In the last few days there has been a rash of accusations that college players have been given improper benefits by agents which has compromised their eligibility. The NCAA is now investigating North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. Southern California has been put on heavy probation for agent tampering with Reggie Bush when he was there. Why is all this coming out now? Is it because it has gotten so bad that the NCAA has had enough and is cracking down hard? Is it because these players and agents were too obvious and got caught? Is there a conspiracy brewing against the SEC since they have won the last 4 BCS title games and are running away with college football? I've come up with that last one on my own, but I think this is all a combination of all three.
Agents tampering with players seems to be a huge problem. I've heard a lot of solutions:
- Get the NFL Players Association to ban an agent's license if they are found to give improper benefits to college players
- Don't let agents on college campuses
- Pay college athletes so they won't take the money
- Develop a rookie pay scale in the NFL so the agents won't have much incentive to tamper with the players
- Develop more ways to educate players on agents and their schemes
- Let college football players have agents so agents won't be hunting them
Those are a few of the arguments I've heard. The problem with them is that they all have major drawbacks. It's hard to trace what agent the money came from. If you don't let agents on campus, deals will happen on the street corner. If you pay an athlete, does the star player get more - what about basketball, baseball, softball players? Won't agents still contact players even if they're not going to make $20 million on a rookie contract - maybe they will give them $10K instead of $50K. Educate all you want, this is still going to happen. If you let them have agents won't it just transfer the problem to high schools?
What exactly is the problem with agents giving money to players? Oh yeah, it violates their amateur status. What is this? Golf, tennis, the Olympics? I don't think so, who cares about amateur status. The only guys these agents are going after are 1st and 2nd round picks, maybe a few 3rd round picks because those are the guys who are going to make the money. So set up a time frame, maybe from the end of spring practice until July 15th where agents can sit down on campus with an assistant coach and the player and make their pitch, and an offer to that player. What is wrong with a star wide receiver or linebacker signing a contract with an agent after his sophomore or junior year and getting a check for $40,000. Now he can take advantage of his talents and buy a car or send some money to his parents. Maybe more players will finish school since they've already gotten some money.
As long as the school itself, its boosters and fans are not giving that player money to come there or stay there then I don't see anything wrong with it. If it was legal for the player to accept the "signing bonus" then you could get rid of runners and other misleading people and the player can meet the agent face-to-face and make an informed decision with guidance from coaches, parents, etc. The confusion, gray areas, and wasted time by the NCAA would be put to rest.
Will any of this ever happen? Of course not! For one, I am in the way down deep minority on this because I've never even heard anyone say this was a good idea. I've had to come up with it on my own so I know the NCAA would never even table this discussion. But even if this was a topic, the NCAA would shoot it down because they are a worthless monopoly that needs to be done away with. The NCAA is worse than the federal government. They can pass down judgment with no recourse. At least the federal government has three branches to provide checks and balances. The NCAA investigates where they want to, what they want to, they put whatever probation they want to on whoever they want to. Who's winning these days? Ah, let's investigate them! My wife doesn't like that school...ah, let's investigate them! Let's pass a rule that no one agrees with just because we can! Let's spend years on end investigating a violation, leave the school and fan base on pins and needles for years before we pass our biased judgements!
Well this could all be fixed if the conferences would break off and separate from the NCAA, thereby not having to be ruled under their judgment. The problem is, they are under the illusion that the NCAA is good for college athletics. However, the saving grace may be getting a playoff system. I've already stated my many ways to formulate a college football playoff, now if they'll break away from the NCAA's dictatorship we'll be free to enjoy the greatest sport of all. And the simple fix for finding violations and infractions would be to hire multiple private organizations to continually investigate each school to make sure they are on the up and up.
Maybe the players are to blame for taking money while they are still in school. Or maybe it's the agents or maybe both. Who's job is it to correct the problem, the NFL? Well how about the NCAA! If the NCAA would just pass some rules that make sense instead of creating rules and sub-rules and blah, blah, blah. But since they won't do this, let's just get rid of them and start fresh.
JB
No comments:
Post a Comment