Broken System, Not Cam Newton, to Blame

I disagree with much of what he said.

If it wasn't for football I would have never went to college. I didn't go for the education, but to play ball. Having to keep grades up to stay in school, I got the education that I didn't care about as a teen. By the time I finished, I was ready for seminary. I owe so much to that year by year scholarship, I could never pay back, what it has been worth to me.

For what I got out of my scholarship is why I wish coaches who don't graduate 65% of their players should lose their jobs, I don't care how many games they win.

I have had all SEC players unloading me at docks and a few All Americans, they didn't get the education. Why????

 

Why didn't they get the education? They chose not to. I played sports in college, too, until injuries sidelined me. I know what it's like to eat a boxed (cold) meal with icepacks on your knees with a history book in your lap because you have a test at 8am...and you got off the floor at 11pm.

I generally like Blackistone. Here, I find little I can agree with. Is the present perfect? No. But come on. The idea that someone is pulling the wool over these kids eyes' is pathetic. They are already getting paid. In exchange for free tuition, books, room, board, and other side benefits (meal money, clothing, tutors, their own dorms, educational facilities, emergency funds, etc.) and leftover money if they're on aid/grants/lottery scholarships or grants, they in turn play a sport. Granted, their school makes a killing off the Cam Newtons and Peyton Mannings of the world. But that same team also has 100 other people you've never heard of - and never will. 85 of them get the same pay. They eat up the same resources. They eat the same pregame meals. They get the same suit. They get the same dorm room. They use the same tutors. And by the way, thanks to Title IX, so do the non-revenue generating sports. Some schools are now cutting these, thanks to the recession. We really want to make the Purdue soccer team go out of business because the starting quarterback wants 10% more than the Illinois QB?

I've yet to hear one person make a good argument for paying the players a salary. Yes, the universities make money. But so does the music dept, the architecture dept, et.al., using the free skills of scholarship people. But no one cries about them not getting what a broadway dancer earns or what I.M. Pei would make. The band members at UT don't get a cut from the CD sales of their recordings. Where's the outcry? Our selective indignance shows what we really care about.

Let me be clear: the NCAA is evil. The next time they consistently show they "care about the interests of the student-athlete" will be the first time they do. The current saga of Enes Kanter at Kentucky is just one example. Whlie he was suspended during the investigation, he could NOT practice with the team. But now that he's merely permanently banned from the UK Basketball team, he can NOW PRACTICE during the appeal process. No, I'm not kidding.

Remember something about the Newton situation. We're talking about a possible criminal act. You can't extort money. Doesn't matter if you're dealing with the inept NCAA or the Jersey Mob. You can't extort money from someone.

Anyway, I'd love to hear how someone could fix the problem. Blackistone's method of divorcing the athletics departments from the universities is a bit of a bromide since many schools already have this in place. Seriously, I'd love to hear the proposals. My mind is open, believe it or not. Show me how this all works - fairly - and I'm on board.

 

I suspect that they're getting involved because they feel it's within their jurisdiction to do so. I'm guessing that the extortion is what brought them.

 

We can argue which federal crime is worse, but at the end of the day a federal crime is likely going to get the attention of the FBI as CCRob pointed out.

Which ones would you remove the requirements of? Who are the "big time" programs? Who would you leave out?

 

paying college athletes would kill college athletics.

Why should we turn major sports into a minor professional league? Who wants to watch that?

Another point is that for the 5 players that have the name recognition on a team like Cam Newton there are many other players as has been pointed out. Now how far exactly would the star QB go if he was getting paid but they could not afford the other 80 players? 5 on 5 is not very exciting foortball.

 

I agree the SYSTEM needs fixed! After all, Bill Gates can come to a campus, select some bright students, & say, "I'll pay your full ride if ya work for me in the summer & agree to work for me after graduation at great pay/perx. Your only other part in this deal is that ya keep yer studies up & graduate." Thus, Gates recruits some students who are studying to be what Gates seex in employees. And many of these students will have an attorney or some other "agent" negotiating in their behalves.

These students are no longer "amateurs" in the computer field; they're parta a "team", Microsoft. but no one dreams of kicking them outta school or forbidding them to participate in school activities.

Why not allow an athlete to sign with a pro team, long as he/she does not work for that team whatsoever, train at its facilities, nor wear any of its logos while still eligible to play his/her given sport? And why not allow a basketball star who thus signs to play baseball if he can make the team?

After all, a top athlete is going to college to train for a career in a professional sport, same as other students are training to be scientists, engineers, teachers, etc. Why not allow that athlete to make the most outta his talent? He is NOT gaining any unfair competitive advantage by committing to a given pro team during his college days.

Now I am in no way condoning a school's paying nor giving gratuities to an athlete to get him to attend & play for that school, other than the up-front scholarships, etc. That prob will continue to pop up time & again.

I live across the creek from Huntington, WV & saw O. J. Mayo, now a guard for the NBA Memphis Grizzlies, grow up. My chief concern was that his father, a pro crook, would somehow corrupt him, seeing just a cash cow insteada a son. However, his mom pretty well prevented that, but, with the flood of temptations coming his way, he was victimized by an unscrupulous agent, as was Reggie Bush.(Now Bush mighta been more aware that he was doing the wrong thing!) Yes, the system definitely needs fixed; it's next-to-impossible to keep a top college athlete "squeaky clean". For every Tim Tebow, there are ten Reggie Bushes.

 

In your scenario, the college is Bill Gates. The relationship between the NCAA and the pros is one of understanding. So what you describe is happening already. The players ARE paid.

Why on earth would a player do this? He or she would be committing professional suicide. And why would the teams do this? Player stock drops and rises in the college ranks. They're gonna pay for a player they can't have til down the road and risk his injury or his inability to make the grades?

For every Reggie Bush, there are a hundred other guys who play by the rules and get far more than they'd ever have any other way. Living in the shadows of Neyland Stadium, working for major schools, and being involved in college athletics from every angle you can imagine lets me see this. The media fixation with the rogues is sad.

 

Pro football & basketball have a free "farm system". Signing young players after their freshman year in college is gonna ruin that farm system, especially for basketball. Just ask the University of Kentucky.(It appears they merely re-loaded after their best underclassmen went to the pros, but not every college team has the prestige of Ky, Duke, etc.

OF COURSE there's a riska injury or flunking out for any player who could legally be signed by a pro team & still play his/her sport in college. But that's the chance a pro franchise takes. After all, many DRAFT CHOICES pan out after receiving bookoo signing bonuses.

But face it-Reggie Bush & O. J. Mayo were training to be professional athletes. That's the ONLY reason Mayo went to college.(Dunno about Bush.) Pro sports is a way to make a living, and a lucrative one, in many nations, so I still think US colleges & the NCAA should recognize this, same as many other nations' college sports rulers do.