NCAA Current Baloney
It's All About the Money

This article was going to be simply about how big money causes big cheating but once Bobby Knight weighed in on recent NBA rules it took a bit of a turn to include how the professional sports entities pretend to care but really don't. The NFL and especially the NBA are really happy to use the colleges as their defacto minor leagues.

The General has made some interesting remarks in the past including, "The key is not the "will to win" . . . everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important." and "Everyone wants to be on a winning team,but no one wants to come to practice" and of course, "All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things" and my personal favorite, "If my primary purpose here at Indiana is to go out and win ballgames, I can probably do that as well as anybody can. I would just cheat, get some money from a lot of people around Indianapolis who want to run the operation that way, and just go out and get the best basketball players I can. Then we'd beat everybody." But what he said recently was right on the money. The new rule that says players must be at least one year removed from high school before entering the NBA is "the worst thing that's happened to college basketball since I've been coaching," according to Coach Knight. Many coaches have hailed this new rule as a blessing for the college game, because it lets NCAA schools showcase their abilities at least for one season. So the NCAA obviously thinks the money generated is more important than the education of the athlete. But Knight, the winningest college coach of all time, said he deplores it.(And so do I). "Because now you can have a kid come to school for a year and play basketball and he doesn't even have to go to class," Knight said Monday during the Big 12 coaches call. "He certainly doesn't have to go to class the second semester. I'm not exactly positive about the first semester. But he would not have to attend a single class the second semester to play through the whole second semester of basketball. "That, I think, has a tremendous effect on the integrity of college sports."

No player better exemplifies the new rule than Kevin Durant. He is amazingly quick, agile and athletic for an 18-year-old, the 6-foot-9 Durant would have been a surefire NBA lottery pick any other year. In fact there are those who refer to the rule as the Kevin Durant rule. Because if it, he couldn't go directly to the NBA so he had to find a college to play for. He chose Texas and perhaps will be remembered as the greatest to ever wear a Longhorns uniform, even though he seems likely to leave for the NBA after a sensational freshman season. Durant has been named Big 12 player of the week three times and conference rookie of the week five times. He leads the league with 24.9 points and 11.4 rebounds per game and has a good chance at being national player of the year.

Knight said he would never have recruited Durant, although he doesn't blame Texas coach Rick Barnes for doing so. "I don't fault those that have, because it's within the rules," Knight said. "But the rules are just ridiculous, the way the thing is set up."

"It's just a tremendous disservice, the way that it's structured, to the integrity of college sports."

Knight is right and we have seen over and over again that many of these kids are not ready for the pressure of the NBA or the responsibility of the fame and money that goes with it. Either they should be required to finish four years of college or none at all and the NBA and the bloodsucking agents should assume responsibility for helping the youngsters mature.

But the greed goes beyond just basketball.

I don't know how much of this you are aware of but it has been the Big Ten coaches, not Notre Dame, spending the better part of the last six months whispering, whining, puling and moaning about the recruiting practices of Illinois' Ron Zook. While it always seems to get a lot of press when someone points fingers at Notre Dame and the school is an easy and inviting target, it has actually been the Big Ten schools feeding on one of their own with regard to the alleged Illinois recruiting irregularities. Even beyond that the Big Ten commissioner, Jim Delanay, has been taking shots at the SEC while talking out both sides of his mouth. He criticizes others while turning a blind eye to the NFL mini-camp Ohio State runs and doing precious little to protect the players and see to it that they actually learn something while spending time at these institutions of higher learning.

Delaney neglects to mention that Ohio State graduates less than one out of three of its African American football players and barely one out of two players overall. Michigan graduates just half of it's black players and Minnesota isn't much better than Ohio State with regard to graduation rates. Admittedly, The Big Ten does have some very good schools, but that fact Penn State does a good job doesn't excuse Delaney for ignoring what is going on at Ohio State.

Incidentally, only five universities (Notre Dame, Penn State, Washington, Wake Forest and Tulane) graduated more than two-thirds of their African-American football student-athletes, while just seven (13%) graduated at least two-thirds of all football student-athletes (Notre Dame, Penn State, Oregon, Tulane, Wake Forest, Boston College and Virginia).

It sure seems Delaney has enough issues within the Big Ten without worrying about the SEC, but the problem for Delaney is that the SEC seems to be playing by even looser rules and Delaney finds that to be unfair. Evidently he thinks all schools and conferences should be allowed to cheat at the same level.

So let us have a look at why this problem exists. The easy answer is - MONEY - but the is a bit more to it.

First - Cheating in the NCAA is rampant. It boils down to money. USC will get off scot-free on the Reggie Bush situation because they are a great TV draw and that means MONEY. USC should be thrown under the bus for Bushgate and then McKnightgate. The ultimate irony is that those in Trojan land committed a recruiting violation on the process of covering up the first one.

Second - The NCAA is virtually powerless to do anything about it in the face of the major conference cartel.

Third - The superconferences have usurped all of the power in college football. It is the conferences that dictate BCS terms and TV deals. They bully the NCAA when teams are caught doing what everyone knows they are doing - cheating. It's only when teams are caught so red-handed that the NCAA even takes on the appearance of doing anything.

