Terrelle Pryor Packs It In

Stupid is as stupid does.

I’m not usually one to promote vandalism, but I think some drunk/disillusioned/bitter/unemployed Buckeye fans and Terrelle’s 350Z have a date with destiny.

Terrelle will just return the car to the dealer who is letting him test drive it on his suspended license. Haters gonna hate.

Waiting on a post with the picture of the three bucknuts with the big nut thing necklaces hugging while the middle one cries. Cue it.

With the NFL labor situation is there going to be a supplemental draft this summer?

Even if there is supplemental draft Pryor won’t get paid until the draft is over and I can’t imagine the endorsement opportunities will be exactly rolling in for him based upon his last 6 months.

I can’t imagine Terrelle will continue to have access to cars from the dealership in Columbus and it will be interesting to see if he loses access to any of his revenue streams from Ohio.

Just curious how soon he decides to do interviews on his time in Columbus for money.

to do interviews

Study LeBron’s negotiating strategery, tell-all book in progress offered to highest bidder. Cue Lefty and Fingers for visit to TP, along with their friend Four Hundred Pounds of Chain.

I love how TP is somehow the bad guy in this.

Once he’s sufficiently punished, I’m sure there won’t be any more college football players taking money and driving around in sports cars.

And I’m sure no mother will ever kill her kid again after Casey Anthony gets the needle.

Point?

I never said Pryor was a bad guy or the bad guy, have said one multiple occassions that Tressell is a piece of crap, but you can’t tell Pryor has not acted in a manner that he believed he was behaving in a manner in which he was above any standards of behavior.

“With Pryor no longer a college football player, he is no longer obligated to meet with the NCAA.”

Hmm….

W O U L D Y O U G U Y S S H U T U P ? ?

i’m trying to hear whether she has any quarterbacks in her ancestry.

nobis — You just compared him to a mother who contributed to the death of her own child! That’s my point.

DOB — Would it surprise me if a 21-year old college kid whose been idolized since he was 15 is an entitled dick? Not really. But if every D1 school had SI doing a full on investigation of their player parking lots there’d be a lot of guys in Pryor’s shoes. It just seems to me like he’s being scapegoated in the same way that Reggie Bush was, as if they, and not the system they are a part of, are ultimately responsible for these scandals.

tjarks -
 
Oh, the system MADE THEM do it. I see.
 
It’s obvious that this sort of behavior will continue so long as some college athletes are repositories of great future value, but individual athletes have the ability to make choices and programs vary in their culture of enforcement.

Looks like he had a side job signing stuff on the side. Good work if you can get it.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6637444

tjarks -

Fair enough, but my intention wasn’t to draw a moral equivalency between the two but to make the point that you punish the crime appropriately for the sake of law and justice, not with the hope that this punishment will be the end of wrongdoing.

I don’t think Pryor has even been tarred as a ringleader in this whole scenario – this mess was taking place before he got there and all the other players involved, just like him, made their own decisions. There’s no such thing as a free lunch – renown is a double-edged sword that can cut the ones who aren’t equipped to handle it. 99% of America couldn’t name the other players who got popped in this scandal, and they stood to benefit from a scant amount of the positive pub that Pryor’s status brought him. Now he bears a bigger burden of negative attention because he did wrong while in the spotlight. And while I don’t know this for certain, if any of the rest of them were rolling in dirty rides I bet they took the damn bus to that team meeting.

If you have a soft spot in your heart for Pryor, take heart in this – three years at tOSU will have mostly prepared him for the weather he’ll face suiting up for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Mostly.

Scipio,

Terelle Pryor is no great guy, but if you’re unwilling to study the system in which he operates, then I don’t know what to tell you. I feel like this website consistently takes a more nuanced view of things than the one you’re exhibiting now.

The system did not make him do it, but while we have a system in place that pays college athletes well below market value, there will continue to be things like this going on. This is conversation we should be having.

tjarks (and pleaseplaykindle now that you’ve joined the convo) -

One more thought on this topic before I lapse into a Mavs victory-related alcohol stupor. To me, this TPryor/tOSU/boosters/everyone who gets some shady paydays in college athletics discussion is similar to the Greg Davis vs Bull Reese arguments I’d see after one of our 50-point orcafuckings to OU in the early oughts. While people were lining up to yell “It’s GD’s fault” or “It’s Bull’s fault”, I always found myself waving my arms and screaming, “Guys – there is PLENTY of blame to go around here!”

