If I were to tell you that the National Football League would be under a lockout next year and there would be no NFL season, would you be upset? When NBA referees were fired for gambling on games, affecting the outcome and tell-all books followed, were you a little peeved? How about when Major League Baseball players rapidly began injecting themselves with steroids to hit a record number of home runs; to the point where almost every big name slugger today has an asterisk by their name, did that upset you? What about when bicyclist are caught using steroids, or swimmers, or runners, or (insert sport here) are caught?
My point, though it took some time to make, is that is seems the sport fan turns a blind eye to the issues of college football. When it comes to public outcry over sport wrongdoings it seems that NCAA football falls to the back of the line. It is because of our pure love of college football? Or is it because we have different stereotypes allocated for college sports? Let me explain.
One of the things I love most about college football, or any college athletic event for that matter, is the passion of the athlete. Unlike professional sports, athletes choose where they want to go, they are not drafted by a team. Also, athletes are not paid (though many would contend a scholarship worth 35,000 is a good contract) which means they are not playing for money. Now while some may say, well of course they’re playing for money, they’re playing to get drafted! I respectfully have to disagree. On a yearly average, less than 2% of all football, baseball and basketball Division 1 athletes go pro. That is the main reason why I am such a passionate college sports fan; the athletes are playing for their school, friends, classmates, or city. Not for fame, a new contract, a house, car, or whatever they may desire as most professional athletes do today.
College athletes play for the pure love of the game. And while you may cheer, snicker, grin or laugh out loud when you find out a USC, Ohio State, Florida, SMU, Notre Dame, or Texas get into trouble, it is killing the sport. While it may be great for your school, (Oregon has benefitted greatly by the USC sanctions) you have to look at the larger landscape. When you begin to let kids drive free cars, or pay them for autographs (Terelle Pryor collected $500-$1,000 dollars per John Hancock, coming out to well over $50,000) you take away the innocence of the athlete.
When I turned on the NBA Finals the other night I saw two teams playing very hard, hustling for loose balls, taking hard fouls and of course arguing with the refs. Yet I couldn’t help but think how much each of them made, who was playing for the money, who was playing because they actually cared about their city and the people who lived there. And this is what I mean by having different stereotypes for college and professional athletes. When you see a pro athlete, tattooed all over with gold chains hanging from his neck, you think one thing. When you see a college athlete walking to class in a sweat suit and headphones you think something else.
We as sports fans must hold everyone who breaks the rules equally responsible. Is it worse that Barry Bonds took steroids to break the all-time home run record, or that USC bought Reggie Bush’s parents a home, resulting in his commitment to USC followed by a 2004 National Title (recently revoked)? To me they are the same. One cheated with his physical abilities without his team, coaches or management knowing. The other cheated with the help of his school! What if it came out the San Francisco Giants were buying Barry Bonds steroids to help win games, would you think differently of it then?
The most intense sanction ever placed by the NCAA on a college football program came in the mid 1980’s when they levied the “Death Penalty” (the highest level of punishment) on SMU. The Mustangs program saw every player who had taken money get off scot-free, most transferred to other schools and none were forced to sit out a season for transferring. Yet the players on the team who had not taken money, who had worked extremely hard for everything they received, were not good enough to transfer to another big program. The school was banned for playing a single game for an entire season, and in 2009 SMU made their first bowl game in 25 years since the penalty came down. Now let me ask you, is it fair for the boosters who footed the bill and the players that took the money to not get in trouble? That’s the problem for the NCAA. There is no sanction for the individual that breaks the rules, only penalties for the institutions (Like we’re seeing at Ohio State). While some, like Reggie Bush, will have to hand back a Heisman trophy, players like Terelle Pryor will walk away and probably go on to make boat loads of money in the NFL and through endorsements. So how do we solve the problem?
When baseball was found guilty of turning a blind eye to their players using steroids, they upped their drug testing. They suspended players 50 games after a first failed test, 100 after the second and a whole season after the third! This is the example the NCAA has to follow. Instead of waiting for schools to break the rules, and sanction the living you know what out of them, the NCAA must get out in front of this problem. Get boosters and rich alumni out of the player’s pockets. Get handlers/agents/guardians away from the high school athletes. But more importantly, they need to come up with a punishment for the individual.
So try this on for size; what if the NCAA were to reach agreements with the MLB, NFL and NBA to come up with a way to sanction the player. What if athletes knew entering college that if they broke the rules there would be severe penalties upon entering their professional sport? What if the MLB, NFL and NBA levied penalties on the players such as not allowing them to enter the draft for a year or two if they are found guilty of infractions during their college career? We have to understand that the players taking the money to play for a certain University are probably the ones who have aspirations to play in the pros. You typically don’t see the walk-on 3rd string tight end getting paid $500 for his autograph. I believe that this would greatly deter players from taking money, because they would know there is no back-up plan to just jump straight to the pros if they get caught.
The issue of playing college athletes for their services will never stop. We have seen programs and players unravel over the past 35-40 years, so clearly what the NCAA is doing is not working. Hopefully someday, we will be able to get out in front of the problem and be able to stop programs before they play with talent that should not be on the field. Last year, for example, do we really believe Cam Newton was eligible to play? How long do we have to wait until he loses his Heisman trophy and Auburn is forced to forfeit their National Title?
Until the NCAA gets out in front of their problems and stops them before they start, we as fans must be just as upset every time a school goes down with infractions; just as we would for any other major sport scandal. Though it may make you smile to see your rival go down, always remember its slowly killing the game.
