NCAA Football recruiting violations have dominated the headlines of college football this off season. The most recent involves my favorite team, the Miami Hurricanes, so I figure it's time I weigh in on this. First, we had almost a season-long controversy over Cam Newton and pay-to-play allegations that his father had requested from multiple institutions. To his credit, he managed to shut out all the outside noise, win the Heisman Trophy and the National Championship. Since the season has ended, we have seen Ohio State dismiss Terrelle Pryor and their coach Jim Tressell resign over players selling their own jerseys and rings they had won for Big 10 titles for cash or free tattoos. Alabama, the 2010 BCS Champion, has had players signing memorabilia for a man who supposedly isn't selling it, but simply displaying it, allegedly.
The Oregon Ducks, 2011 BCS Runners-up, have their own scouting scandal that they are dealing with. Many teams are now concerned over the fact that the Texas Longhorns have their own television station which they plan on broadcasting high school games on, which is viewed as a potential unfair recruiting advantage. North Carolina recently had the most players of any institution selected in the NFL Draft this past year, but several didn't play a snap this season over benefits given that broke NCAA rules. Since this summer began we have seen more violations surface, their coach, Butch Davis fired and their AD resign. Now my beloved Miami Hurricanes are embroiled in their own potential scandal, which more than likely will result in discipline to some major degree if proven.
My question is this: when will the NCAA stop making these kids out to be criminals while they make billions off of them?
I find the NCAA to be a bunch of hypocrites. They ask these players, especially in division one major football conferences, to dedicate their lives to improving at and playing football. When they aren't traveling with their teams to other states to play games (which garner their universities hundreds of thousands, if not millions in revenue) they are practicing almost everyday and supposed to keep up with some level of academics in the meantime. I CAN HARDLY HOLD A 3.0 WHILE WORKING 20 HOURS A WEEK AND SITTING ON MY ASS! But it is not about the academic side of things that is controversial, obviously. Maintaining a 2.0 GPA or whatever mediocre, if any, standards should not be difficult while taking psychology courses and getting tutored 10 hours a week. If these athletes are supposed to dedicate their lives to their sport to be successful (which they do if they want to start on top-tier teams), how are they supposed to live? From where does the income stem? It's a joke. 1% of these kids will make it to the pro's and be successful, yet they are allotted no time to make their own incomes during school. They aren't allowed to sell their own things because the NCAA gave it to them. The NCAA is the ultimate pimp. It wants to make all the money possible off of these "STOODENT ATH-O-LEETS" without supporting them with any of the gains they see from what THEY do on the field. These kids are coming from modest beginnings most often, and a lot of the best athletes are coming from some of the poorest backgrounds. They deserve something from this, and it isn't to be vilified for trying to find a way to make money off of what they are good at. In the rest of the world, that's called having a job or being an entrepreneur. In the NCAA, it's called breaking the rules. Just my humble opinion. Thanks for reading. Oh, and in case you don't click all of my 100 hyperlinks in this article, I'm posting this again.
It's really amazing how the average college football fan generally accepts the current system. While people like Mack Brown and Nick Saban are making 5.1 and 5.9 MILLION dollars a year, respectively, these kids are on national TV every Saturday of the season, yet making nothing. When you consider the ever-reducing value of a 4-year degree (let alone the fluff degrees many of these athletes earn), the common argument of "well, they get a free education" becomes even more outrageous.
ReplyDeleteJason Whitlock wrote a spirited piece on this issue a little over a year ago in response to the Reggie Bush "scandal" (http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/jason-whitlock-expose-ncaa-not-reggie-bush-072210). I can't help but hope that this perspective must ultimately come to the forefront and prevail. How many students have to be caught for breaking the rules (you know, by benefiting by what they do) before the rules themselves come under proper scrutiny? Or is the problem that the NCAA is simply too powerful? And are ESPN and major sports media its puppets?
An enlightening experience for me regarding young, non-pro athletes was living in England. When I was there I realized that if you want a shot at being a pro athlete, you go to a sport academy. You don't go anywhere near a university. You can become either an athlete or a student. And at first I thought this was a shame, and I felt proud of our system. But I soon realized that the system is at least honest.
Our whole "student-athlete" concept is more or less a sham. I'd wager that 90% of those division I boys are athletes in the first, second, and third. For that they ought at least to be treated as such and compensated for what they do.
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/6962151/advocacy-group-says-top-college-athletes-worth-six-figures
ReplyDelete