Expose the NCAA, not the athletes

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The NCAA rule book is not the United States Constitution.

If anything, the rule book supporting the bogus concept of “amateur athletics” is akin to the laws that supported Jim Crow, denied women suffrage and upheld slavery.

The architect of the modern NCAA, the organization’s former president, Walter Byers, spelled out all of this in his 1997 mea culpa, “Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting the Student-Athlete.”

Byers wrote: “Today the NCAA Presidents Commission is preoccupied with tightening a few loose bolts in a worn machine, firmly committed to the neo-plantation belief that the enormous proceeds from college games belong to the overseers (administrators) and supervisors (coaches). The plantation workers performing in the arena may only receive those benefits authorized by the overseers.”

Byers was not and is not a Jesse Jackson sympathizer. Byers is a white, right-wing conservative from Kansas. He was the NCAA’s first president (1951-1988) and sole visionary. He admitted creating a monster. His NCAA memoir was his repentance and call for a fundamental overhaul of a corrupt organization.

Reggie Bush is Kunta Kinte, a runaway slave.

The media are slave-catchers, mindless mercenaries crucifying child athletes for following the financial lead of their overseer coaches such as Pete Carroll, Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban.

I graduated from a very good journalism school. Ball State’s program is not the equal of Northwestern’s or Missouri’s, but I feel quite comfortable that I understand the role of journalists.

Journalists are not trained to be attack dogs for morally bankrupt institutions.

At some point, we can recognize that an investigative journalism award and individual career advancement do not justify pretending there is some honor in safeguarding the NCAA’s plantation.

USC is giving back Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy. Call me when Pete Carroll gives back a dime. Call me when USC offers a refund to all the people who purchased Reggie Bush jerseys.

Call me when the phony moralizing stops and we, the media, quit demonizing black kids for cashing in like white men.

If you read this column regularly, you know I’m fond of the TV show "The Wire" and making Wire-related analogies. The pursuit of Reggie Bush and his Heisman Trophy is the equivalent of police commissioner Ervin Burrell demanding a “buy-bust sting” and “dope on the table.”

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/jason-whitlock-expose-ncaa-not-reggie-bush-072210
 

Jason Whitlock does Ball State proud. I appreciate that someone in the media has the confidence to take on the establishment.
 

Blizzard said:
USC is giving back Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy. Call me when Pete Carroll gives back a dime. Call me when USC offers a refund to all the people who purchased Reggie Bush jerseys.
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I agree with the premise of the article that the NCAA is usually pretty screwed up.

But ... how many dimes have Derrick Rose, Reggie Bush, OJ Mayo, etc. had to give back? It seems they are all doing just fine these days.
 

Blizzard said:
The NCAA rule book is not the United States Constitution.

If anything, the rule book supporting the bogus concept of “amateur athletics” is akin to the laws that supported Jim Crow, denied women suffrage and upheld slavery.

The architect of the modern NCAA, the organization’s former president, Walter Byers, spelled out all of this in his 1997 mea culpa, “Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting the Student-Athlete.”

Byers wrote: “Today the NCAA Presidents Commission is preoccupied with tightening a few loose bolts in a worn machine, firmly committed to the neo-plantation belief that the enormous proceeds from college games belong to the overseers (administrators) and supervisors (coaches). The plantation workers performing in the arena may only receive those benefits authorized by the overseers.”

Byers was not and is not a Jesse Jackson sympathizer. Byers is a white, right-wing conservative from Kansas. He was the NCAA’s first president (1951-1988) and sole visionary. He admitted creating a monster. His NCAA memoir was his repentance and call for a fundamental overhaul of a corrupt organization.

Reggie Bush is Kunta Kinte, a runaway slave.

The media are slave-catchers, mindless mercenaries crucifying child athletes for following the financial lead of their overseer coaches such as Pete Carroll, Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban.

I graduated from a very good journalism school. Ball State’s program is not the equal of Northwestern’s or Missouri’s, but I feel quite comfortable that I understand the role of journalists.

Journalists are not trained to be attack dogs for morally bankrupt institutions.

