I guess my “major” complaint about the sanctions leveled by the NCAA against ACU is the adjective “major.”

How can the NCAA look at the facts and decide these were “major” violations?  A Christmas party for international students?  Letting an athlete borrow a pair of running shoes? Someone getting a pair of socks as a gift at a church party?

This is “major”? No, this is absurd.

Let’s keep some perspective on this:

First, ACU is a Christian institution.  As such, it has close affiliations with many local churches.

Second, churches do charity.  All the time.  If an international student visits a local church, he/she is going to receive some hospitality.
Third, the NCAA rules covering recruiting are not as simple as some might think.  Here is how ACU Athletic Director Jared Mosley described it:

“The one thing I can say, and I’ve said this multiple times and been consistent, it’s a very complex issue, NCAA compliance. So there are opportunities to misinterpret or just not enough steps in your research to find out the exact approach or method in moving forward in certain situations.”
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/feb/15/qa-with-jared-mosley-acu-athletic-director/

So the combination of well-intentioned hospitality with confusing guidelines led to some “major” violations, according to the NCAA.

Here is what is a major violation: when your star quarterback is getting paid by a local backer’s car dealership for a job he doesn’t even do.  That was Rhett Bomar and OU.  And that was a major violation.  Giving out socks at a church Christmas party is anything but major.

Someone at the NCAA needs to learn the difference.

-Randy Hill

I’ve always agreed with Martin Luther King’s statement that the measure of a man is found not in times of comfort but in times of challenge.  I believe that’s true of organizations as well.

Take my alma mater: Abilene Christian University.  Few places mean more to me than ACU.  It’s where I went to school, met friends for life and found the girl of my dreams.  But that’s not to say it’s perfect.  You may have recently read about some problems in the athletic department:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/13/sports/Abilene-Christian-NCAA.php

What’s interesting to me about this story is that ACU comes across in a good light, not a bad one.  ACU investigated itself, turned itself in and even disciplined itself.  And if you look at some of the violations, they certainly don’t seem so bad.  A Christmas party for international athletes who couldn’t return home? Come on.  On some of these violations, the NCAA should be saluting ACU, not sanctioning it.

Even in this challenge, my alma later looks like what it really is: a school that does things right and does the right thing.

-Randy Hill

(This is the first of a 3-part series)

I want to start off by saying that T. Boone Pickens is one of our great American entrepreneurs with a heritage of great success.  Over his extensive career, he has shown great leadership. He is an example of true entrepreneurial achievement.

What we have seen over the past 2 years with T. Boone is a fantastic pursuit of a great dream – which is what every entrepreneur has in one way or another. What T. Boone has done with the Pickens Plan and his larger-than-life wind project idea has been very exciting.

As entrepreneurs, we all take risks.  The risk is that we have to get our idea and our concept across to the public so that we can present our idea.  When we do this, we are putting a thought out there for raising support, raising capital, or raising attention to our project.

T. Boone had a multi-level plan to where he was going to build a wind farm, he was going to carry his own power into Dallas-Fort Worth through those transmission lines, and using the same corridor, he was going to carry water from the Panhandle back to the Metroplex.

As an entrepreneur, when you’re putting these ideas out there, you’re taking a risk, very similar to Kenneth Musgrave, one of our great entrepreneurs from Abilene.  Kenneth did the same thing with the Hendrick ranch.  Kenneth was attempting to purchase a large-scale ranch and he was using the media as his promotion.  All of us the media in this way:  to raise capital or attention for our project, to promote our idea.  What Kenneth Musgrave was doing was promoting that he had struck this deal and his intentions were to cut up the property and sell it off – but with the current economic conditions, he was forced to back out of the deal.

On both of these fronts, you have an entrepreneur putting ideas out there but problems came up.  With T. Boone, the credit markets are simply not in a condition to support a large-scale project like he was promoting.  WIth Musgrave, he put his project out there, and he had the interested buyers who wanted a piece of what he had put together, however the financial crisis has put that plan on hold.

The problem with these two projects is not the idea – their ideas are good, but at this time, they are just not going to go forward.  It’s the risk they take.   They put their ideas out there in a very public way.  The risk they take is that their idea is either a great success or it fails, or it just doesn’t work out to the level they had hoped.

It’s the same thing for the entrepreneur wanting to start a donut shop.  He puts some significant money into the equipment needed to make donuts. Then he puts an ad in the paper saying that he’ll be selling donuts on Monday morning.  He is taking a huge risk by doing that – is it going to succeed, fail or just not measure up simply because of negative market conditions?

Such entrepreneurs are great men and are to be commended.  We need more people who are willing to take a risk and put great ideas out there.  The measurement of a great entrepreneur is not the accomplishment itself, but the risk he is willing to take to accomplish great things.  As well, you can always measure success by how an entrepreneur picks himself up when he fails.

Next in this series, we’ll talk more specifically about the economy.

- Randy W. Hill, Texas Entrepreneur

Character: making the decision to do what is right, even if there is no chance of being caught.

Recently Chellee and the girls were shopping at Wal-Mart. As they loaded the car, Miranda noticed a small roll of money laying on the ground next to the car.  Without hesitation, Miranda insisted on turning it in.  It was just a five and three one’s but the clerk at the desk seemed surprised, saying, “Thank you for being so honest.”

As Chellee told me the story, I thought back about the time Chellee found twenty dollars at Target and turned it in. Target has a policy that if it is not claimed in two weeks they will give it to you………and they did.

The next time I consider returning a VCR to Wal-Mart after two years of use and operator error damages, I with think about Miranda and her example of character.

Chellee told Miranda that she could have put the money in her pocket and no one would have ever known.  Miranda said, “but I would have known.”

I told my Dad this story and he wrote back this note:

Thanks! Isn’t it great to witness your children maturing and evidencing signs of displaying the traits you so earnestly wish for their character. These little “evidences” don’t come about by accident…they come from parents who model such character traits in front of their children.

- Randy Hill, Texas Entrepreneur

Character: making the decision to do what is right, even if there is no chance of being caught.

Recently Chellee and the girls were shopping at Wal-Mart. As they loaded the car, Miranda noticed a small roll of money laying on the ground next to the car.  Without hesitation, Miranda insisted on turning it in.  It was just a five and three one’s but the clerk at the desk seemed surprised, saying, “Thank you for being so honest.”

As Chellee told me the story, I thought back about the time Chellee found twenty dollars at Target and turned it in. Target has a policy that if it is not claimed in two weeks they will give it to you………and they did.

The next time I consider returning a VCR to Wal-Mart after two years of use and operator error damages, I with think about Miranda and her example of character.

Chellee told Miranda that she could have put the money in her pocket and no one would have ever known.  Miranda said, “but I would have known.”

I told my Dad this story and he wrote back this note:

Thanks! Isn’t it great to witness your children maturing and evidencing signs of displaying the traits you so earnestly wish for their character. These little “evidences” don’t come about by accident…they come from parents who model such character traits in front of their children.

- Randy Hill, Texas Entrepreneur