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Username Post: Article: Jerome Took Bribes at Penn        (Topic#21715)
pennsive 
Junior
Posts: 200

Reg: 11-21-04
07-28-18 10:45 AM - Post#259571    
    In response to AsiaSunset

As someone pointed out earlier, there are scenarios consistent with innocence or naivety, but still ethically challenged. One such is Jerome’s being hired to work with a kid who was not D-1 material. In return he is paid a stipend with a two tiered bonus: the first if he becomes recruitable as a D-1 athlete and the second if he is admitted to an Ivy League school. Assuming he had the grades and boards to put him in the admitable pool anyway, and assuming Jerome was impressed with his work ethic on the court, Jerome may have thought it was a win-win without any thought given to the appearance of a bribe. Perhaps he did pay taxes on all of it, or that part which he viewed as a stipend, and not the bonus which he viewed as a gift. This is not clear- cut, so don’t convict him before all the evidence is in.

 
Stuart Suss 
PhD Student
Posts: 1439

Loc: Chester County, Pennsylva...
Reg: 11-21-04
10-05-18 08:29 PM - Post#262064    
    In response to pennsive

Jerome Allen has pled guilty to bribery.

Boston Herald Story

 
Jeff2sf 
Postdoc
Posts: 4466

Reg: 11-22-04
10-05-18 08:54 PM - Post#262065    
    In response to Stuart Suss

never meet your teenage heroes.

or alternatively, don't meet them and also don't HIRE THEM WITH NINE FUC&ING GAMES OF EXPERIENCE WHEN YOU'VE JUST PREVIOUSLY FIRED THE ANTICHRIST WHO EVERYONE FUC&ING TOLD YOU WOULD BE A BAD HIRE AND ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHH

yeah, but don't meet your heroes

 
palestra38 
Professor
Posts: 32680

Reg: 11-21-04
10-05-18 08:56 PM - Post#262066    
    In response to Stuart Suss

I'm just amazed that the Celtics penalty is a 2 week meaningless suspension. To me, his mea culpa, after getting caught, is all words.

 
Jeff2sf 
Postdoc
Posts: 4466

Reg: 11-22-04
10-05-18 09:01 PM - Post#262067    
    In response to palestra38

i'm not that surprised. he'll never work in college again but when has nba ever cared about ncaa violations. markelle fultz's name (among others) is being brought up in the ncaa trial and i would be outraged if he was suspended for him or his parents taking money. victimless crime and a stupid system.

this case has a "victim" in that some other 5'10 heady white dude from an upper middle class family could have been coded an athlete and gained admission to Penn. And don't get me wrong, I'm urinated at him and i'm sure penn administration is furious with him. but it's a dumb butt system that would never have occurred with scholarships. so whaddyagonnado?

 
palestra38 
Professor
Posts: 32680

Reg: 11-21-04
10-05-18 10:19 PM - Post#262069    
    In response to Jeff2sf

All of that is true, but the real issue is that Jerome Allen took a bribe so as to betray Penn, his employer and for him, something a whole lot more.

I've long been a critic of Jerome based on my personal knowledge of what a dick he was to student journalists, something that was the opposite of his mentor, Fran Dunphy. But this shows that the supposed "character" he was reputed to have was a fraud, something I am particular attuned to in the age of Trump. And with respect to the Celtics, it's not just NCAA violations, it's pleading guilty to a federal crime. I would hope that the NBA does something more substantive than what the Celtics did.

 
SRP 
Postdoc
Posts: 4894

Reg: 02-04-06
10-07-18 11:15 AM - Post#262090    
    In response to palestra38

I think it's pretty clear that Allen is too well-networked in the NBA for him to get in much trouble for this. Unless there's some angry Penn alum in the league office.

What always makes me laugh with statements of this type is when the perp talks about violating "high standards." Dude, you violated pretty low standards here.

 
TheLine 
Professor
Posts: 5597

Age: 60
Reg: 07-07-09
Article: Jerome Took Bribes at Penn
10-07-18 11:59 AM - Post#262092    
    In response to SRP

To be fair that isn't exactly what Allen said.

  • Quote:
I did not live up to the high standards I set for myself, or were expected of me in the position that I held.


I'd agree that he didn't live up to low standards either. This was done for no reason other than to stuff his own pockets and was shameful. It's an embarrassment.


 
final479 
Freshman
Posts: 49

Reg: 01-19-08
10-07-18 01:05 PM - Post#262093    
    In response to TheLine

I agree that the NCAA and recruiting guidelines are a farce. However, this is sad on many levels.


 
rbg 
Postdoc
Posts: 3044

Reg: 10-20-14
10-09-18 09:15 AM - Post#262212    
    In response to final479

According to an article in Philly.com, Penn Athletics has mentioned that the external review of Allen is almost done.

http://www2.philly.com/philly/sports/college s/penn...