At some point, we can recognize that an investigative journalism award and individual career advancement do not justify pretending there is some honor in safeguarding the NCAA’s plantation.

USC is giving back Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy. Call me when Pete Carroll gives back a dime. Call me when USC offers a refund to all the people who purchased Reggie Bush jerseys.

Call me when the phony moralizing stops and we, the media, quit demonizing black kids for cashing in like white men.

If you read this column regularly, you know I’m fond of the TV show "The Wire" and making Wire-related analogies. The pursuit of Reggie Bush and his Heisman Trophy is the equivalent of police commissioner Ervin Burrell demanding a “buy-bust sting” and “dope on the table.”

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/jason-whitlock-expose-ncaa-not-reggie-bush-072210
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+1

(And scher215 you are missing the point... )
 

Jason is having quite the week. The Mitch Albom article now this. Thanks for posting.
 


I would love to have been "eploited" by being given free room and board, tuition and books in college. I wouldn't have been paying off student loans for years. That the NCAA rules are not the US Constitution is irrelevant. The NCAA rules are the applicable rules. No college is obligated to remain members of the NCAA, they are free to break off and start their own.

Baseball has minor leagues for those who don't want to go to college. Hockey has its own minor leagues. How about developmental leagues in football and basketball for those who don't want college.
 

RodentRampage said:
I would love to have been "eploited" by being given free room and board, tuition and books in college. I wouldn't have been paying off student loans for years. That the NCAA rules are not the US Constitution is irrelevant. The NCAA rules are the applicable rules. No college is obligated to remain members of the NCAA, they are free to break off and start their own.

Baseball has minor leagues for those who don't want to go to college. Hockey has its own minor leagues. How about developmental leagues in football and basketball for those who don't want college.
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Basketball has European Leuges (i.e. Brandon Jennings) and not sure about the age rules for non NFL football leuges.
 

I don't know too much about the European leagues, will they take you right out of high school? As far as football goes, I don't know if any of the other leagues will take someone right out of high school. I pretty sure the CFL or the Arena League will not. There are a number of other lower-tier indoor leagues, and a few startup minor outdoor leagues, I don't know if any of them will take people right out of high school.

There is semi-pro, and if they take people right out of high school (I don't know if they do), but the compensation is next to nothing.
 

RodentRampage said:
I don't know too much about the European leagues, will they take you right out of high school? As far as football goes, I don't know if any of the other leagues will take someone right out of high school. I pretty sure the CFL or the Arena League will not. There are a number of other lower-tier indoor leagues, and a few startup minor outdoor leagues, I don't know if any of them will take people right out of high school.

There is semi-pro, and if they take people right out of high school (I don't know if they do), but the compensation is next to nothing.
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yes they will, I believe they would take you even while in high school (Ricky Rubio) but if you are not familiar with the NBA or Brandon Jennings, he wanted to go pro out of high school (but couldn't do to rules) so he played in Europe for a year instead of college, was drafted in the lottery, and started at PG as a rookie for the Bucks and led them to the playoffs. Was a very prominant name in the ROY discussion.
 



College athletics can't be compared to slavery. Slavery is involuntary, playing college sports is voluntary. College athletes on scholarship are hardly uncompensated: books, room and board and tuition aren't cheap. If the athlete isn't interested in college, then they shouldn't go to college. If the athlete is only in college to prepare for the NFL, then we need to add free NFL preparation to the value of the compensation.

If a scholarship athlete is a "slave", then what of D-III athletes, who pay for their own books, room and board and tuition without any expectation of going pro? Surely they must be more enslaved than scholarship athletes are.

Slavery: involuntary, uncompesated. Scholarhip athlete: voluntary, compensated (although not direct cast compensation)

And the Jim Crow comparison is absurd as well. Where is the segregation? Jim Crow involved some people not being able to use certain facilities, for example, segregated drinking fountains, bathrooms, restaurants, etc. What facilities are athletes barred from? If anything, athletes have more access to facilities than do non-athletes. If you really insisted on pushing a Jim Crow analogy, college dorms are segregated, with better dorms reserved for athletes, and poorer ones for non-athletes.
 

