Thoughts on the NCAA

Hip hop, hooray! Ho! Hey! Ho! Smooth it out now. Coming to you LIVE from la casa de Logical Betting awaiting the first pitch of Phils/Giants. Got the earplugs in just in case this game goes bad for the Phils and the wife starts cursing up a storm, and ARG is upstairs going for her third straight “sleep through the night,” and the fifth in her young career (Ed. Sunday Note: She fell just short, needed another two hours, but 8 ½ was a solid effort. She had it if she went to bed her normal time, but she crashed last night). I, of course, just jinxed that, but won’t have to worry about the wife getting pissed about it cause she doesn’t read the blog. Tonight, we will unofficially be brought to you by Texas Roadhouse Steakhouse, where I have never eaten, but it was the first thing with “Texas” in it I could think of as I watch the end of Game 2 of Ys/Rangers.

Want to chat with you fine people about ye old NCAA, the organization, not the sports. Oh, and fair warning, I haven’t quite started drinking yet, and my posts are generally better as I work my way through a couple bottles. So if you want more ranting and cursing about the NCAA, scroll down. If you want “intelligent” sports talk, proceed.

I grew up in college sports heaven, smack in the middle of Big Ten country, when Michigan football was a national contender, Michigan State basketball was on its way towards a still-going, unprecedented string of Final Four appearances (yes, I do root for Sparty hoops. Not over Michigan, mind you, but way too many friends who went to State and too much respect for Izzo not to. And yes, I know that my Sparty friends would slit their throats before rooting for Michigan. It’s all good). And the metro Detroit area has its share of N**** D*** fans who have no affiliation to the school or the South Bend area, most notably, Fah T. We even had good college hockey in our area.

College sports fandom is different from the pros. It is, without a doubt, 99% passion from the fans and athletes. There is just something a little more special about your college team winning a title than your pro teams. Maybe it’s the odds of winning being so low, the difficulty in “building” a contender, who knows. But it is sports fandom at its most pure.

Then there’s the organization running college sports, which may be the most hypocritical and strangely run successful business in the country. And don’t let them tell you it’s not a business, by the way, cause it is. Like most things in life, if something doesn’t make sense (like many things the NCAA does and says), then someone somewhere with a lot of power is making a lot of jack. Take the new “Super Conferences” in college football. Why do you think all these schools are willing to break years of traditions and rivalries to join a new conference, in many cases way out of their geographic area (e.g., Colorado in the Pac 10, Nebraska in the Big 12, and in college hoops, schools like Marquette and DePaul in the Big East)? Let’s see, the Big Ten has its own TV deal, looks like the Pac 10 will, too, and the Big Ten is host to some of the biggest stadiums in the country. Can you say, payday?

The NCAA does a lot of things I really don’t get, most around football. Big story in Sports Illustrated this week about agents giving college kids cash, to which my first thought was, “and?” By the way, I know it was awhile ago, but how about Reggie Bush giving his Heisman back, then continuing to insist he was innocent and that giving it back was not an admission of guilt. OOOOOOOKAAAAAAAY, Reggie, and Pete Carroll just left because it was time to explore new opportunities. Who cares, dude, just admit it. Sorry… alright, so back to my original thought (beers are open!), time to list the most peculiar and stupid things the NCAA has going for it right now, with the caveat of I love college sports, and just wish they would take it to the next level.

1. The BCS – Yeah, I’m gonna beat down the whipping boy, too. At this point, I think even the NCAA presidents know it’s a bit ridiculous to say this is a good way to determine a champion, but what I really don’t get are their main arguments against changing it: a. Too many days out of class for the student athletes, b. the integrity of the bowl system, and c. importance of the regular season. Let’s break it down one more level…

a. Ummm, didn’t you just expand the NCAA tournament by another 32 teams? Doesn’t that take about 475 kids out of class a little longer? And doesn’t that tournament take place partially during the week, and right towards the end of the spring semester, whereas most important bowls take place during the winter break, and could easily be scheduled on the weekends like football games are now? And don’t a lot of regular season basketball games take place during the week over a longer period of time than college football? How does that make any sense? Oh wait, teams make boo-ku cash for going to meaningless bowls, sponsors make boo-ku cash sponsoring meaningless bowls, and the NCAA makes extra cash from all the TV and sponsorship deals. In other words, the current system works just fine for them and the presidents.

