A Bleak Summer for College Sports
The NCAA is really, really busy right now.
News of several major rules violations in college football and basketball have flooded news cycles in recent weeks as the NCAA's investigators have reached their career primes. The ongoing University of Southern California football investigation was merged with the NCAA's probe into indiscretions in the school's basketball program; Memphis' basketball launched an investigation into fraudulent SAT scores for a former superstar as coach John Calipari jumped ship for Kentucky; University of Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin has been accused of a minor recruiting violation for each of the 6 months he's been on the job; and news of "improper benefits" to University of Alabama football players hit the news wires Thursday.
I'm not here to discuss each of the cases individually, but rather address a bigger issue: that in this day it seems like all the good teams are bending and breaking NCAA rules and that without doing so, a program can't sustain any kind of success. In short, to be good, you have to cheat.
(You can read about USC here and more recently here, Memphis basketball here, Tennessee football here, and Alabama football here).
Now, Alabama's trouble really has nothing to do with athletics and does not involve a coaching staff trying to gain an unfair advantage as is the case with the other violations. It does, however, shed light on the character of today's college athlete. Entitlement, lawlessness, superior, prideful. These are some of the adjectives I would use to characterize many of the student-athlete population. The same goes for the coaches who put on a pretty face for the media and public relations departments. I don't buy the facades these men put on.
In February of this year, I found myself buying into the facade that then USC basketball coach Tim Floyd put on. I had access to a team practice one day and for the 15 minutes I was present, Mr. Floyd was a different guy than the one you see in press conferences and during games.
His voice was hoarse from screaming choice words at his players and his encouragements were non-existent. Coupling my observations with this spring's revelations into the recruitment of former Trojan star O.J. Mayo, I was forced to abandon my perception of Floyd as the hard working, uplifting, gritty, and clean coach that he plays on TV and his teams reflect with their play.
These stories represent only the most serious of allegations. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of minor indiscretions that are never publicized and are dealt with internally by the universities or by the NCAA. Coaches and players are cutting corners more than ever to gain illegal advantages, the publication of which has caused me to descend into a very skeptical and cynical mindset toward college sports. I love college football and basketball, but how can I fully enjoy and endorse them when I'm aware of such immoral and unethical behavior?
News of several major rules violations in college football and basketball have flooded news cycles in recent weeks as the NCAA's investigators have reached their career primes. The ongoing University of Southern California football investigation was merged with the NCAA's probe into indiscretions in the school's basketball program; Memphis' basketball launched an investigation into fraudulent SAT scores for a former superstar as coach John Calipari jumped ship for Kentucky; University of Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin has been accused of a minor recruiting violation for each of the 6 months he's been on the job; and news of "improper benefits" to University of Alabama football players hit the news wires Thursday.
I'm not here to discuss each of the cases individually, but rather address a bigger issue: that in this day it seems like all the good teams are bending and breaking NCAA rules and that without doing so, a program can't sustain any kind of success. In short, to be good, you have to cheat.
(You can read about USC here and more recently here, Memphis basketball here, Tennessee football here, and Alabama football here).
Now, Alabama's trouble really has nothing to do with athletics and does not involve a coaching staff trying to gain an unfair advantage as is the case with the other violations. It does, however, shed light on the character of today's college athlete. Entitlement, lawlessness, superior, prideful. These are some of the adjectives I would use to characterize many of the student-athlete population. The same goes for the coaches who put on a pretty face for the media and public relations departments. I don't buy the facades these men put on.
In February of this year, I found myself buying into the facade that then USC basketball coach Tim Floyd put on. I had access to a team practice one day and for the 15 minutes I was present, Mr. Floyd was a different guy than the one you see in press conferences and during games.
These stories represent only the most serious of allegations. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of minor indiscretions that are never publicized and are dealt with internally by the universities or by the NCAA. Coaches and players are cutting corners more than ever to gain illegal advantages, the publication of which has caused me to descend into a very skeptical and cynical mindset toward college sports. I love college football and basketball, but how can I fully enjoy and endorse them when I'm aware of such immoral and unethical behavior?
