LETTERS: THE BLAME GOES FURTHER

To the editor:

As an alumnus and former athlete at Southeast Missouri State University, I was disheartened to see the recent firing of head basketball coach Ron Shumate amid allegations of NCAA violations.

But as a journalist who in the recent past exposed significant problems in SEMO athletics, I was hardly surprised.

In that period -- 1989-90 -- the potential ramifications of my investigation were essentially missed by the following groups or individuals: university administrators and regents, many of whom are elsewhere now; NCAA enforcement officials, notably current director Chuck Smrt and Ohio Valley Conference commissioner Dan Beebe, himself a former NCAA investigator; and the small but powerful group in Cape Girardeau, including some cited above, who pushed for SEMO's upward move into Division I sports.

If Coach Shumate did commit any misdeeds, which he denies doing, the blame extends further than him.

Foremost, SEMO's hopeless attempt to compete in Division I sports is the problem. SEMO, like at least 100 other small colleges across the nation, had not business making such a jump in the 1980s.

MATT CHANEY

Warrensburg