Aaaaand…
ESPN is once again reporting that RichRod is fired. Brandon supposedly has scheduled a 12:30 press conference.
Okay. It’s completely ridiculous the NCAA allowed those kids to play in the Sugar Bowl.
It’s outrageous that they were allowed to play in the bowl to make Ohio State some money.
In any case they should not have played. No matter how I phrase it.
The phrasing was only important because it sounded like you were upset with the players and not the system. It’s easy to get behind the hating the fairly corrupt system, but the player hate is a little harder to justify.
Oh no, I don’t hate the players. I think the NCAA has gone crazy. Sorry for any confusion there.
Actually in this case I do think the student behavior was pretty low-brow, showing a great deal of disrespect for their school and their team. But blaming the athlete for a system that exploits them shamelessly for profit for the schools? Not at all. The NCAA is a thoroughly corrupt institution imo, and needs to be scrapped.
Looking at what the schools/teams were paying the players, I think the disrespect goes both ways.
Knightsaber, you think the NCAA is crazy in a “misery loves company” kind of way. You think they should have punished those kids more just to stick it to tOSU. I think they should have punished other recent victims less.
On one level, it was blatant capitulation to let Big Education make more money from the bowl game. That’s wrong. But more importantly: it never should have been an issue in the first place. The kids had every right to play in the game, except for the silly authoritarian rules.
Bluto
1808
I know I have zero credibility on this subject, but I just don’t understand how a school can (legally) give their players valuable trinkets, but they aren’t allowed to sell them? I don’t get the logic.
Sorry Benny, but the disrespect angle is just hyperbole. You’re right about the NCAA though.
Don’t try to understand. With an arbitrary system, logic goes out the window.
I do not think “legally,” the NCAA can. However, the NCAA is a self governing body that creates rules that all participants agree before they participate. One of those rules is against profiteering from one’s position as a student athlete. The NCAA obviously could not stop the sale of memorabilia, but it can take away a player, or a coach’s, or a school’s right to participate in college sports.
Make sense?
Bluto
1811
Sorry, I meant legally as in within the NCAA’s rules, not actual law. The school is enriching the athlete by giving him gold jewelry, the athlete is simply converting gold to cash.
Envelopes full of cash from boosters I can understand, but this is officially sanctioned.
Edit: Of course, Tim is right. Logic and common sense don’t apply here.
As I understand it the first rules they drill into you is that anything you receive from the school for free cannot be sold. Same thing goes for getting free tickets to the game to give to your folks; you can’t then turn around and scalp them for dollars.
See, I can’t just dismiss it as hyperbole. Seems to me these kids have only two possible reasons for participating in college athletics: 1) they think its a road to a paycheck down the road in the NFL or some other league, or 2) loyalty to their teammates or some other person/institution/body. I guess you could throw 3) they just love playing football in there as well if you want.
If the reason is 1) I can’t blame them, but imo they shouldn’t be in college at all, and that’s one reason the NCAA is corrupt. If the answer is 2) then I find their behavior reprehensible. If it is 3) then I feel like to some extent they’ve betrayed themselves, but I guess I’m not in a position to judge that.
I think you’ve really badly misread the motivations there Benny. I think the biggest motivator is immediate financial gain, in the form of a free education.
Uh no, I think they’re crazy in that they can’t follow their own ‘rules’. If those OSU players were suspended for five games by the ‘rules’, what gives them the right to play in a bowl game and then serve the suspension?
I guarantee that the rule is not written as ‘punishment is this-and-this, in the exception that the schools and NCAA is about to make some big broadcast money, then we can overlook it’. That line they give out about OSU ‘not educating’ them before they sold their stuff is pure bullshit. You think they don’t tell every college athlete ‘no profiteering from your status’ before they play a game? Bet they do.
And Cam Newton not knowing his dad was selling him off to schools? Also hilarious.
Just because these guys happen to be five OSU players is coincidence. Yeah they’re in my favorite team’s conference and yeah I don’t like them. If five Iowa players sold off last year’s Orange Bowl trophies they should pay the piper. I’m not being selective, sorry. Break the rules, do the punishment.
It’s the exception of a big time bowl game that I think is ridiculous.
Exactly. Most folks who play college football will never even practice for an NFL team, let alone take a snap in an actual game. Not only do they get their education, they get valuable experience that they can parlay into a career down the road as a coach or broadcaster.
Michigan is screwed. RichRod is out, and the AD is starting a coaching search the first week of January. National signing day is coming fast (first Wednesday of February), and Michigan’s recruiting is going to take a nasty hit. Look for wavering among the current commits, and the rival schools are going to look to pluck some of the best recruits.
None
1818
Just heard that the ‘Horns are going to get Manny Diaz as DC. If so, he’s a good get. Great defenses at Middle Tennesse and also this past season’s defensive turnaround at Mississippi State. Good for him. Blue Raiders’ to Longhorns’ defensive coordinator in a span of, what, two years?
You are absolutely right when it comes to your middle-of-the-pack guys who see this is their ladder up, I guess I should have been more clear. I was talking about the Terrell Pryor’s of the world–the ones who really do have NFL level talent, or at least “think” they do. Call my cynical, but there are a whole lot of star players out there who would never set foot on a college campus if they weren’t required to by the NFL for their chance to move up, and who don’t give a flying fuck about the education. I had way too many of them sitting in my freshman classes to believe otherwise.
I see what you’re saying. OK. :)
