NCAA Redux: University of Miami
It’s time for the NCAA to wake up and smell the coffee. Over the last 18 months at least nine major schools have been investigated for various athletic violations related to amateur status of sport teams. These are big schools including Ohio State, Michigan and USC. Now the University of Miami is in the NCAA’s crosshairs. Did it ever occur to the NCAA with so many “serious” violations of its policies, the trouble may lie with the policies rather than the violations?
Reports this past week stated the University ofMiami had consistently and knowingly violated NCAA rules by allowing a donor, one Nevis Shapiro, to shower players over a period of years with money, jewelry and whores. Nice work if you can get it. Mr. Shapiro is now serving 20 years in jail for running a $930 million Ponzi scheme. With friends like that who needs enemies?
Unlike Ohio State, the allegations infer that the Miami mucky mucks knew this was going on and looked the other way for years. In the Ohio State matter, only Coach Tressel knew that those nasty football players got tattoos in exchange for personal OSU memorabilia. Nothing like destroying a team and a Coach over tattoos and players selling stuff that belonged to them. Who knew?
The problem is too many schools and the NCAA are making too damn much money. Players are treated like slaves. What do they expect from some of these inner-city dudes when they see all those around them making big bucks and living large off their backs? Of course they are going to skirt the rules. Who wouldn’t? What do these players cost the schools? NOTHING. They cost the school a seat and desk in a classroom, and maybe a dorm room. It's obscene.
Calls for a revision of the NCAA rules have been going on for years, but to no avail. This past month 50 NCAA university presidents met in Indianapolis to discuss how to change the rules. What they came up with was….underwhelming.
1) Relaxing less important rules, like no free texting, in favor of effective enforcement of the more serious rule violations. Does that mean an end to the “self policing honor system”? Who knows!!! Like that self policing system really works. There really was a rule that players weren't allowed to be given "free texting."
2) Allowing “full cost of attendance” scholarships to relieve some of the financial pressures on the players. These scholarships would include tuition, fees, room, board, books, personal expenses and travel home. In other words, the players have ALL expenses paid plus a stipend wrapped up in bureaucratic jargon. There’s a plan!!! Ohio State can afford it. Youngstown State cannot.
3) Raising initial academic standards for freshman players. The figures bandies about would be a 2.5 GPA up from the current 2.0. Hurray….the front lineman will be able to read the words in the playbook. And recruiting options will be cut in half.
4) Requiring at least a 50% graduation rate from the team over a 4 year period. Using the new standard, 12 of the BCS Bowl teams from last year, including Ohio State, would have been ineligible. Hard to believe, but that didn't stop the NCAA from making tens of millions of dollars off those ignorant players.
All of these standard changes are admirable, but misguided. None of them address the issue of BCS College Football as a hundreds of millions of dollar business built on the backs of those who are paid nothing. None of them address the issue of pie in the sky dreams of players hoping for a chance at the pros with only small percentage grabbing the gold ring. None of them address the issue of entrenching conferences and universities in a cement block of money and a craving for ever increasing revenue.
Until the main issue of too much money made by too few schools at the expense of too many indentured players is addressed outright rather than changing the polemic wrapper…it will never get better. And we are all the worse for it.
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