The Big Ten, the SEC, the Big 12, the PAC 10 and the ACC are the problem. The unspoken truth is that superconferences have seized all the power in NCAA football and there is no one with enough influence or desire to stop them. But then again, who would want to stop this gravy train. If Notre Dame didn't have the clout to negotiate their own TV contract they would have to succumb to the will of these conferences. As it is, that is a major reason that the Irish were recently given the shaft on BCS bowl revenue.

Wanna know why there's no playoff? I'll tell you why and then I'll explain my answer. The superconferences don't want one because would lose their bowl tie-ins. If there was playoff, the playing field would be leveled and no conference that has a possibility of sending teams to multiple bowl games, generating significant revenue wants that. The system has been rigged to ensure the superconferences get Bowl bids even if the entire conference has a down year (ala Florida State a couple of year ago at 7-4). The ultimate result is bad teams in BCS games on a regular basis. This is a classic case of, "It's my ball and you'll play by my rules or you can go home." These conferences make the rules. The BCS is run by the conference cartel. They came up with the idea and they run it. Even the name was cleverly invented. It makes no sense, though, because there is no series leading to a championship. It should be called just what it is - Bull Crappy Shit! You still have BCS but it would be much more accurate.

The absurd BCS Formula makes no sense to anyone but why should it? The only reason it even exists is to provide a buffer against any legitimate bowl playoff system. The cartel made it up specifically to ward off any move to a playoff. The argument that a playoff would hurt academics is ridiculous and we all know it. I have already shown just how much these football powers really care about academics anyway. Have you noticed what happens when the BCS gets criticized? The powers that be simply expand the BCS to quiet the complainers. That solution usually lasts for a year or two at best before new complaints arise and they need to tweak the system once again.

The BCS conferences get the lion's share of the money in the bowl system, and virtually all of the money generated from the championship game. (It has been duly noted on previous occasions how Notre Dame's take has been drastically decreased). The BCS is no more than a money-laundering system that take the chance that every once in awhile there will be a school from a smaller conference that will crash the party (Utah and Boise State are recent examples). These schools are tolerated because it keeps the BCS conferences from looking like they have some sort of a monopoly even though their system is designed to minimize participation from non-"superconference" schools.

IT IS ALL ABOUT MONEY. The five big conferences run the show, take most of the dough and the other five conferences are left to fight over roughly 10% of the total bowl payout. The scraps, if you will. Just how unfair is the system? Delaney manipulated the system so that Rose Bowl doesn't even have to pay the BCS entry fee. How's that for fair?

Here is why cheating is allowed and tacitly encouraged. The superconferences don't want to diminish their own bargaining power in relation to other conferences and other programs. For example, Florida let defensive lineman Marcus Thomas play through the three toughest games on their schedule before kicking him out for violations it knew about well before those games were played. He was suspended twice earlier for substance abuse, but Urban Meyer (time will tell that he is not all that squeaky clean) gave him the benefit of the doubt the third time (and Kyle McAlarney gets suspended for his first offense at ND and the Notre Dame Admin gets blasted in the press) at least until the schedule got easier. Defensive End Jarvis Moss was suspended too, for that game against powerhouse Western Carolina, then he was reinstated for the easy and meaningless game with Florida Sate. He also played against South Carolina basically saving Florida's season. And no one said a word. Of course, as Delaney points out, this is minor league stuff in the SEC. Plus, Florida does have a good graduation rate. Florida will graduate 80% of it football players and 74% of its black players compared to a 92% overall graduation rate. Much better than Delaney can point to with their opponent, Ohio State where 55% of its football players will graduate - 32% of its African American football players. Compare that to a 80% overall student-athlete graduation.

Books have been written detailing Michigan's scandals and Ohio State continues to pretend to be an academic institution that also plays football, but the only thing Delaney does is point fingers at others, basically saying, "Hey, they're worse than we are."

When it comes to the NCAA and who they decide their media darling is this year they take a "don't ask, don't tell" position. And now they have come up with this new system that is supposed to penalize schools with low graduation rates. Yeah, right. There are so many loopholes in that new system that they could use it for a sieve. Consider that 30 of this year's bowl teams had graduation rates for black players that were fifty percent or less, with only 11 schools graduating more than three quarters of their black players. Guess what? Not one of those schools finished in the top 10 and the only school form Delaney's wonderful Big Ten to crack that list was Penn State. Instead of addressing the deficiencies in his own conference he'd rather point to the shameful graduation rates of Georgia Tech and Texas.

Is Ron Zook's Illinois staff cheating? Wouldn't surprise me. If you look at all the evidence it certainly has that Richard Nixon, "I am not a crook" feel. So what? It doesn't much matter because no one is going to investigate. You can't really blame the players, look at the example that's been set. When everything and everyone around them seem to only care about money. Why should they not be expected to want some of it. And who can blame them for doing as little classwork as possible. They all think they're going to play in the NFL anyway. Unfortunately most of the players don't get that opportunity.

The superconferences have appropriated all of the power in college football and no one seems to care. At least not until one superconference is cheating more than the other. Which may explain Jim Delaney's comments on the SEC.