Which era was the most corrupt?

[SupaDave]

UNLV in the hot tub?
Ed Martin?
Worldwide Wes?
USC football in 2000s?
Miami football in the 80s?

Which epoch had the most corruption? 1970-79,80-89,90-99 and etc...

[Duvall]

UNLV in the hot tub?
Ed Martin?
Worldwide Wes?
USC football in 2000s?
Miami football in the 80s?

Which epoch had the most corruption? 1970-79,80-89,90-99 and etc...

Penn State after 2002.

[MartyClark]

UNLV in the hot tub?
Ed Martin?
Worldwide Wes?
USC football in 2000s?
Miami football in the 80s?

Which epoch had the most corruption? 1970-79,80-89,90-99 and etc...

Good question. The problem that I have in reaching a conclusion is that so much of the evidence is anecdotal. Everyone has a story about a college athlete they knew who drove a Corvette or had money. From my perspective, there hasn't been much conclusive evidence about who got paid.

With that disclaimer, I'd vote for an earlier era, the point shaving scandals that implicate Doug Moe and others. Feel free to disagree

[Olympic Fan]

UCLA during the Sam Gilbert dynasty

[BD80]

The most corrupt Era? Parseghian

(I know, I know, its Ara)

[Indoor66]

The '50s without doubt. NYU point shaving, Dixie Classic point shaving, and many other scandals.

[throatybeard]

I'm going with the Robber Barons in, like, the 1880s.

[tommy]

Penn State after 2002.

That pretty much ends the discussion right there. Might as well close the thread. The question has been answered.

[aro24]

Anywhere Calipari is!

No, seriously...it was before my time but I understand that UCLA was pretty corrupt when they were winning all those titles.

ARo24

[BigWayne]

That pretty much ends the discussion right there. Might as well close the thread. The question has been answered.

I would disagree on that. Penn State's issues are all about a coverup of criminal behavior. The cases mentioned by the OP are related to what one would normally think of as corruption, i.e. purposeful schemes to bribe people to advance the program illegally.

[brevity]

I think a productive discussion in this thread would have to exclude what happened at Penn State and Baylor, and any other examples where there was an institutional coverup of crimes against people. Maybe limit the extent of "corruption" to crimes for financial gain.

Even then there's a ton to discuss as to what constitutes "corruption." PEDs, for example, if they are as widely used as some are estimating.

Personally, I don't know if there was an era that was the most corrupt, if we're speaking generally to all sports. I would look at a specific sport and try to determine what events came closest to endangering the sport's very existence. Point shaving tends to negate fair competition by promoting a more fixed outcome. (As would a participant betting for or against his own team, or a dirty referee for that matter.) Unauthorized payments to recruits and collegians threaten the nature of amateurism. Steroids in the name of national pride. And so on.