Interesting Day Ahead...

[skianth16]

One time in my career I certainly exceeded the internal guidelines (with the full blessing of our HR Department and my CEO.)  I still remember our CEO telling me to have a great day and that it was a once in a lifetime experience but to be careful and prudent in my decisions about hiring this particular vendor too often going forward.  I took his advice to heart and the nature of the professional relationship between our two organizations didn't change.  What did I do?  I got on a charter plane at 6am and day tripped to the Masters.  Freakin' awesome.

You wouldn't happen to know if that group is hiring would you? Asking for a friend...

[jsglow]

You wouldn't happen to know if that group is hiring would you? Asking for a friend...

I will tell you that it wasn't a law firm.  Lawyers are way too cheap!   

[GooooMarquette]

I'm not sure why you are making this an issue with "society."  Some companies have gotten more strict about these types of relationships because of the perceived conflict of interest.  I don't think there is anything right or wrong about that.

Yep - the perceived conflict is the main source of my restriction. For a long time, there were no restrictions.  Then other institutions got bad press about ethically questionable behavior related to gifts, so my company adopted a flexible policy that allowed de-minimus gifts.  Then we found that there are so many variations in types and value of gifts - what is the $$ cutoff at which a meal might influence a decision? $50? $100 $500? - that it was too much hassle figuring out what to permit and what to prohibit, so we prohibited gifts altogether.

At first, people were upset because it changed the way things had long been done.  But now, I've heard people say they prefer the "just say no" policy because it eliminates the hassle of figuring out where to draw the line, and avoids even the appearance of impropriety.

I know others disagree, but I like the current policy.

[Pakuni]

Sure I'll try again.  UMASS had to pay back some of its NCAA Tournament credits for when Marcus Camby was playing for them.

So, one time in 21 years.
Suffice to say, it's not something to be overly concerned about.

[jsglow]

Yep - the perceived conflict is the main source of my restriction. For a long time, there were no restrictions.  Then other institutions got bad press about ethically questionable behavior related to gifts, so my company adopted a flexible policy that allowed de-minimus gifts.  Then we found that there are so many variations in types and value of gifts - what is the $$ cutoff at which a meal might influence a decision? $50? $100 $500? - that it was too much hassle figuring out what to permit and what to prohibit, so we prohibited gifts altogether.

At first, people were upset because it changed the way things had long been done.  But now, I've heard people say they prefer the "just say no" policy because it eliminates the hassle of figuring out where to draw the line, and avoids even the appearance of impropriety.

I know others disagree, but I like the current policy.

So how does it work.  Let's say an employee heads downtown to work on a particular matter with a vendor.  And let's say that meeting/project will consume most of the day and lunch is involved.  Is the employee expected to ask for a separate check?  Is that reimbursed as T&E, no questions asked?  Curious.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

I don't think there was anything improper with Grimes' recruitment. But I do believe that Grimes gave the staff some impressions that ended up not playing out. I think if Grimes were to become available (not expecting that to happen at all) that MU would welcome him back.

I'm hoping Grimes is a one-and-done as that hastens the day when Big Daddy can give Scoop the scoop on what happened.

[WarriorDad]

This seems to be about one agent who met with some players over the years.  Maybe some schools knew, maybe they didn't.  Sure feels as though most of this falls into the nothing burger category.

My employer allows us to take lunches, but they must be reported and cannot be with a prospect vendor or during a year in which the contract ends.  Taking someone to lunch isn't a bribe always, it can be a nice thing to do.  If I take my employees to lunch on my dime, is that a bribe for a reward and thank you to them for hard work?  We all see things differently.

[muwarrior69]

So how much did we pay for Henry?

[dgies9156]

Not singling you or anyone else but what the hell has happened to our society?  Over the years attorneys and other vendors have done FAR MORE for me than buy me a simple lunch.  NEVER ONCE was my determination of which firm I retained for a particular matter influenced in any way by some perceived perk.  Never once was it ever expected by them either. 

And then there are airline miles. If a simple lunch is taboo, what's millions and millions of points applied to free trips, merchandise and dining around the world?

I choose my airline based on which one gets me to where I want to get to in a timely fashion and which one comes closest to serving me like I am a human being.

[GGGG]

So how much did we pay for Henry?

How much was Wally's scholarship worth?

[GooooMarquette]

So how does it work.  Let's say an employee heads downtown to work on a particular matter with a vendor.  And let's say that meeting/project will consume most of the day and lunch is involved.  Is the employee expected to ask for a separate check?  Is that reimbursed as T&E, no questions asked?  Curious.

