Appearing on Outside the Lines Wednesday, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum was on to discuss Notre Dame’s football team having to vacate 19 wins from the 2012 and 2013 seasons due to an athletic trainer committing academic fraud with some football players.

Finebaum didn’t mince words as he took the school to task on their integrity or lack thereof now that this has come to light.

“Notre Dame used to stand for something, it used to stand for integrity. Now, in my mind, Notre Dame has simply sold its soul to try and win more football games and that is a tragedy.”

It’s certainly a strong position to take. While Notre Dame did self report this violation, that doesn’t absolve the school from breaking the rule. And the school has had a reputation that they did have more integrity and valued that over athletics while lots of other schools didn’t. So what Finebaum said isn’t exactly wrong. It’s just that it seems like it was a strange thing to say given their recent history has seen far worse.

Two notable instances are way more serious than the serious issue of academic integrity. First, Notre Dame has had multiple rape accusations and sexual harrassment claims over the past few years, some involving Notre Dame football players. And while none of these accusations have gone too far, there is criticism in terms of how school officials have handled accusations. In fact, their supposed insensitive handling of accusations may have led to a female student to kill herself in 2010 a week after accusing a football player of rape. He was later cleared of wrongdoing about a year after her death. In 2014, Notre Dame led all Indiana schools with 15 reported rape cases that year.

Notre Dame was then found at fault for the death of 20-year-old student Declan Sullivan. Sullivan filmed practice sessions for the football team and was killed when the hydraulic scissor lift he was on tipped over on an incredibly windy day. The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration ruled that Notre Dame “knowingly put its employees in an unsafe situation” and fined them $77,500. Notre Dame made subsequent changes to make for a safer work environment.

So while Finebaum isn’t technically wrong, the argument could be made that Notre Dame “sold its soul” years ago. Notre Dame isn’t above other schools anymore when it comes to integrity and that has been the case for a while. And while academic fraud is bad, bumbling rape accusations and having unsafe work conditions resulting in death is a way bigger tragedy.

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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