Links from Marie's Sports-Media-Society blog:

Women's game: Not 'as good' as it was?
A story in the South Bend Tribune today reports that ND women's basketball coach Muffet McGraw, speaking at the annual NACDA meeting, lamented the state of women's college basketball -- ethically speaking -- today. "It's not quite as good as it used to be. I think the pressure to win is affecting people," she said, and later added, "People aren't exactly following the rules" but those who know about it aren't "willing to step forward."
It seems that a logical follow-up question for her is "What specific rules violations to you know about?" She added that there haven't been any "major infractions" in the women's college game of late, but she is convinced an ethics committee is needed.

Considering the very obvious issues of homophobia and "negative recruiting" over the years I, too, and wondering what coach is referring to.

The question of "ethics" has been raised and is being discussed within women's college basketball and in the ranks of the WBCA. Consider what some coaches said a couple of years back:

When it comes to regulation, Coale has little interest in getting bogged down in all of it. “‘Is this the number of days we should have on the road? Do we want to legislate text messaging?’ All these ‘little’ things that I know are big things. At the end of the day,” says Coale, “you cannot legislate morality. We better be teaching people to be ethical individuals and to do things with the right mission and the right purpose.”

Russ Davis of Vanguard University (NAIA) accepts the challenge. “In our leadership we need to make sure we have more discipline with ourselves, our teams, the people we recruit and the people who we deal with,” he said. If you are in a position to use your influence to encourage more ethical behavior, do so. For example, Davis coaches a high profile club team. He will not play in a tournament if it includes teams or coaches that he thinks aren’t working with integrity. Additionally, “there are tournaments out there just gouging the coaches,” he explained. “They’re [charging] $600 for coaching packets and the big time schools can afford it. But the lower and mid-majors? They don’t have the budget for that.” Recognizing that his team’s absence can impact a tournament’s bottom line, he simply avoids those events.

Stringer, too, has seen the beginning of the “slippery slope.” “When we get to the point that we will do whatever we need to do to win,” reflected Stringer, “then we teach our kids to do whatever we do to win. And those little kids become young adults, and those young adults then are in authority positions and continue to perpetuate the same kinds of things. Whether you are Muslim or Catholic you understand ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ ‘Thou shalt not do some fishy things.’

Stringer sees a need for some basic laws, the “‘10 Commandments’ of our profession,” she says, “Anyone who steps over it – in any ways shape or form – is to be banned. Until we have a code – not an NCAA code – I’m just talking about a code of ethics. Unless those of us who have been there…provided we can open our mouths and say anything. I can’t be around here stealing and cheating all my life and then step up and say something to one of my younger colleagues who might be doing some things. But I do think that we need to stop before we go a couple more steps. We need to break it down and make sure it’s a great, great profession.”