His point gets lost in his racism obsession

I don't necessarily disagree with the overall point regarding the NCAA using student athletes, but he goes over the cliff when he talks like this is all about whitey holding the black man down. These are just some of the more egregious remarks:

For instance he calls Nick Saban, "Nick 'Mr. White Folks' Saban". . .what the heck is that about? What does 'Mr. White Folks' have to do with his point? It just reveals his vision of white people bad, black people good.

Then he says the following, "Call me when the phony moralizing stops and we, the media, quit demonizing black kids for cashing in like white men." Ahhh Jason, racist much? Do you think the NCAA wouldn't go after a white kid for cashing in? Once again reveals his vision of white people bad, black people good.

And then there is the prize winner, comparing the NCAA rule book to Jim Crow and laws that upheld slavery. Are we really to put NCAA rules on the same level as Jim Crow. .. seriously? Why not throw in the beheading of Nick Berg broadcast around the world, the Holocaust, and the killing of Bambi's mother in the begining of the movie. Oh, now I see why, its because those don't "prove" his vision of white people bad, black people good.​

Bottomline for Mr. Whitlock there are two BIG problems with his obsession, and trying to apply them to this issue.
1) There isn't just black athletes. There are white ones too, so they are then being taken advantage of as well. In other words, if we are to accept his premise, then its not a question of just blacks being victims. . ..whites are victims as well. So his point FAIL.
2) There are BLACK administrators, committee members in the NCAA as well as black coaches. In other words, some of the bad guys/gals are BLACK, not just white. So his point FAIL.

It makes a lot more sense to say that this is how Universities work. The Universities hold all the cards when you are there. . .it doesn't matter if you are black or white, in athletics or research. Jason doesn't mention the fact that any researchers that invent something at a university get next to nothing for that invention. Its not until that researcher goes out on their own to invent something that they have control of and the revenue from that invention. . . . . sound familiar Jason? Kinda like when you get out of college to go professional in athletics. It's not a question of race, unless that's the way you want to see it.

This is how obsessed people see the world. They conveniently ignore important facts to try and make everything fit into their myopic view of the world. For Jason everything is based in racism, and he will ignore and invent facts until racism is the only answer for the issue. So for me Jason's simplistic suggestion that the whitey's are bad and the blacks are victims and completely ignoring that the same situation exists in research as that of athletics makes his arguement look juvenile and ignorant, therefore his entire point is lost in his rant on racism.
 

The article does raise some valid points, but comparing it to slavery? No way.

Like said above, the athletes choose to play college sports. If they wants more options for the athletes than Europe or developmental leauges and wants them to be able to avoid college talk to David Stern and Roger Goodell about their age policies.
 

Anyone care to guess why the NCAA has an amateur rule?

The answer is pretty obvious. Paying athletes would break down the entire system and open up a can of worms that's hard to understate.

What school do you think an athlete would choose? Possibly the one with the deepest pockets? Pretty sure that would be the norm.

I don't want boosters and the like to be the biggest determining factor as to the success of a program.

I don't think there's a good way to relax the amateur rule and not have it explode in our faces.

I'm not a huge fan of the NCAA but with this I am completely on their side.
 



If the NCAA voted to allow payments to players, I would be proud of the Big Ten if in response the Big Ten voted to leave the NCAA.

One of the problems is who gets paid. Do only the Reggie Bushes get paid? What about the backups? What about the people whose main contribution is helping the team get ready in practice? Don't they work hard? Everyone would be expecting to get paid. And those revenues would vanish pretty fast.

And those sweet athletic dorm rooms? All the money for those would be going to pay players. If you're getting paid, then live like the rest of the working stiffs.

It would probably lead to a complete breakdown of the relationship between a school's athletic teams and the school itself. I know there are people out there who are only fans of a the team, and care nothing about the school (not pointing fingers). The next thing would be "why are they making me take classes, I only want to play sports." Education is what the school is for.

