COLUMN: NCAA penalties necessary
I love college football. The marching bands, the screaming student sections; it conjures up a nice little sense of nostalgia. College sports are the best kind. Every one of those players on the field is playing for something more than a little extra cash in their pocket or another car in their garage.
There are two things that are going to happen to former college players: either they’re going to make it in sports, or they’ll make it in something else.
The fact is, the NCAA commercials don’t lie. Most college athletes go pro in something other than sports. Of the 9,000 college football players in the United States, only 310 are invited to the NFL scouting combine and an even smaller number is actually drafted — only about 3 percent of all players.
The problem is there’s so much corruption in today’s college football, you’d think the NFL has lowered its age limit. In fact, many programs are run as if their players are already in the League. They pass out money without a second thought and, in extreme cases, the school that places the highest bid gets the player.
Recently there have been countless scandals involving money and college football teams, again. The ongoing investigation of Reggie Bush and USC, Cam Newton and every college he’s attended, and The Ohio State University football program may have sparked the paranoia, but it’s a widespread issue.
University of Miami also came under fire in early August for, possibly, the worst of the allegations. Eight UM players were issued six-game suspensions and ordered to repay all benefits they received from a booster.
Closer to home, Boise State University lost nine scholarships over a three-year period and was put on probation for its role in questionable recruiting practices.
Note to Bronco Nation: Before you go spouting off about how this is just another example of the little guys getting screwed again, consider this. The little guys didn’t follow the rules.
The NCAA official statement on the subject said this:
“Boise State failed to establish an adequate compliance system to report NCAA rules violations with regard to impermissible housing, transportation and other benefits to prospective and enrolled student-athletes. The university failed to provide adequate rules education and training to staff members to ensure compliance.”
I’ll agree that providing hotel room discounts and transportation to potential recruits is far less egregious than allowing Ponzi-schemer Nevin Shapiro to pay strippers to perform on his private yacht for Miami football players; but both actions are in violation of the same exact rule.
The official NCAA rule book says an individual loses amateur status, and thus shall not be eligible for intercollegiate competition in a particular sport, if the individual uses his or her athletics skill, whether directly or indirectly, for pay in any form.
A hotel room is pay. So is a stripper.
This is not to say I believe the two violations to be equal on a moral standard, but if teams like Boise State want to be treated like the big boys, they have to play by big-boy rules.
It’s easy to say Boise’s punishments seem disproportionate compared to Miami’s. BSU provided a place for its recruits to sleep during official campus visits, while Miami’s violations had less to do with the Hurricane football program than it did with the bad decisions of a select group of players.
In truth, the punishments were delivered to the right places. Boise State’s program received the penalty when the program was at fault. Individuals on the Miami football team received penalties when it was their own indiscretions at the center of the problem.
I applaud the NCAA for cracking down on rule violations. Hopefully other schools across the country will take note of the most recent examples and fix the problems before they occur.
After all, the NCAA did say that Boise State failed to provide adequate education about the rules to staff members. Maybe other schools will finally get the hint.
–Meredith Kinney is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism and an avid hockey fan. She hopes one day to be a big-shot sideline reporter working for ESPN.