Bruce Pearl has been at the center of the college basketball world’s attention for all of the wrong reasons in recent weeks.
The former Auburn head coach first began his run of controversy by suggesting the then-undefeated Miami (Ohio) RedHawks should not make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large selection if they were to lose in their conference tournament, while at the same time arguing his son’s Auburn team, sitting just one game above .500, deserve to get in.
That exact situation, of course, came to pass when the RedHawks lost in the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament to UMass. They’ll await the selection committee’s decision on Sunday evening, as will Auburn, during the Selection Show, which airs on CBS at 6 p.m. ET.
Offering his instant reactions to the committee’s decisions on CBS’s panel? None other than Bruce Pearl, of course.
Now, having opinionated analysts on a sports studio show is nothing new. In fact, it’s encouraged. Likewise, analysts with close ties, even familial ties, to the teams and individuals they’re covering is also something that happens with relative frequency in sports television.
But what is perhaps quite new is having someone who is actively on a school’s payroll cover whether that school does or does not deserve selection into the tournament, while purportedly being cast as an objective observer. That’s exactly what is happening in Pearl’s case, however, according to a report by Peter Rauterkus on Sunday in AL.com.
Per Rauterkus, citing Auburn’s online payroll database, Pearl received a payment from Auburn as recently as Feb. 27 under the title of “Special Assistant to the Athletic Director.” Awful Announcing calculates, per the same payroll database, that Bruce Pearl has received $156,250 in payments from Auburn since resigning as the school’s head basketball coach in September.
Now, that’s a far cry from the over $5 million per year Pearl was making as head coach of the Tigers. But as someone who now serves in a prominent media position with CBS Sports and TNT, any form of payment from a school he’s covering can give the appearance of impropriety. And depending on what happens with his son’s Auburn team and Miami (Ohio) on Sunday evening, that conflict of interest could be on full display during the Selection Show.