b. The only game that matters anymore is the BCS championship. If you can explain to me how that keeps the bowl system integrified or integral or whatever, I’m all ears.

c. I agree. It’s important that every major school now schedules at least on D-II school, that the University of Florida has not played an out of conference game out of the state of Florida in something like 7 years, and that one loss now pretty much kills your chances of winning the title. The regular season would still mean something, and there would still be debate cause you’d have teams fighting for the last playoff spot. Makes… no… sense. Scrap it. Use the bowls for your playoff. That plus-one idea is f-ing dumb, it’s just adding one more game for us to despise. Play. Off. Playoff. Do it.

2. Punishing schools for coach’s violations – This really speaks to the unfairness of life. Say you’re an 18 year old kid from the inner city, and you happen to be a star basketball player or football player. Coach Calipari, for example, comes to you and offers you not only the chance for a spot in the Final Four at Memphis, but also the chance to get a full ride degree that all but guarantees you and your family a ticket out of a crappy life. Then, said d-bag coach realizes he’s gonna get caught cheating, which is really shocking since it’s only happened to him a couple times before, then leaves for another school, where he promptly begins cheating (probably), and ditches you and Memphis to deal with years of sanctions and probation. So you lose your shot at the Final Four, and hopefully don’t lose all motivation to continue with school.

This is the same story at USC this year, and countless other places. The simple, oft proposed solution? Punish the coach, not the school. In other words, if you’re Kentucky, and you hire Calipari, you get his probation, sanctions, banishment from tournament play, etc. Any school that hires Pete Carroll, same deal. Makes sense, right? But, wait! What about Kentucky cashing in on all this? What about all the cash the NCAA could make in merchandise and ticket sales? Potential extra sponsorship revenue on the TV side? Well… Mr. Calipari just made a mistake, so I guess he can go to Kentucky. Sorry, not-as-big-a-market-or-school Memphis.

Seriously, this has to stop. It’s not fair. It’s dumb. It makes no sense. You could do it starting tomorrow. But then, the NCAA would have to deal with our final topic…

3. The kids are getting paid – Stunning, I know. There are so many ways for universities to funnel cash to players, it’s almost dumb to investigate it anymore. You have everything from kids “working” at car dealerships to direct payments to family or “friends.” And honestly, what can the NCAA even do about it? For every one they catch, you know there are at least 10, 12, 50, probably hundreds more getting paid. And, other than the fact it’s cheating, there isn’t much drawback for the NCAA itself. It’s better for them to get the best athletes to the biggest schools. But if they really wanted to solve the problem, then do the controversial thing:

Pay the players. Think about how much cash the basketball and football players bring into schools, and how they essentially fund a lot of the smaller sports. There was a great story in a book about the Fab Five where Chris Webber had to give food back at a fast food restaurant because he didn’t have enough cash (though, to counter, he did grow up in a decent family and probably could have had more cash), while the university was profiting hard off him and the rest of the Fab Five. Determine a set amount for each player, regardless of sport or gender, and pay the kids a small stipend.

You could argue that paying the star QB the same amount as a bench women’s volleyball player doesn’t add up, but this would show that the NCAA values all athletes equally, and acknowledges the sacrifice and dedication it takes for any student athlete, regardless of sport, to be able to play at that level. Remember, these kids don’t have time for part time jobs, much less much of a social life. Just a little spending money, with the hopes that this will deter some of that agent money from coming in. Assuming the NCAA wants that to happen. To be honest, I don’t think it will stop the agents from paying players, but at least it’s some sort of effort and rewards the kids who aren’t getting paid.

The NCAA seems to succeed despite itself sometimes, doesn’t it? It’s like MLB under Bud Selig. And just like with MLB, it succeeds because of its fans and its players. In that order. Here’s hoping that Boise, Oklahoma, Auburn, Ohio State, and Oregon all go undefeated, and that they have to explain how the BCS “got the best two schools” in the championship game. (Ed. Sunday Note – F-ing Buckeyes. Let’s go Sparty!) And kids, that scenario is not that far fetched. Say your prayers, and eat your vitamins.