"Penn Athletics is currently in the final stages of the independent review regarding the situation involving former head men's basketball coach Jerome Allen. Until that process is finalized, it is not appropriate to comment further."

In dealing with this significant, but relatively low level controversy, Penn Athletics and the school's administration have not handled themselves well. They have not been forthcoming with respect to who is doing the investigation and the scope of the review.

Also, the length of time it has taken to do the investigation of Jerome Allen, whether he has decided to cooperate or not, seems way too long. The Athletic Department announced that outside counsel was hired to investigate the matter on July 23rd. It is now just over 11 weeks. In comparison, the University of Maryland, which is dealing with much more serious issues, had a 14 week external investigation into the death of sophomore football player Jordan McNair, and the investigation into the toxic culture of its football program is reported to end next week - 10 weeks after it was initiated. Since it is taking so long for Penn's external review, maybe the person or people are looking at more than Jerome Allen.

Given the lack of information, it would seem that a private university, especially one that does not have athletics as a major component to the fabric of the school or the city, can keep things as quiet as it wants. Hopefully, the announcement of the investigation's results will cause the school to be more open about what happened, what they will do to prevent this happening in the future and what punishments they will deliver to any guilty parties.

 
SteveChop 
PhD Student
Posts: 1150

Reg: 07-28-07
10-09-18 10:13 AM - Post#262223    
    In response to rbg

As has been noted previously, the inclusion of an athlete who may or may not be at a Division I level in order to increase AI is not anything new. Assuming that this was an isolated incident, the only thing new here is that a coach was given compensation for doing so.

One thing that can be done is to eliminate or dramatically revise the AI index system, initially introduced as an anti-Penn measure. That will unfortunately create different issues.




 
palestra38 
Professor
Posts: 32680

Reg: 11-21-04
10-09-18 10:17 AM - Post#262225    
    In response to SteveChop

Translation: " a coach was given compensation for doing so." = a coach took a bribe to defraud his institution into accepting a student who had no plans to play basketball. In other words, this was a fraudulent scheme and the victim was Penn, deprived of the loyalty of its employee.

This has nothing to do with AI.


 
AsiaSunset 
Postdoc
Posts: 4350

Reg: 11-21-04
10-09-18 11:06 AM - Post#262239    
    In response to palestra38

Kind of agree with both of you. Jerome obviously took a bribe. The issue of utilizing marginal players to reach a school mandated team AI bogey is nothing new though. All the Ivies do it. It used to be far more prevalent in Penn bb back when we had a JV team. There were often marginal D1 kids who were in recruiting classes who never made a varsity roster.

So whether or not anyone at Penn other than Jerome knew about the money remains to be seen but I don't think taking a marginal kid with the right AI and coded by a coach would be a novel experience for the admissions dept that would raise too many eyebrows. I also don't think Nat Graham would have been elevated to associate head coach if he thought Esformes was anything but an AI booster. Did Ira know more? I doubt it, but the external investigation has yet to reveal its findings.

I suspect Jerome is cooperating with the investigation now that his case appears to be settled and he has pleaded guilty - but I don't know that that's a fact.

 
penn nation 
Professor
Posts: 21081

Reg: 12-02-04
10-09-18 01:38 PM - Post#262266    
    In response to AsiaSunset

  • AsiaSunset Said:
It used to be far more prevalent in Penn bb back when we had a JV team. There were often marginal D1 kids who were in recruiting classes who never made a varsity roster.



Wow. You just threw me for a loop. A dear childhood rabbi of mine who later spoke under the chuppah at my wedding passed away this weekend. He always spoke to me and my brother about his time on the JV at Penn in the early 70s and the stars of the team.

He certainly could play basketball (although he never made it to varsity), but he was also brilliant and would have gotten into Penn regardless. Little doubt based on what you say that AI played some sort of role here.


 
palestra38 
Professor
Posts: 32680

Reg: 11-21-04
10-09-18 01:42 PM - Post#262267    
    In response to penn nation

Well, early '70s was well before AI and this (from my understanding) had nothing to do with AI---rather, it was an attempt to help a kid who was borderline in regular admissions to get over the hump....for a fee.