Yes the employee would ask for a separate check, and cost would be reimbursed.  I have never had an issue getting paid for legitimate business expenses, like meals and such.

[Dish]

Not singling you or anyone else but what the hell has happened to our society?  Over the years attorneys and other vendors have done FAR MORE for me than buy me a simple lunch.  NEVER ONCE was my determination of which firm I retained for a particular matter influenced in any way by some perceived perk.  Never once was it ever expected by them either. 

We've done everything from the circus with the entirety of both families in a United Center skybox to courtside seats for the Bulls to Packers/Bears tickets to whatever.  All very standard vendor/client stuff with associates I did business with for decades.  Lunch?  Like I said, what the hell has happened?

One time in my career I certainly exceeded the internal guidelines (with the full blessing of our HR Department and my CEO.)  I still remember our CEO telling me to have a great day and that it was a once in a lifetime experience but to be careful and prudent in my decisions about hiring this particular vendor too often going forward.  I took his advice to heart and the nature of the professional relationship between our two organizations didn't change.  What did I do?  I got on a charter plane at 6am and day tripped to the Masters.  Freakin' awesome.

My last job, my boss sat me down a week in and gave me carte blanche "do whatever you have to do", I was the lead account exec for the largest account our company dealt with. If I wasn't taking people out to lunch/dinner multiple times a week, then there was a problem. I think the valet at Mastro's knew me by name at one point. I still tried to stay somewhat prudent, and would still ask up front so as not to get bitten in the butt later. 4 Cubs World Series tickets for my clients? I had approval to spend $20k instantly. Suites for concerts/sporting events were a piece of cake to get.

My great point is if I didn't do those things, I would have been fired. In that particular job/industry, everyone was doing the same thing. I had many friends at that particular client that I handled for over 10 years, and one particular story involved a young man at that client was with another vendor (not me) and the young man had gotten thrown out of the strip club they were at. To keep the client happy, the next day, the other vendor took the young man to lunch, and at the end of lunch, he handed the young man a paper bag. Legend has it there was $1000 in cash in that bag.

It was an interesting part of my career, quite frankly I couldn't keep up with the lifestyle with a family, but in certain industries, that culture not only exists, but still thrives today.

[jsglow]

My last job, my boss sat me down a week in and gave me carte blanche "do whatever you have to do", I was the lead account exec for the largest account our company dealt with. If I wasn't taking people out to lunch/dinner multiple times a week, then there was a problem. I think the valet at Mastro's knew me by name at one point. I still tried to stay somewhat prudent, and would still ask up front so as not to get bitten in the butt later. 4 Cubs World Series tickets for my clients? I had approval to spend $20k instantly. Suites for concerts/sporting events were a piece of cake to get.

My great point is if I didn't do those things, I would have been fired. In that particular job/industry, everyone was doing the same thing. I had many friends at that particular client that I handled for over 10 years, and one particular story involved a young man at that client was with another vendor (not me) and the young man had gotten thrown out of the strip club they were at. To keep the client happy, the next day, the other vendor took the young man to lunch, and at the end of lunch, he handed the young man a paper bag. Legend has it there was $1000 in cash in that bag.

It was an interesting part of my career, quite frankly I couldn't keep up with the lifestyle with a family, but in certain industries, that culture not only exists, but still thrives today.

Interesting Dish.  I never had to work with what I would describe as a sales person.  My experience was always with the practicing professional, usually attorneys, accountants, and various service providers like real estate or liquidation professionals.  I was always the client.  I would almost never accept an invitation from someone who didn't have an existing relationship with us.  Heck, I wouldn't even take a 15 minute meeting unless you were referred by a trusted colleague.  Frankly, being entertained is mostly a drag and I avoided it as much as possible.  An occasional ballgame was great but I avoided the golf course like the plague, mostly because I sucked. But we operated in a pretty high tension/stress environment and so grabbing a bite to eat during a tough day and chatting about your kids was always welcome. I never once asked a service provider for anything and I never had someone offer something I considered unprofessional.  That said, I always had the courtside seats for the Miami Heat, all the way back to Wade's rookie year. 

I do remember once being the guest of one of my close attorneys who, in turn was the guest of the BK Court appointed Trustee.  I recall the Trustee later complaining that I was questioning his billing as 'excessive' on a particular BK case saying 'I took that guy to a Bears playoff game.  What's he griping about?'  Hey dude, creditors are entitled to that coin and expect you not to freakin' waste it.  Sure stuff costs money, but not that much money.  Crap like that bothered me.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Dang. Dish spent more money on one client than my office has in their annual budget. I'm in the wrong field

[brewcity77]

I do think the stuff from today matters and shows why there needs to be an overhaul of the amateur system, but I expect this is just a sliver of what's to come. There are far bigger agents than Andy Miller and I suspect there's more to come. I also expect there to be far more that relates to the shoe companies. Hard to believe Brian Bowen, who all things considered wasn't that significant of a recruit, is the only kid out there getting 5-6 figures from a shoe company to go to a school represented by said shoe company.

