Good column
by a good sportswriter, Larry Croom, in today's paper. He calls out the agents
and apparel companies for instituting and coaches for tacitly accepting (and in
some cases abetting with hookers et. al.) the current state of corruption in
College Basketball. I really should say Division I college BB, since that's
where it seems to have concentrated.
The primary, in fact only, issue I have with Mr. Croom is that nowhere is there any mention of the fact that this would
not, as in could not, happen if there weren't dishonest players and their
families willing to suborn it and participate in it. Don't go all "poor
kids, innocent, etc." on me here.
If a prospective or current player is legitimately capable of being a
student in college, he or she knows that taking service in kind or cash is
illegal. If that player has to support a family while in college, there's a
second bad choice. The entire "athlete as privileged person" concept
is a largely American institution with relatively little merit.
Giving the
players or their families a pass is analogous to blaming only pushers for drug
problems. No demand, no supply. On a purely personal level, I also reject the
concept that student athletes should be compensated (other than scholarship
help) for their efforts. As an
example, a Freshman from out of state enrolling at Michigan State (most are
comparable) is already, if a scholarship athlete, being compensated $49,000+ annually for tuition alone. Further compensation usually involves books and food/dorm
coverage as well. Taking advantage of the educational component of that, or
declining to do so, is their decision.
While I
enthusiastically agree with Mr. Croom that the NCAA as currently structured
and empowered is a farce, I would still maintain that the need is very real for
an umbrella oversight which keeps conferences like the SEC and others (most others) from simply wiping away
uniform restraints in the area of amateur athletics in favor of allowing
dynasties to grow to suck up to donor alums. Just what has happened over the
years in the SWC with regards to blatant play for pay schemes at good
"christian" (lower case intentional) schools like SMU are proof
enough. In 1987, an NCAA investigation found that 21 (football)
players received approximately $61,000 in cash payments, with the assistance of
athletic department staff members, from a slush fund provided by a booster.
Payments ranged from $50 to $725 per month and started only a month after SMU
went on its original probation. Later it emerged that a slush fund had been
maintained in one form or another since the mid-1970s). Also, SMU officials
lied to NCAA officials about when the payments stopped.
In the absence
of a consistent and objective regulatory body this could well become the (allowable)
norm, and we’d see the “Alabama Yankees” as the Steinbrenner approach took hold
in college sports. Want a quick fix? Have the commissioners of the NBA & NFL
proclaim that any college athlete implicated in such amateurism violations would be ineligible for the respective league until such time as they would have graduated plus
a two-year penalty period.
Second, any attire manufacturer (UnderArmor, Russell
Athletic, Nike, Adidas, etc. implicated in such illegal compensation could be
forever banned from outfitting teams in the respective sport. Would that work?
Yep. Most likely. Will we ever see such altruistic behavior? Nah.
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