“The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky, it’s going to give Cleveland State two more years of probation,” Tarkanian said. It’s a great line, a funny line, but it underscored how the NCAA bullied smaller schools with sanctions while it let marquee (read: money-making) programs slide for the same transgressions.
Tarkanian wrote in his autobiography that he liked transfers from major programs “because they already had their cars paid for.”
The animus began as soon as Tarkanian left a hugely successful junior college career for Long Beach State. As he turned the program into a local power, he wrote guest columns in local paper, the Press-Telegram. Most of his writing shared a universal theme: Taking aim at the NCAA.
Tarkanian was not alone in his belief the NCAA made him a target, but he never stopped fighting them. When his 1990 UNLV team blew out Duke by 30 points in the national title game, Tarkanian demanded the banner read “national champions” – not “NCAA champions,” as is standard.
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