Mike, I think there are a few camps: those who like Adam, those who don't like Adam, and those who are agnostic about him but have been a little "worried", for want of a better term. I fall into the last camp.
Consiglieri had a nice post about spirit and letter, yesterday I think. Coming from a company where that was a big deal, it is thus a big deal to me. I always saw some potential issues with that as it pertained to Adam.
I am happy for his financial support, don't get me wrong. The only...ONLY...thing that ever worried me was how in your face he was about his support. And the ONLY reason that worried me was the NCAA. The NCAA is impotent, can we all agree upon that? And being impotent, it is important to them to "look busy." What better way to look busy than say "hey, this guy in CNY is sending up a bat signal, let's check it out."
Even if he is 100% legit, the last thing you want to hear on ESPN is "The NCAA is investigation twice-punished Syracuse basketball." Whether we are clean or not, nobody will remember the outcome. Also, you never know what they might find when they are sniffing around, so that is another reason to not give them the ammo to start.
I'm assuming that the Chancellor has not taken this step lightly, nor in isolation. I am guessing that he had tons of input from other power brokers within the SU family. Just because he has shown the good sense to not get into a public mud-slinging battle about it doesn't mean that it was an impulsive decision.
You and I are both rabid fans, Mike, although my emotional connection to SU sports is becoming "not what it once was". We are stuck witnessing something beyond our control hitting us at the speed of light. I always go back to my Grand-Neice. She competed in a very minor sport at SU. The women got shockingly little $$$, had to pay for a number of things out of their own pockets, but were uniformly outstanding students and loved their sport. There is a purity in that that has always been lacking in the big money sports and now is exploding like a comet hitting the dinosaurs.