I don’t even know where to begin, other than stating the obvious. The NCAA is a piece of work. There are a million examples, but let’s try and just stick with the mosrecent. Five Ohio State football players were found to have sold various items that they earned and/or were given. This is a clear violation of NCAA rules and the players were punished with a five game suspension. Quite a substantial penalty considering that a regular season consists of 12 games.
Ah, did you catch the fact that I mentioned the regular season? Yeah, that would be because the five Buckeyes will be able to play in the January 4th Sugar Bowl game against Arkansas next month. Yup, the suspension starts next season. As in September of 2011.
Why you ask? As the famous saying goes, “follow the money”. Tickets are bought, flights are booked, hotels are reserved. How happy do you think those fans would be to find out that the star QB and four other important players would be sitting the game out? And how do you think the conversation would go with Allstate? Yeah, I’m sure the corporate sponsor would be thrilled.
Once again we’re slapped in the face with the cold reality of what major college sports is all about. Money. It’s also interesting to see who gets into this kind of trouble. The guy third on the depth chart at linebacker? I haven’t heard those allegations. I have heard about the Buckeye five. I have heard about Cam Newton. I have heard about Dez Bryant last year. I have heard about Reggie Bush. I have heard about OJ Mayo. It strikes me that there is a common theme here.
It seems to be better players. Why? They have a sense of entitlement. They’ve been pampered and treated as special since they began playing sports. Are they any worse off than anyone else on the team? Don’t have money to go out? Welcome to the world of 95% of college students. Why don’t we hear about backups selling the same items that the star sells? The star thinks he deserves more. He’s special.
I don’t want to get into a discussion of whether or not these kids should be paid. I do think they should but the reality is that they can’t right now. Just because the rule is bad doesn’t mean it can be ignored. If you don’t like it, work to get it changed. But it still needs to be followed. It’s just hard to take these things seriously when the organization that runs things is so hypocritical and messed up. How is it okay for the players to have done something so bad that they are suspended for almost half a season but it’s okay for that suspension to wait? Obviously it’s not.
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