Dick Vitale: Hypocrisy, baby, with a capital H

Tennessee fans who flipped to ESPN Saturday afternoon may have been expecting a telecast of the Vols’ basketball game against Vanderbilt.

It was an historic occasion for the cable television giant: a Gameday double-header, with ESPN on the Knoxville campus for both the afternoon men’s UT-Vandy game and the evening ladies’ UT-Vandy game.

What fans got instead, was the latest Dick Vitale diatribe against UT basketball coach Bruce Pearl.

Vitale has never implicitly stated that Pearl should be fired by Tennessee for his NCAA violations, but he has said on several occasions that Pearl would be fired “at 99% of the other schools in the country.”

Pearl’s rules violation scandal and the resulting 8-game suspension by the SEC are going to be a primary subject every time the Vols are on TV this season. A color commentator giving his two cents about the situation should come as no surprise to any Tennessee fan. But Vitale is beating a dead horse every time the subject comes up with a mic in front of his face. He has been very vocal about Pearl’s transgressions. Which might come as a surprise to those who have followed the ex-coach’s 32-year broadcasting career, considering how apologetic he usually is towards coaches who are found guilty of wrong-doing.

My contention is that Vitale has let his personal relationship with Kentucky coach John Calipari get in the way of his ability to do his job. You can decide for yourself whether I’m right or wrong. But consider this before you do:

Vitale has long been accused of having a bias towards ACC powers Duke and North Carolina. And it’s no secret that he is good friends with Calipari and Louisville coach Rick Pitino. More on that in a moment.

To recap, Pearl and his staff are accused of several would-be secondary violations, including impermissible phone calls to recruits and improperly hosting recruits at a barbecue at Pearl’s home; violations of the rules, but secondary violations that do not merit major sanctions from the NCAA. However, Pearl has also admitted to misleading the NCAA during its investigation by denying that the recruits were ever at his home.

Vitale repeated his claim Saturday that Pearl would be fired “at 99% of the other schools in the nation,” adding that he hasn’t been fired in Knoxville because he has “built up a lot of equity” by leading the Vols to 5 straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

First, one can make a strong argument that Pearl is still on the job because he wins games. If this were Buzz Peterson or Jerry Green, chances are they would have been fired…not because the violations are huge things in and of themselves, but because of the overwhelmingly negative backlash in the court of public opinion and in hopes of staving off further NCAA punishment. However, to say that 99% of the other schools would have fired Pearl is hogwash…and Vitale knows it. 99% of the other schools would have stood by Pearl just as Tennessee is standing by him if Pearl won the amount of games at those schools that he has won at Tennessee.

But what did Vitale, so adamant about Pearl’s absolute guilt, have to say about UNC coach Roy Williams when Williams came under scrutiny for NCAA violations?

For the rest of this article, visit View From the Cumberlands