private plane trips for recruiting visits are on the docket to be discussed when a recruiting committee meets with the NCAA next week in Chicago. Oregon has run a clean program and flying Hairston from Detroit to Eugene isn't against the rules. But it sends message that Hairston is royalty. Oregon says it had a short 24-hour window to get Hairston in for a recruiting visit April 23-24. So, it did something it had done only one other time in eight years and that was order up a private jet. According to Flightcraft, the company used, a roundtrip Detroit-Eugene chartered service would run $21,000 (a figure not disputed by Oregon). A Lincoln Town Car picked up Hairston, another fact not argued by the staff. Hairston flew commercial to his other visits, although plenty of other schools do this. The irony is that Oregon's Ernie Kent is against private planes for recruits and he's one of the coaches pushing to get rid of the practice.
Wow. I find it grotesque-ironic-terrible-unfortunate-etc that a team can pay $21,000 to fly a recruit in for a campus visit, but not $1,000 to bus his parents in to see a game. Or to feed his younger sister. Or buy medicine for his grandparents (and the emotionally-appealing and only quasi-relevant examples could go on and on)...
That being said, you play within the rules. And you play to win the game. Oregon's tactics may have been aggressive, but they were not illegal. Congrats to the Ducks on picking up a great player.