[GooooMarquette]

My last job, my boss sat me down a week in and gave me carte blanche "do whatever you have to do", I was the lead account exec for the largest account our company dealt with. If I wasn't taking people out to lunch/dinner multiple times a week, then there was a problem. I think the valet at Mastro's knew me by name at one point. I still tried to stay somewhat prudent, and would still ask up front so as not to get bitten in the butt later. 4 Cubs World Series tickets for my clients? I had approval to spend $20k instantly. Suites for concerts/sporting events were a piece of cake to get.

My great point is if I didn't do those things, I would have been fired. In that particular job/industry, everyone was doing the same thing. I had many friends at that particular client that I handled for over 10 years, and one particular story involved a young man at that client was with another vendor (not me) and the young man had gotten thrown out of the strip club they were at. To keep the client happy, the next day, the other vendor took the young man to lunch, and at the end of lunch, he handed the young man a paper bag. Legend has it there was $1000 in cash in that bag.

It was an interesting part of my career, quite frankly I couldn't keep up with the lifestyle with a family, but in certain industries, that culture not only exists, but still thrives today.

My closest experience to that was law firm recruitment. I was lucky enough to have a summer clerkship (aka three-month party) at a big firm in Pittsburgh, and the entertainment was crazy. Two or three-hour lunches at high-end restaurants nearly every day, seats in the firm's box for Pirates games a couple of times a week, happy hours most every day, country club parties, weekday afternoons at a water park. And then they gave us all a big check for all the "work" we did. Yeah, I drafted a few memos and such, but it was pretty apparent they had already decided that we all had jobs after graduation as long as we didn't shtup some partner's wife.

That was back in the early 90s when the legal job market was still pretty good. I hear things are quite a bit tighter now.

By the way, I didn't take the job.

[muwarrior69]

How much was Wally's scholarship worth?

...about the same as Sam's.

[dgies9156]

Keep in mind why a lot of seemingly petty rules and regulations exist.

I don't work for the government and the bulk of what we spend as consultants is on lunches or dinners. Most of the time, we meet with prospective clients in their offices or in conference rooms. The goal is to simply make their lives easier.  I have Chicago Bears tickets at my disposal (they are my personal season tickets), but who the heck wants those!

What I can tell you is that if you don't govern gratuities and incentives to some degree, large corporate types and deep pockets folks will have an incredible advantage. Decisions about who to hire or what to buy will be made for reasons other than what they should be made -- competency, fit, lowest cost, best service etc.

The same holds for college basketball (and football, I might add). If you take inducements out of the equation, the theoretical decision should be made based on what is best for the so-called student athlete. A college has a better educational program in what the student athlete seeks to study. Or, the college can get him or her to the professional ranks faster. Or whatever is critical to the student athlete. But when you begin throwing money around, the perceived altruism is clouded by the money. The student becomes secondary to the cash flow and who can most effectively compensate the stakeholders around the student athlete.

I'm not living in the real world, I suspect. But if your first interest is the student athlete , then the NCAA hammers the hell out of anyone on the list. What's more likely to happen is that Duke gets pass and North Carolina -- Charlotte gets the death penalty.

[jesmu84]

In the event wojo gets fired this season or next, it appears Sean Miller might be available

[GB Warrior]

Sean Miller just gave this probe a violent shove into legitimate for the NCAA

[wadesworld]

It appears that the "nothing burger" yellers jumped the gun a bit.

[TallTitan34]

Miller captured on wiretap paying recruit $100K.

[WarriorDad]

Wasn't Sean Miller someone MU wanted some time ago?  Fuzzy memory.  Did Miller do this at Xavier before Arizona?  Is brother Archie doing same thing?  Not going to end well in the desert. 

[GB Warrior]

Wasn't Sean Miller someone MU wanted some time ago?  Fuzzy memory.  Did Miller do this at Xavier before Arizona?  Is brother Archie doing same thing?  Not going to end well in the desert.

I doubt there were any recruits worth paying for in the Sean Miller years

[GooooMarquette]

It appears that the "nothing burger" yellers jumped the gun a bit.

Yep.  Quickly turning into a something burger.