Wheres Martin Luther when you need him?

Wheres Martin Luther when you need him to help reform the Athletic church?

Some place along the line the NCAA has reached the conclusion that they own college sports instead of administering college sports. Nothing shows it better than what happened to Memphis recently and what didn’t happen to Duke or what hasn’t happened to USC.

Occasionally they get something right like they did when the allowed Matt Pilgrim to play immediately for Oklahoma St. More often they get it wrong like they did with a bunch of players from Hawaii. Due to a error in not registering software schools in the state use to add kids to the clearing houses list by several high schools one or more classes weren’t submitted in a timely manner to the clearing house for a number of boys and girls. When the schools realized this they attempted to register the software and straighten the classes out with the NCAA but by that time the NCAA wouldn’t accept the classes.

So lets see the high schools made a mistake and tried to rectify it to the best of their ability. The clearing house refused to accept that and do what the colleges did by realizing it wasn’t the kids fault and accept the classes. It left a bunch of boys and girls with the choice of either going the JC route, paying for a year of college or sitting out a year of sports.

If the NCAA wasn’t so secretive aka the lawsuit against Fla. St and the NCAA there would be no problem finding other cases where kids suffer because of the NCAA’s general inflexibility.

How do you solve a problem like this. Its simple to sports fans you force the NCAA to reform. The biggest problem isn’t going to be getting the NCAA to reform its going to be getting college presidents to get together and do what was done a few years ago The CFA forced the NCAA’s hand on television rights when they had every major and mid-major school except for the PAC 19 and Big 10 schools ready to form a new organization to replace the NCAA. Now the schools are making money hand over foot so whats the percentage in upsetting the money cart.

The NCAA is very good at trying to convincing the average fan that collegiate athletics is nothing more than an extracurricular service being provided to enhance the lives of nerdish students who barely remember to go to practice. As a result, the NCAA earns more during its post-season than the NFL and the NBA earn in their respective playoffs, including the Super Bowl.

So the next time you hear the NCAA say the student athlete comes first don’t believe it. What comes first is money, then the NCAA’s reputation, then certain schools and coaches and finally you find the student athlete at the bottom of the pile.

The Two Faces Of The NCAA

The NCAA approved a policy Thursday that would ban states, such as Delaware, from hosting championship events if they allow fans to bet on single games.

Chancellors and presidents from all three NCAA divisions approved the measure, saying it applies to “any session of an NCAA championship,” though it does not apply to states that allow parlay betting, lottery tickets, pull tabs and sports pools.

The move came one day after a federal judge denied a request by professional sports leagues and the NCAA to halt Delaware’s planned sports betting lottery until a legal challenge is resolved.

Officially, the NCAA opposes all forms of sports wagering that threaten the integrity of its games or jeopardizes the welfare of student-athletes and the athletic community.

Anyone who has ever been to Vegas when March Madness starts knows that sports betting is not a passing fad its a full blown tsunami that the NCAA is pretending isn’t there.
I can see where the NCAA is coming from on their attempt to control betting but seriously though doesn’t using jeopardizing the welfare of student-athletes reek just a little of hiprocracy coming from an organization that feels giving an athlete a few bucks on top of the free education from the millions that their schools make off their hard work and skills hurts college sports.

Wouldn’t it make just as much sense to give a athlete enough money to take the girlfriend out for a movie and dinner once a month or so. Seems like that would take the pressure off players throwing games.

Student-athletes are often expected to pay expenses related to admission, enrollment, housing, meal plans, parking permits, and more. There are incredible restrictions on employment, and you have to be wary of the boosters. You’re subjected to year-round drug testing, You have to deal with curfews. You can’t be paid for teaching your sport in a fee-for-lesson basis (but the math whiz on scholarship can make dough tutoring one-on-one). You have physical expectations placed upon yourself year round and oh yeah, you have to study and go to class too.

The NCAA has been playing the game for years and has it down to a science. They say that players are given a full ride and thats just not true. The National College Players Association (NCPA), formerly known as the Collegiate Athletes Coalition (CAC), released results of another significant study revealing the estimated shortfall between college athletes’ full scholarships and the actual cost of attendance at each Division I university.

The NCPA asserts that, by and large, universities have been deceiving recruits, many of whom are under the age of 18 and from disadvantaged backgrounds, into unknowingly being responsible for paying thousands of dollars while on “full” athletic scholarship.

The fact is, coaches fill high school recruits’ heads with promises of free rides and full scholarships, when in fact no such things exist. The NCAA designs full scholarships to fall short of the advertised price tag of a school, leaving recruits scrambling to make ends meet.

Complete NCPA study results and additional studies are available on the NCPA web site:http://www.ncpanow.org

So come on now Eve quit trying to talk the student-athlete into taking a bite of the apple and eat it yourself

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UT 28- UK 10

So there you have it. Another year, another UT victory. It is the streak that will not go away. The game this year wasn’t about UK or UT anyway, anyone that watched could see it was the goodbye Phil Fulmer show. It was the story book ending for him and UK was more than happy to play the victory cigar pansy.

I have to say that I have been hard on Fulmer. I probably will continue to be. After all, he has more wins against UK than any single coach. But today I’ll take a moment and commend Fulmer for mostly being about what I think college sports should be about and that is loyalty. Yes he is the biggest tattle tale in all the world while being one of the dirtiest there is. But he is UT. He played there, he assistant coached there and he head coached there. He would still be there if they would have him. I feel strongly that UT is the only high profile place that would have him and he knows it, but that is mildly beside the point today. So I congratulate him on his stay at UT and all those wins over UK. Now don’t let the door hit you in the hum d hum on the way out.

As for UK; That was the most uninspired effort I have seen in a long time all the way around, but especially on offense. It got to a point that everyone in the world knew UK was going to run another draw. Draws are great when the other team isn’t expecting them. I guess the same can be said for any play. All year long the talk has been of the QB position. All year long I have said that is the last position that should have had any talk. The lack of execution at ever position other than QB is the very reason UK had to ditch its pro style offense for.. well… that. While I HATE the triple option, and I despise the full time multi threat QB, there is one thing I HATE and DESPISE more. And that is a team that loses its path and veers in another direction simply because the players fail to execute. Mike Hartline came in and gave UK a boost. When that was Cobb, the “Cobbies” were very quick to say, “see”. So it would be very easy for “Harlinies” to do the same, right? No it would not. Just because he came in and gave UK a spark by providing something UT wasn’t prepared for doesn’t mean it’s time to go back to Hartline. Not for that reason anyway. I think UK should go back to him simply because that is what UK’s offense is supposed to be about. The players, coaches, trainers and water boys ALL need to rededicate themselves to what UK is about. I love Cobb to death but he simply is not a pocket passer. And its been proven over and over and over that one guy can not win a game by himself. The QB needs help and lots of it no matter who it is and the next four weeks would be the perfect time for all to go about doing just that.

As for UT, We’ll get em next year.