The End of the Student Athlete

It's all over the news. Jim Tressel resigned. Since last December, the Ohio State football program appeared in the news seemingly every week with a new scandal. It started when news broke that six OSU football players (including Terrelle Pryor) received cash in exchange for Buckeye memorabilia. Tressel denied any knowledge of wrongdoing. Then Big Ten Commissioner campaigned that the six OSU players be allowed to play in their bowl game. Inexplicably, the NCAA permitted the OSU players to play in the Sugar Bowl.

OSU fans hoped this would be the end of the affair. But YahooSports dug a bit deeper. They discovered that Tressel knew about the player infractions months before the incident became public. By the time Tressel resigned, it was clear that he ran a crooked program from Day 1.

While I believe the dude is dirty, he's still a scapegoat. This year, OSU took the fall. Last year, it was USC. The NCAA can't go a month without a new scandal hitting the news about how a top program broke the rules. Surely the coaches much justify it in their minds by thinking "everyone does it." "If Cam Newton gets a fire-engine red Ferrari for signing with Auburn, I better find a booster who sells Ferraris!" And, for the record, Auburn is next. Then I'm sure we'll see Alabama take some heat. It's all the top programs. With all this cheating going on, how can the NCAA tolerate it?

Because, unless it makes the news, they don't care. The NCAA is about money. This was best illustrated with the Sugar Bowl incident last December. The moneymen behind the Sugar Bowl didn't want an OSU team without Terrelle Pryor and five key players. The moneymen flashed their checkbooks, and the NCAA caved. This single act exposed the NCAA to be completely subject to the will of handful of very rich men. It's not the bastion of honored student athlete. The organization may advertise how they cater to athletes who are students first, but the fact is that the NCAA is as corrupt and dirty as Boss Tweed.

There's simply too much money flowing around in college sports. The beast allowed itself to grow to gargantuan heights and now it's untenable. And they're slowly destroying everything that made it great.

The once hallowed ground of New Years Day is now a great time to catch the TicketCity Bowl. It's only a matter of time before the NCAA "Championship" Game goes head-to-head with the NBA Playoffs.

In many ways, we, the fans, are partly to blame. We allow our fanaticism to rage unchecked. The Internet gave fans unfettered access to their team. Information and news spread at a feverish clip. Fans now bicker with rival schools on message boards behind the anonymity of an untracked alias and post updates about the latest 17 year old 5-star defensive back. Last April, an incredible 92,310 fans attended the Alabama Spring game. A practice! And it was televised (ESPNU). So, fans pump their money and attention on the sport. The NCAA and their schools rake in the cash. And the players who actually play? They become commodities. Is it any wonder they want to get paid?

I never saw myself as a traditionalist, but when it comes to college athletics, I guess I am. I have no problem with companies wanting more money. Nor do I have a problem with athletes wanting to get paid. But they're called professionals. And companies that are about making money are usually corporations bought-and-sold on the NYSE. Not an organization whose first core value is:

The collegiate model of athletics in which students participate as an avocation, balancing their academic, social and athletics experiences

Nowhere in their core values do they say anything about cashing in on the Sugar Bowl. In fact, there's no mention of money at all. But they do mention integrity.