That free college education is worth a lot of money. It's not the school's fault if the player doesn't find it of any value.
 

Pewterschmidt said:
Anyone care to guess why the NCAA has an amateur rule?

The answer is pretty obvious. Paying athletes would break down the entire system and open up a can of worms that's hard to understate.

What school do you think an athlete would choose? Possibly the one with the deepest pockets? Pretty sure that would be the norm.

I don't want boosters and the like to be the biggest determining factor as to the success of a program.

I don't think there's a good way to relax the amateur rule and not have it explode in our faces.

I'm not a huge fan of the NCAA but with this I am completely on their side.
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I agree. It would then, also, require rules about who can play in the NCAA.

Do you dis-allow anyone who has recieved money from other entities than the NCAA to play in the leauge? Well that leads to the issue of "where did that money come from really? Regardless of the name on the check. How do you police where a players income comes from then? If it is from the school or an agent or whoever? It just opens the door for corruption.

But if you say, players can recieve money from anyone and still be in the NCAA, are NBA players eligible again? Can LeBron go back to UNC when he is done in the NBA?

It just becomes a messy messy system if you start paying college athletes.

If they want a real solution to this? Start a new leauge for each sport to compete with the NCAA sports, allowing participation out of high school to compete, recieve money, etc. And then get drafted out of that leauge for players who want money now, but don't want to play in college. I wish whoever takes on that task a lot of luck.
 

The real answer is drop athletic scholarships and let university sports become glorified club leagues like they are at universities in every other country in the world.

If the NCAA actually cared about academics that is what they would do. Yes, this would hurt a portion of the scholar-athletes but so be it.
 

If some schools want to pay athletes, they can drop out of the NCAA and form their own organization. I won't stand in their way. Major league sports benefit tremendously from using colleges as their player development system, they get the players developed, and don't have to pay for it. Let the major leagues build their own developmental leagues.

And if players want to get paid, then they should also pay for their own room and board, and paid for their own tuition. Might not be a lot left over.

The value of a college scholarship can be well over $50,000 per year. Good luck making that kid of money at 18.
 

Winnipegopher said:
The real answer is drop athletic scholarships and let university sports become glorified club leagues like they are at universities in every other country in the world.

If the NCAA actually cared about academics that is what they would do. Yes, this would hurt a portion of the scholar-athletes but so be it.
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I don't really care what the rest of the world does, I live here not there. The rest of the world also had their professional athletes competing in the Olympics, while American athletes had one hand tied behind their backs.

How is dropping athletic scholarships an answer to people who want athletes to be paid? An athletic scholarship is an equitable exchange. If you want non-scholarship sports, there is no shortage of D-III schools to follow.
 

Pewterschmidt said:
Anyone care to guess why the NCAA has an amateur rule?

The answer is pretty obvious. Paying athletes would break down the entire system and open up a can of worms that's hard to understate.

What school do you think an athlete would choose? Possibly the one with the deepest pockets? Pretty sure that would be the norm.

I don't want boosters and the like to be the biggest determining factor as to the success of a program.

I don't think there's a good way to relax the amateur rule and not have it explode in our faces.

I'm not a huge fan of the NCAA but with this I am completely on their side.
Click to expand...

While trite, the "almost all of them going pro in something other than sports" rings true. Very small percentage of college athletes make a living at sports in any capacity, even in the big revenue sports. I agree, Pewter, this is a huge can of worms, and virtually every D-1 athlete is getting a pretty good deal with a full ride for four years. There are only a small number that are the difference makers that are virtually assured of making a living in the game someday and having thier jerseys sold and images used in computer games that are really getting ripped off in the current system. Most of them have it pretty good financially with what they already get. What few people talk about is how many guys head into the college game thinking they will get paid someday and never do. A $100,000 education is a very good deal for them if they take advantage of it.

If the NCAA really wants to do something about the current corruption, it will force the NBA and NFL to adopt a system similar to MLB where guys have to make a decision between the game and an education for the time being at age 18. The pros should create their own feeder systems and give those who go to school a real chance for an education rather than encouraging biding time until they get paid to play.