 
SteveChop 
PhD Student
Posts: 1150

Reg: 07-28-07
10-09-18 04:35 PM - Post#262297    
    In response to penn nation

You say that your late friend (sorry for your loss) "would have gotten into Penn anyway". My comment to that is "maybe" (more likely in the era you reference). As we all know, many students are rejected from Penn, not because they are not smart or can't do the work but it's just a numbers game. That COULD have happened to your friend. Based on what we have heard about young Mr. Esformes, he is doing fine at Penn and is a senior scheduled to graduate in May. The issue here is whether listing him for athletic preference gave him a leg up (probably - though it doesn't mean he would not have been admitted under regular admissions criteria) but as noted above, that is/was not an uncommon practice in the Ivies to boost AI. The only issue I see here is that Jerome took money to list him that way - if no money had changed hands, I believe that this would have been a non-issue. The fact that his father is a defendant in a billion dollar plus alleged fraud is why this was discovered, a lawsuit that I don't think (not sure) had begun at the time of young Morris' admission.


Did it happen before, whether at Penn or any other Ivy? Who knows? If the spotlight was not on the parent, I don't know that this would have been discovered.

 
rbg 
Postdoc
Posts: 3044

Reg: 10-20-14
10-09-18 05:07 PM - Post#262298    
    In response to SteveChop

I believe you are correct that this all came to light because of the lawsuit against the young man's father. However, it does not make what Jerome's actions acceptable.

While no writer or interviewed expert can recall anything like this happening before, it does not mean that it has not happened.

Looking at this objectively -
Mr. Esformes wants to get his son into an elite private school. The young man is a good student with a solid application, but these schools have between a 5-15% acceptance rate. The parent could go the route of making a sizable (and public?) donation to one of these schools, but that is quite pricey. Why not spend the equivalent of one year's tuition, room & board to get the student on the recruited athletes list and increase the likelihood of an acceptance. With the Ivy League's AI issue, it would not raise a red flag if a lower rated athlete gets a recruitment spot.

Going back to my Maryland comments from earlier, in 2017 a faculty member asked their President, Wallace Loh, how he could be certain that the university is “protected from the corrupting influence of athletics” in the wake of the UNC scandal. He replied “As president I sit over a number of dormant volcanoes. One of them is an athletic scandal. It blows up, it blows up the university, its reputation, it blows up the president.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2018 /8/1...

While Allen's issue did not cost a life or represent a toxic culture, it could be the tip of the iceberg. Shouldn't Ivy Presidents, whose admissions policies are under the microscope by the courts and the media, be working with their ADs and Deans of Admissions to find out if this has happened at their schools? If not, how can they make the process more transparent so it does not give the appearance that anyone is giving money under the table to secure their child's place on the team and into the school.

 
SteveChop 
PhD Student
Posts: 1150

Reg: 07-28-07
10-09-18 08:58 PM - Post#262322    
    In response to rbg

I agree that this may have happened before at any of the Ivies (I think I stated that). I also agree that it is up to the Presidents - my understanding is that some Presidents are a little more active in trying to prevent the situation (an AI counter, not bribes) from happening.

Of course, the Ivies could decide to give a limited number of athletic scholarships and get rid of the AI which might eliminate this charade. However, we know that someone is going to find a way around the system; the goal is to minimize those occurrences.

 
AsiaSunset 
Postdoc
Posts: 4350

Reg: 11-21-04
Article: Jerome Took Bribes at Penn
10-10-18 05:11 AM - Post#262331    
    In response to SteveChop

I think the likelihood of others taking bribes to code a student as a recruited athlete at Penn or any other Ivy is very unlikely. What Jerome did is both shocking and still boggles the mind.

Nevertheless - to expect an admissions office to judge the athletic skills of a coded applicant is going way to far. Further - the Ivy Presidents are so far removed from this process that they can't be held responsible.

But - I do agree that the Ivy system could be changed to limit the number of recruited athletes and to revamp the AI so that the only relevant number is the imposition of a floor. I also agree the limit, accompanied by scholarships, would make the coaches much less prone to fudging the system.

However - the Ivy League is far more concerned about appearances than reality and I have trouble seeing them open to a scholarship based admissions process for athletes. And, of course, it's not as if the scholarship schools haven't engaged in other activities that would be considered either equally or even more appalling than what Jerome did.

I really think this remains a one off situation - one that we will always struggle to understand why.

 
Condor 
PhD Student
Posts: 1888

Reg: 11-21-04
Re: Article: Jerome Took Bribes at Penn
10-10-18 10:55 AM - Post#262347    
    In response to AsiaSunset

Not that it is the critical issue here, but I am confused by the amount. It appears that JA received $18,000. To my knowledge, gifts to the school that have admissions impact are minimally $250,000, and likely much more. I assume the annual gift tax exclusion for both spouses at the time of transfer would have been either $26,000 or $28,000. Hence, while it is difficult to understand why JA did this under any circumstance, the amount makes the compromise even more confusing.

 
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