I thought on this a full day before responding. One must sincerely hope that your statement is sardonic jest. The most corrupt university in the NCAA, across many sports, is evidently and preponderantly Louisville. It's your reputation; God knows you have earned it. Cardinals fans questioning anyone's ethics takes hypocrisy to an unprecedented level. I will never defend Ray Reid, not in this lifetime, but let someone NOT from Louisville throw that first stone.
For the overseas dummies, can you shed some light about these corruption things? I like to learn every day...
You can imagine most of it. Someone else can give you specific cases. Schools and coaches are bound by rules, often very specific rules. Some coaches bend them; some break them. A couple of broad categories are recruiting and eligibility. Asking an attractive girl to show a recruit around campus is (presumably) not a violation. Hiring a prostitute to do so, or taking a recruit out to a strip club (presumably) is. Asking a bright student to tutor an athlete is (presumably) not a violation. Having another student take a test or write a paper for an athlete (presumably) is. Coaches want to win and some will do (almost) anything to succeed. Their superiors similarly want to win, and some will do (almost) anything to look the other way when their coaches violate the rules. With that said, I'm sure many coaches feel that some rules are overly technical and so commonly violated that following them to the letter would put them at a serious competitive disadvantage. Ah, well ...
Where does Reid rank in the all-time greats of NCAA soccer? In the mid 90's I worked in the area and would attend several matches a year. I found his teams to be talented, organized, and successful. I moved to DC and the Maryland game day experience was much the same. Retirement in South Florida put an end to my college soccer attendance and now I am limited to the $$$ summer exhibitions watching pro B teams. I actually preferred the women's tour last summer to the men (the games were much more intense). But back to the question - where would you rank Reid in the all-timers? I would think very high.
If you include all divisions of NCAA soccer, I think he'd rank pretty high because of the three D-II titles he won at Southern Connecticut along with the one at UConn, making him one of just four coaches - Bob Guelker, Tom Fitzgerald and Jeremy Gunn - to have have won D-I and D-II national titles. That probably gets him in or close to the top 10. But if you go on just D-I, I don't think he's close to the top 10. Yes, he has the one national title but in 22 years at UConn, he's only been to two College Cups and hasn't been to one since Clinton was president. All-time great coaches tend not to go 18 years (and counting) between trips to the Final Four. Off the top of my head, I'd put Jerry Yeagley, Bruce Arena, Sigi Schmid, Guelker, Gunn, Sasho Cirovski, Steve Negoesgo, Harry Keough, I.M. Ibrahim, Lincoln Phillips, Gene Kenney and George Gelnovatch all ahead of him as all won more D-I national titles and went to more Final Fours. Then you have guys like Elmar Bolowich, Jay Vidovich, Bobby Clark, Jim Lennox, Todd Yeagley, Carlos Somoano, Joe Morrone, Sr., Dave Masur, John Rennie, Glenn F. H. Warner who each won one NCAA title, like Reid, but went (or have gone) to the College Cup/Final Four more times than Reid has. Additionally, Jared Embick (Akron), Mitch Murray (Santa Clara), Schellas Hyndmann (SMU and Eastern Illinois), Bob Reasso (Rutgers), Brett Simon (Creighton, Stanford), Carlos Salcedo (UCLA), Cliff Stevenson (Brown) and Joseph Palone (Army) all went to more D-I College Cups/Final Fours than Reid, though none of them ever won a national title. So, all NCAA? Probably. Just D-I? Not really.
I also think if Caleb Porter had stayed in college soccer we'd be putting his name high atop this list and likely the same for Bob Bradley if he'd left Princeton for a jock school instead of going to MLS. And we also haven't even gotten into a lot of the coaches from the pre-NCAA Tournament era (before 1959) of college soccer like Bill Jeffrey, who won 65 straight games at Penn State in the 30s, among several other accomplishments.
Was there a similar thread about Maryland and men's soccer back when the Terrapins were drowning in tens of millions of dollars or red ink prior to jumping from the ACC to the B1G?
Anyone see this tweet from Mike Miller, UConn associate head coach? 1100808533023617032 is not a valid tweet id It was mixed response. A lot calling him out a bit. Some supporting him and education.
I was more speaking of the UCONN soccer staff more so than the schools. We have had our fair share, no denying. UCONN soccer though...