An All-Time Low for Fresno State
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In its attempt to become a "legitimate" athletic university, Fresno State has always cut corners.
I know about this inferiority complex because I grew up in the Central San Joaquin Valley. I watched as the Red Wavers puffed up their chests when the Bulldogs beat USC in the Freedom Bowl of 1992, and I watched when Melvin Ely led Fresno State to the second round of March Madness in 2001.
For a slow-moving region of the Golden State, collegiate sports are a very big deal.
Problem is, Fresno State has made success on the courts and on the fields too much of a priority, certainly much bigger than what takes place in the classroom.
As a result, we've had pleasant experiences with point shaving, illegal "tutoring" of athletes, unlawful wielding of a samurai sword, drug dealing, and oh yeah, murder. Most of the problems in the last decade have stemmed from the basketball program (they didn't call Jerry Tarkanian Tark the Shark for nothing), but in 2005 the women's basketball team was introduced to controversy as well.
The football program, which coach Pat Hill has managed to respectability, sports a graduation rate of just over half, but at least the football players it hasn't produced any felons in a while.
The embarrassment continued earlier this week, when former volleyball coach Nancy Vivas was awarded $5.85 million in a discrimination suit. Vivas claimed that she was discriminated against for her sexual orientation and that her women's teams did not receive treatment equal to what the men's teams were given.
And so we find Fresno State even further away from being a legitimate university than it ever was. More than a decade after Tarkanian was hired and this whole mess began, the Bulldogs' shortcut to success has turned out to be a very long road to travel.
This article is also posted at All on the Field sports blog.