With regards to Pryor specifically, I’d encourage you to read Mario Puzo’s ‘The Last Don’ – not just because it’s a great book in its own right, but to meditate on a phrase that pops up often throughout the narrative – “A man is responsible for everything he does.”

PS – tjarks, I hope we get to read more of your thoughts on the NBA Finals around here, if only in the comments rather than articles due to your new gig – love your perspective on the hardwood.

PPS – Big ups to me for a flawless its/it’s execution two bottles of wine in. Je suis un homme.

pleaseplaykindle said,

Scandals in college athletics have existed long before the big money from television. I am too lazy to do much in depth research, but the first major scandal I recall hearing about was a cheating scandal at West Point in the early 50’s and I really don’t think at stake were television dollars. My point is that paying athletes will not eliminate cheating or the events that have taken place in Columbus. The issue is not market value of the player, but looking for a competitive edge. Basic rule in sales is look for the competitive advantage and do you truly believe that even if there was a way to possibly pay every college athlete (don’t forget the impact of Title IX in this discussion). that some school would not find a way to pay an elite athlete more to gain that competitive edge?

Erik the Orange,

He might not have to talk to the NCAA, but that might be the least of Pryor’s worries. There are now reports he might have earned anywhere from $20,000-$40,000.00 for signing various items. I am sure tjarks will quickly chime in with how no athletes on the autograph circuit report that income and that if someone has been kissing your ass for 6 years or so that the idea of tax evasion is perfectly okay.

Let’s consider this little scenario. Pryor is supposedly getting paid from a guy who is in deep shit with the IRS. His head coach is not exactly a favorite in the US Attorney’s Office for letting it be known that the Feds are investigating the owner of the tattoo shop. Now it is mentioned that this poor misguided youth might have been paid in cash several thousand dollars of income which I am sure he reported to the IRS. If anyone thinks this is farfetched just go back and look at the case of the IRS, Ed Martin, Chris Webber, and Michigan basketball.

Scip —

Why shouldn’t players drive around in sports cars? Their cool. Their fun to drive. That’s the part that doesn’t make sense to me: What exactly is the moral legitimacy of the NCAA’s amateurism rules?

I understand the argument that the rules are the rules and we can’t live in anarchy, but I really don’t see the difference between the NCAA artificially restricting the players ability to make a living and what Cuba does to their baseball players.

Especially when you consider that football players A. have no other options if they want to pursue their chosen career and B. are destroying their bodies (the cumulative effect of concussions) and risking their careers (see: Tyrone Prothro) to play college football. Letting them sell their gear for a few bucks and drive a sports car doesn’t seem like a big deal to me.

Nobis —

TP ain’t going to be a pro QB obviously, but seems like he could make a transition to a WR/hybrid type player like Brad Smith.

DOB —

That’s true Title IX pretty much makes it impossible for the schools to pay players. The NCAA should just get out of their personal affairs, if someone wanted to offer VY a million-dollar endorsement while he was in Austin let him take it. This is America; artificially restricting someone’s ability to make a living ain’t what we’re about.

Would this make college recruiting an open bidding war where boosters compete to offer players money for side-jobs/endorsements? Probably, but you’re kidding yourself if you don’t think that’s already happening.

As for TP and the IRS: Peep the style and the way the cops sweat us / The number one question is can the Feds get us. — Jay-Z

tjarks,

Why? Quite simply because that is the structure under the current system. Yes, you have a non-profit group in the NCAA that makes billion dollar decisions that rely on the works and sacrifices of others. You have colleges that directly benefit from these same individuals. You have individuals in coaches who really don’t have any real special training or education, but are paid money that is ridiculous compared to their peers all once again directly benefiting from the work and sacrifice of others.

Two more things. First, I have mentioned here before the words I was told several years ago, but a gentleman who I worked with at a summer job. He was a long-time employee of an athletic department at a Black college in the South. In his heart he truly felt like the worst thing that ever happened to the black athlete was integration of the major universities because they were going from programs that were part of schools whose missions it was to produce the next generation of leaders in the black community to schools whose mission it was to win and only win. Might be a little melodramatic in his thinking, but I do think the core of his thoughts are true.

Second, a basic tenant is he who holds the gold makes the rules. That is true source of power and that is the people who control the rights to the images of the players and the television rites to the games. Problem is that the NCAA and College Football truly don’t know who they have gotten in bed with in ESPN.

“…think some drunk/disillusioned/bitter/unemployed Buckeye fans …”

Having lived there for years, it is just easier to say “all Buckeye fans”.

