Deal or No Deal?: Double Standard for College Coaches and Players

St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli's failure to allow seldom-used center Todd O'Brien to transfer to UAB is a classic example showing how loyalty has become too much of a one-way street. Players considering their options occasionally are grilled by coaches and commentators for contemplating transferring to another school or leaving early for the NBA. But there are countless examples of an institution of lower learning holding a player's eligibility hostage out of sheer vindictiveness. How much more one-sided can it be when that lame double standard exists?

After all, the value systems for high-profile coaches are sufficiently open-minded to permit running out on contracts when more lucrative jobs come open. Contracts are understood to be for the protection of the coach, not the team, whose players are somehow indentured to the schools for as many as four years of eligibility unless of course a coach chooses not to renew their scholarships.

The length of contracts doesn't seem to carry any weight as a factor in the equation. At least 25 active head coaches took off for greener pastures with more than five years remaining on pacts. Rather than stiffing a backup player like O'Brien, Martelli should be more concerned about those vagabonds and other peers who each left as many as three different schools in the lurch such as Lon Kruger, Kevin O'Neill, Bill Self and Tubby Smith.

CollegeHoopedia.com has assembled an extensive list of "pompous pilots" who had contractual obligations to schools when they abandoned ship like so many rats at some point in their coaching careers.