Tangentially, the lawsuit with Ed (Charles?) O'Bannon as the lead guy in trying to claim rights to old games being broadcast opens up a can of worms as well in someone determining who should get what. Does "Shoes" Huffman get the same as Magic and Larry for the 1979 championship game? Good luck in an equitable distribution in that arena.
 

Holy Man said:
While trite, the "almost all of them going pro in something other than sports" rings true. Very small percentage of college athletes make a living at sports in any capacity, even in the big revenue sports. I agree, Pewter, this is a huge can of worms, and virtually every D-1 athlete is getting a pretty good deal with a full ride for four years. There are only a small number that are the difference makers that are virtually assured of making a living in the game someday and having thier jerseys sold and images used in computer games that are really getting ripped off in the current system. Most of them have it pretty good financially with what they already get. What few people talk about is how many guys head into the college game thinking they will get paid someday and never do. A $100,000 education is a very good deal for them if they take advantage of it.

If the NCAA really wants to do something about the current corruption, it will force the NBA and NFL to adopt a system similar to MLB where guys have to make a decision between the game and an education for the time being at age 18. The pros should create their own feeder systems and give those who go to school a real chance for an education rather than encouraging biding time until they get paid to play.

Tangentially, the lawsuit with Ed (Charles?) O'Bannon as the lead guy in trying to claim rights to old games being broadcast opens up a can of worms as well in someone determining who should get what. Does "Shoes" Huffman get the same as Magic and Larry for the 1979 championship game? Good luck in an equitable distribution in that arena.
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Excellent points, they do an excellent job in revealing the whole argument about "paying the players" as a simpleton argument, that lazily ignores the complexities of such a proposal.
 

The irony is that those who are most likely to say "I should be paid" are the ones most likely to play in the NFL, where they will be paid quite well. College football players live better than do minor league baseball players - no fleabag motels for D-I players. When we dismiss the concept of the scholar athlete, we ignore that there are an awful lot of players who did all this work so they could get to college.
 

Are D1 athletes in the money sports really allowed to be student athletes where the student part of it comes first. If that is what you want stop treating it like a business. Put a limit on what coaches can make, say only as much as the average school president makes. College sports have bought into the financial portion of it. As long as that is the reason and purpose for it they will always be exploiting athletes.
 

jovs said:
Are D1 athletes in the money sports really allowed to be student athletes where the student part of it comes first. If that is what you want stop treating it like a business. Put a limit on what coaches can make, say only as much as the average school president makes. College sports have bought into the financial portion of it. As long as that is the reason and purpose for it they will always be exploiting athletes.
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Again, I would have LOVED to be "exploited" like that. Free college, with no student loans? Exploit away! College is expensive, the value of a college scholarship can be over $50,000 per year. How many 18 year olds can make that kind of money right out of college? College athletes have facilities that are not available to the average students, have better dorms than the average student, etc. What kind of exploitation is it which gets you special treatment not available to other students, and give you, without charge, a highly expensive benefit that pays off for life (a college degree)?

If the athlete wants a college education, it's available to them. If they don't, then they shouldn't complain because they don't want the product offered.

What does the coach being well paid have to do with anything? In the pros, the players are paid more than the coaches. The big irony is that those who complain that they should be paid are those who are most likely to go pro. They chose their college as a preparation for the pros. Maybe they should be billed for pro training.

If the players want to be treated like minor league players, then they can stay in fleabag motels and eat at cheap diners like minor league baseball players do.

How about a 5th year under scholarship? Redshirt players get 5 years of free college, how about an extra year of college for those who don't redshirt? That would benefit those interested in an education.
 

I thought of the perfect solution. Pay the best, but let's not pay the benchwarmers. But you can't really know who is the best until the season is done, so we only pay them after they finish with college. We just need to figure out a mechanism to pay the athletes. It's kind of a bother for the NCAA to deal with, so we will outsource that to the NFL and NBA. When they graduate, the best players can get paid by the NFL and NBA. Everyone is happy.
 

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