The tjarks and ppk theory can be applied to any instance of cheating in order to condone it. Steroids, scuffing the ball, whatever. Think of the poor, poor player who only cheated because of the system with all these expectations on him and no other avenue where he can achieve glory in his chosen sport, blah, blah, blah.

When you agree to take part in competition according to a written set of rules and then intentionally violate those rules consistently that makes you a cheater.

And when a coach and institution find out about that cheating and cover it up instead of reporting it and/or at the very least putting a stop to it, that makes them cheaters.

It’s really that simple.

His advisers are clearly slippery and the tax authorities must come knocking sooner rather than later.

Amazing that time and again it is failure to declare income tax that comes back to haunt the cheaters.

Huck —

What if you have no choice but to participate? Derrick Rose couldn’t pass the SAT, but the NBA put in a rule saying players needed to spend at least one year in college. What was he suppose to do exactly? Give up? No — he cheated, had someone else take it for him and was the #1 overall pick a year later. Why should his lack of academic ability prevent him from lifting his family out of poverty?

If I was in Rose’s shoes in my year at Memphis, you know what I’d be thinking of? Shaun Livingston — drafted #4 out of high school and then just shredded his knee when he got to the NBA. So yea if I was in his situation, or Pryor’s situation, I’d take money too. And if that makes me a “cheater” so be it. It’s not even all about the glory either — you think employers are beating down the doors of inner-city high schools looking for workers when people with professional degrees can’t find jobs?

I’m supposed to just sit there and play my position while Ohio State makes millions of dollars a year going to BCS games while I destroy my body being a professional gladiator basically?

Why should his lack of academic ability prevent him from lifting his family out of poverty?

Because that’s the way the cartel designed the system.

Poor, huddled, uneducated, unsophisticated masses that are the only ones restricted in their career path choices.

My wife is a big fan of Grey’s Anatomy as was as ER and St. Elsewhere. I think I have seen enough that I should be able to sit for the medical boards without having to spend that time and all that money to go to medical school.

Then again I have several friends who are lawyers and some are complete idiots. Why do I need to take the bar exam to know what is right or wrong?

Part are for legitimate reasons and part so schools can charge outrageous fees. I am not exactly weeping for any athlete who feels he is deprived to seek his “true market value”. Welcome to the real world that say 1/3 of the US’s work force is going through right now.

Huck,

While I completely agree with you in theory, sports is full of dirty little tricks. To use your example of a scuffed ball, lets say the ball was scuffed on the ground and the ump did not remove it from play. Are you cheating to pitch the ball?

I had one very well known college coach to remain nameless—who was the coach of a team Texas will play in the very near future—tell me personally of at least two instances where his players did the following:

1.) A pitcher in a particularly tight game at the college world series kicked dirt on the pitching rubber to cover up the rubber and then pitched from 1-2ft in front of the rubber.

2.) On a play at first umpires tend to listen for the sound of the ball hitting the glove while watching for the runner to step on the bag. The first basemen on this team were coached to slap their legs prior to the arrival of the ball, step off the bag and catch the ball. The result was frequently an “out” when the runner actually would beat the ball to the bag.

Said coach used to say, its no different than a foul in a basketball game, the ump can call the play right or wrong but it doesn’t make it cheating.

Now, while I tend to agree in the latter case and disagree in the former, I think there are some shade of gray in what really constitutes cheating versus taking advantage of the rules. Clearly, Tyrelle Prior was cheating his ass off as was Ohio State.

But pitching with a scuffed ball is not nearly in the same category.

I tend to agree with tjarks that ethically, selling your own stuff should not be a violation of NCAA rules. This should extend to the ability to sell your own autograph. That said, selling a jersey, helmet or shoulder pads paid for by the OSU is not the same thing as selling your stuff.

tjarks,

Do you work for a company that has stock that is publically traded? If so unless you are a senior executive or member of the board of directors that is in a position to substantially profit on the efforts of you and others like you.

Is it a greater disservice that an athlete who has access to an education and a possible chance to play a sport professionally to have performed services that resulted in millions be earned by their “supervisors” and to their school or thousands lose their jobs while millions in bonuses and stock options to executives who made decisions to damn near crater their companies?

Not to be an ass, but while there is an argument to be made for paying college athletes I just really don’t feel how their situation is unique or really all that bad compare to the plight of many in today’s economy.

When you agree to take part in competition according to a written set of rules and then intentionally violate those rules consistently that makes you a cheater.

I disagree in that not every violation of the rules is “cheating”. If no competitive advantage is gained, it’s not cheating. Many here might disagree but I’d say the whole Reggie Bush fiasco that landed USC on probation wasn’t actually cheating, because I don’t see how the football program benefited. Boosters paying players on the other hand would be cheating, because it would presumably have recruiting ramifications.

