Maybe Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive really had no agenda other than simply to punish Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl when he suspended him Friday for the Volunteers’ first eight conference games this winter.
Given Pearl’s false statements to the NCAA regarding a barbecue he wrongly held at his home for recruits, that suspension – though undeniably harsh – seems somewhat justifiable if Slive’s goal is to deter such behavior.
After all, lying to the NCAA is a pretty big deal. What’s worse, Pearl not only lied but he encouraged his staff and the parents of the young men he was recruiting to lie.
And before you say, “Everybody lies now and then,” ask yourself this: If your child came home from school and said his teacher told him to lie, what would you think? What would you do?
Exactly. You’d be mad as heck. So that indeed may be Slive’s only motivation for suspending the SEC’s third longest-tenured current hoops coach behind Florida’s Billy Donovan and Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings.