"Washington — Nine of the 11 members of an NCAA panel that will help decide the Fiesta Bowl's fate attended a bowl-sponsored retreat that included free meals, resort rooms and golf outings.
The nine names all showed up on a 2008 "Fiesta Frolic" attendee list obtained by Playoff PAC in a public records request. The group provided the list to the Associated Press.
Advertisement
Athletic directors Dave Heeke of Central Michigan and Bob De Carolis of Oregon State are among the nine panel members.
Heeke, an East Lansing native, was named CMU athletic director in December 2005.
De Carolis is a former University of Michigan athletic administrator who rose to senior associate athletic director in 1996. He worked in the U-M athletic department from 1979-98 before moving to Oregon State. He was rumored to be a candidate for U-M athletic director when Bill Martin retired.
The NCAA Postseason Bowl Licensing Subcommittee is scheduled to meet with Fiesta Bowl officials this week in New Orleans, but won't make a decision on whether to revoke the bowl's license until later this spring. The Fiesta Bowl, played in Glendale, Ariz., is one of four bowls that rotate hosting the BCS national title game.
"This is a jury of the bowl's former freeloaders," said Bryson Morgan, co-founder of Playoff PAC, which advocates switching to a playoff system to determine a national college football champion. Morgan questioned how a decision by the panel members can be considered credible given their attendance at the Fiesta Frolic.
An internal report by the bowl last month detailed about $45,000 in reimbursements to employees for political donations, an apparent violation of federal and state laws. It also uncovered lavish and inappropriate spending, such as $33,000 for a Pebble Beach, Calif., birthday bash for CEO and president John Junker, $13,000 for the wedding and honeymoon of an aide, and a $1,200 strip club tab for Junker and two others. Junker has been fired.
The Fiesta Frolic was recently renamed the "Valley of the Sun Experience & Fiesta Bowl Seminars." The report quoted a bowl official as saying some attendees requested a name change to make it sound less like a "boondoggle." According to the report, the Fiesta Bowl pays for hotel expenses, two dinners, two rounds of golf, and offers spa certificates to certain participants. Spouses' expenses are picked up as well, and sponsors such as Nike provide complimentary gifts. Attendees pay for their own travel.
In a tax complaint with the IRS last year, Playoff PAC called the Fiesta Frolic a frivolous use of charitable funds that cost about $1.3 million from 2005 to 2008, a figure the Fiesta Bowl report said was accurate.
The subcommittee chairman, Nick Carparelli, was one of the members to attend the 2008 Fiesta Frolic. He said that in his case, the Fiesta Bowl picked up only the cost of the golf and the meals, not the lodging, and he didn't see any problem with it.
"Those types of things are typical in any kind of business," said Carparelli, who is also senior associate commissioner at the Big East Conference. "I don't see those being a conflict of interest in any way for our committee members. I do think we should be more sensitive to those issues in the future, and the committee is going to be reviewing the issue moving forward ... and make sure that all the members understand the possible conflicts of interest."
Another subcommittee member on the Fiesta Frolic list was Mark Womack, SEC executive associate commissioner. Conference spokesman Charles Bloom said Monday that Womack has been on various NCAA committees and that his track record "speaks for itself."
Besides Heeke, De Carolis, Carparelli and Womack, the other subcommittee members who attended the 2008 Fiesta Frolic are:
* Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin athletic director
* Mike Bohn, Colorado athletic director
* Tom Bowen, San Jose State athletic director
* Paul Krebs, New Mexico athletic director
* Chris Massaro, Middle Tennessee State athletic director
The two subcommittee members not on the 2008 Fiesta Frolic attendee list are Duke football coach David Cutcliffe and Southern Mississippi AD Richard Giannini. Both said Monday they had never attended the event.
Michael McCann, director of the Sports Law Institute at Vermont Law School, said cases like these demonstrate why junkets often cause problems.
"Even when there isn't an actual conflict of interest, even if people can be objective, the appearance of a conflict can really damage the credibility of the group that's deciding on crucial issues related to the Bowl Championship Series and college football in general," he said. "To the extent Congress and the Justice Department are interested in this, this type of finding certainly elevates the radar as to is this a fair process. Any time there are freebies, suspicions will be raised."
Last week, the NCAA announced it would delay its decision on whether to license the Fiesta Bowl, saying it needs time to gather information on how the event will be managed in the future, and wanted to review the findings of a BCS task force looking into the internal report's findings.
From The Detroit News:
http://detnews.com/article/20110425/SPOR...z1KfJOBMXl"
Link went dead so I'm sending the quoted article
Detroit News: Associated Press Article
/
Hey CMU fans explain this!!!! Your AD found a way to getting a woman I guess.
