So there's this story going on in the LSU womens' basketball program in which the coach, Pokey Chatman, announced her resignation right before the NCAA tournament, with the stated reason being that she had had an "inappropriate relationship" with one of her players. It's not known who the player is, whether it's a current or former player, or if the relationship began while the player was on the team.
The story hasn't gotten a whole lot of mainstream media coverage, probably because... most sports fans don't follow womens' college basketball, and had never heard of any of these people before. It is interesting in many ways though, as I'm not aware of any situation, at the college level or above, in which a coach has had to resign over a relationship with a player. It's also interesting to read the user comments on each of the stories ESPN.com has done on this, and the various accusations about gender, sexual-orientation, and media coverage double standards.
On this, I tend to think that rules are rules, it's not right for a coach to be having an affair with someone who is a player on their team, and if that's the case Chatman was right to resign. However, as the player was potentially of age, there has been no crime committed. I would feel the same way if the coach and player were of opposite genders, or if it were two men. Though that would, I imagine, be a much much bigger scandal.
Posted by Stephen Silver at March 13, 2007 04:54 PM