Once Pariahs, Now Winners, Final Four Coaches Pearl, Sampson A Reflection Of A Changing Game

A decade ago, Bruce Pearl of Auburn and Kelvin Sampson of Houston were emerging from exile - two coaches who had been handed the harshest sanction imaginable by the NCAA and were looking to resurrect their once-successful careers.

This week, they're both coaching at the Final Four, the 'show-cause" penalties that once stood as a scarlet letter in college sports now barely visible in their rearview mirrors.

Their ascension from pariahs to the cusp of a championship - Auburn plays Florida in one semifinal Saturday, while Houston faces Duke in the other - look different, but no less impressive when viewed through the lens of the shifting priorities that have overtaken college sports over the last four years.

The recruiting misdeeds that nearly submarined their careers seem almost quaint now in a cash-saturated world of name, image, likeness endorsement deals for players who can move around as freely as the coaches while the coaches worry as much about what the schools can pay them as the players they recruit.

"I can make a case that it's easier if you have the funds to compete at the NIL level," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes told The Associated Press recently. "If you don't, it makes it really difficult. I think that's where administrators have to realize: Are we giving coaches what they need to be at the level we want to?'"