The most influential person in Oregon sports has not attended a single organized sporting event in this state. He doesn't even live in the region. He wasn't born here, didn't attend college here, and even as Mike Glazier loves the golf courses in this state, he doesn't know for certain when he'll be back to play them, if at all.
Glazier is an attorney at the law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King. The 60-year-old runs their Overland Park, Kan., office, and has four other attorneys and a former college compliance official on his team. He previously worked seven years for the NCAA enforcement arm, and is now better known in college circles as "The Cleaner" for his work helping universities work through dicey NCAA investigations.
If we're measuring in-state juice right now, Glazier is No. 1. He was hired by the University of Oregon to be their legal point man during the NCAA investigation into the Ducks football program. For this, his firm billed Oregon more than $200,000. And while Oregon faced serious penalties, it avoided a bowl ban, further damage to the brand, and a loss of millions of dollars in revenue for itself and the Pac-12 Conference. The wrist slap Oregon received ends up making Glazier's fee look like the best money the Ducks ever spent.I spoke with Glazier for 45 minutes this week in a wide-ranging interview. He talked candidly about his initial demands of the UO administration, what he thinks helped Oregon get a favorable outcome, and the NCAA investigation's biggest turning point: Chip Kelly's interview with enforcement investigators. We'll get to all that, but first, you need to know that Glazier's path to assisting Oregon began under center as a quarterback at Indiana University.
Glazier, the son of a high school football coach himself, played two seasons (1973-74) at Indiana under coach Lee Corso. The Hoosiers posted a dismal 3-19 record in that span. Glazier said of Corso, "He was part entertainer, part football coach. We never knew what to expect." In 1973, Glazier played in all 11 games and completed 33 of 70 pass attempts. He threw seven interceptions, and one touchdown pass for a 70.14 passer rating. He spent most of the 1974 season on the bench, and the following summer he jumped at the opportunity for a free-agent tryout with Kansas City of the NFL.
"It was very short; an eye opener for me," Glazier said. "At certain points of life, you get to a level, frankly, it doesn't matter how hard you try, there are going to be people who are physically more gifted than you. I showed up and there were players smoking in the locker room. (They) were aging. They had (Willie) Lanier and (Len) Dawson. To a young kid coming out of college, they looked like old men, like your dad. They could barely walk out there, but once they got warmed up, they could still play.
"The best football decision I ever made was to go to law school."
Kansas City gave every released player a handshake and an airline ticket. Most players used the ticket to travel home, but when the team asked Glazier where he wanted to fly, he said, "San Diego." Once there, he took the LSAT, and began applying to law schools. The following term, Glazier was headed to The John Marshall Law School, on Chicago's South Loop. Three years later, upon graduation, unsure what to do, Glazier called his old college coach for advice.
Corso contacted Tom Hansen, the former Pac-10 commissioner who was then working for the NCAA. The two men knew the governing body of college athletics was hiring people with legal backgrounds, and had newfound interest in beefing up enforcement. Glazier became one of those new-era enforcement employees, and rose through the organization over the next seven years to the point where he served as the staff liaison to the college bowl committees.
Then, Glazier wanted out. He started his own legal defense team that specialized in assisting universities with NCAA investigations. He wasn't sure how it would sustain itself ? he said, "I've never been a person who has had much of a plan." But 30 years later, he's become the foremost expert, taking on the majority of the highest-profile investigation cases in the last three decades.
When you piece together the University of Oregon's recruiting-service case with the NCAA, Glazier ends up as the biggest key to the Ducks' defense. He has an impeccable reputation. Hiring him while the brand of the program was teetering was a brilliant tactic. Immediately after Glazier was hired, Oregon positioned itself as having unknowingly committed secondary infractions. I later asked a former NCAA Committee on Infractions member, Jerry Parkinson, a law professor at the University of Wyoming, how persuasive Glazier might be in front of the NCAA's eight-member infractions panel. Parkinson said, "If Mike Glazier thinks he's got a good case for why it's a secondary violation, there's probably a pretty good chance it's a secondary violation."
Glazier said the biggest misconception of his representation is that he's there to cover up NCAA improprieties, and hide the truth.
"In order for me to be effective for my clients I have to have credibility," he said. "I appear on behalf of my clients in front of the same individuals time after time. Those same people, they see me, they hear me, meeting after meeting. If I try and slip one by them, I might be successful, but eventually that would catch up to me. You've got to have credibility. If there's a problem, or a violation, you have to acknowledge it."
A UO administrative source told The Oregonian that Glazier insisted from day one that things be run his way, or he wouldn't represent the Ducks. Glazier said, "I always have an agreement, a charge letter, in place before we do anything. I don't report to the athletic director. I take direction from the president's office and report to the president. I view an (NCAA investigation) as an institutional issue."
During Oregon's investigation it became evident that the NCAA had a naive understanding of what scouting services provided to college programs. Scouting service regulations were beefed up even as the case was ongoing. To this, Glazier said, Oregon's case ended up, "a reflection of the facts." Glazier said Oregon was determined to find out exactly what happened with the suspect $25,000 payment to Willie Lyles, and how the university could have done better.
"No one wants to be confronted with an NCAA investigation," he said. "There's always anxiety when you're in that position."
Glazier told Oregon's administration from the start, "The facts will come out and we're going to deal with the facts, whatever they may be."
Oregon's commitment to being truthful, even though it was embarrassed, gave the university credibility with the enforcement staff. That tone was set by Glazier, who said, "There was never a time when the NCAA came away thinking anything other than they were dealing with genuine, honest people. It was a very comfortable experience." In other cases, Glazier has encountered institutions that were so embarrassed and fearful of NCAA penalties that they weren't forthcoming with enforcement staff from the beginning.
"I've told schools I'm not going to be effective in working with you," he said. "Before we get started, I have to have this feeling of comfort."
Glazier brought the UO credibility simply by showing up on the job. He steered Oregon to act truthfully and in a wise manner. But most of all, Glazier thinks like an enforcement staffer. That's his true influence here. He liked Chip Kelly, found him charismatic and credible. Glazier knew the testimony given by the now-Philadelphia Eagles coach to the NCAA Committee on Infractions was key to their case, even as Kelly was busy in the NFL.
"When the enforcement staff people got an opportunity to sit down with him and hear him talk, they quickly saw he is a genuine person and there was no effort on his part to cover things up," Glazier said. "Frankly, they found him helpful ... there were some ugly parts to this, not because of bad intent but because of some other factors that were at work there."
Glazier said those ugly parts referred to "miscommunications that occurred internally" at Oregon and about "misperceptions that existed early on." Part of his billed services include setting up preventative measures so the Ducks won't end up with future violations.
Without Glazier's credibility, guidance and influence, Oregon might not have skipped away from its NCAA troubles with little more than probation. It's why Glazier commands $330 an hour. And in case you wondered, the attorney, who has three grown children and a wife, Sarah, said even though he hasn't been to an organized sporting event in Oregon, he likes watching a game as much as anyone. In fact, he's even attended a Pac-12 football game.
"I like a bratwurst and a beer and a game. In fact, I went to Colorado's first Pac-12 game with my daughter who just graduated from there," he said, "but we left at halftime."
When I told Glazier he ranked No. 1 on this year's list of influential sports figures due to his handling of the Oregon investigation, he wanted to know who Nos. 2-3-4 were.
Said Glazier: "I appreciate you thinking I'm influential ... Paul Allen at No. 4?!? He'll be back."
-- John Canzano
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