Pryor and co. selling their own stuff? I’m not sure that’s cheating. I could probably be convinced otherwise on this particular case, but my general point is that not all violations of the rules should carry the same moral weight.

The crook as the victim is strong with this one. It’s a pretty common theme played daily in society and it bemuses me. You can tell a lot about somebody from that, imo.

There’s just not much accountability these days.

As to Pryor – it really is as simple as Huck pointed out, but unfortunately in a world where it’s against the law to enforce certain laws, I’m not surprised so many people struggle with the concept.

We all should have known TP’s sleeves would clash with The Sweatervest.

fOSU.

“Many here might disagree but I’d say the whole Reggie Bush fiasco that landed USC on probation wasn’t actually cheating, because I don’t see how the football program benefited. "

What? you don’t understand how you gain a competitive advantage by providing a home (or allowing a home to be provided) to players that agree to play for your team. You don’t understand that recruiting better players increases your ability to win?

You must be one of those naive people who thinks Pete Carrol had no idea what was going on.

…too lazy to do much in depth research, but the first major scandal I recall hearing about…

Does "win one for the Gipper" ring a bell?

…several thousand dollars of income…

I believe the term you’re looking for here is "revenue" rather than "income" – it’s a common misconception.

What exactly is the moral legitimacy of the NCAA’s amateurism rules?

Morality does not enter into it. This is primarily a matter of contractual agreement, if I understand it correctly.

Why do I need to take the bar exam to know what is right or wrong?

You don’t. But if you want to represent anyone other than yourself in any court, you need to be a member of the Lawyer’s Guild, because the Lawyer’s Guild has a contract with the Gubernator that gives it a monopoly on suchlike. It’s called "privilege".

When you start considering buckage and tattoo prices, keep in mind that Mack could pay every scholarship player $50,000 out of his own salary and still have $750,000 left over to scrape by on.

You are all intelligent gentlemen so I’ll assume that you watch The Wire. Busting Terrelle Pryor for his wrongdoings and claiming victory is like the drug busts against the low-level soldiers in the Barksdale organization. You get the Poots, the Bodie’s, and occasionally even DeAngelo.

Meanwhile, Avon and Stringer sit in their protected strip joint, counting their money keeping their hands clean of any obvious crime.

If you want to do street busts against the thugs, go for it. I’m lookin at Avon.

Huckleberry said: "The tjarks and ppk theory can be applied to any instance of cheating in order to condone it. "

I never condoned cheating. I even pointed out that Terrelle Pryor selfishly broke the rules when untold numbers of NCAA athletes honestly suffered under those same rules. No one, least of all me, is portraying him as a martyr.

At the same time, if all that comes out of this is “hey we caught Terrelle Pryor cheating”, then the media has not done its job. It is a valid part of the conversation here to discuss the merits and inequities present in the current system, in which everyone profits off of the product generated by athletes except for the athletes themselves. There is a dramatic artificial undervaluing of NCAA athletes designed specifically to benefit institutions.

Other people have said what I’m trying to say much better, so I advise you stop reading this and read someone more intelligent than I: http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/04/monopsony-in-college-athleticsposner.html

pleaseplaykindle -
 
Jim Tressel is a low-grade street soldier? Mike Garrett?
 
Now explain the interplay of your illegal drug trade governed by Title IX, the fact that most division I athletes won’t play a second of pro sports, payment of athletes based on production and college affiliation would create a bifurcated elite of 15-20 teams and consign the rest of college sports to glorified intramurals, college football’s evolution as a NFL D-League didn’t happen as some vast conspiracy, and no young man who can run fast or dunk is owed a living or a dime by anyone.
 
There are two college revenue sports. Period. And the vast majority of the athletes participating in both of them, much less the parasitic sports, won’t play pro. If you can create an workable revenue distribution system which takes into account of that fact, factors in the interplay of gender equity, and can explain exactly how players will be paid (production based, I’m assuming), will explain how free agency will work (you can’t limit a paid employees right to work arbitrarily) and a half dozen other minor factors like that, I’m all ears.
 
Get to it. It’s clear you’ve thought all of this through.

If anyone thinks this is farfetched just go back and look at the case of the IRS, Ed Martin, Chris Webber, and Michigan basketball.

But Martin was the target of that investigation, not any of the players. Chris Webber got indicted for perjury because he insisted on lying to the grand jury after his teammates had told the truth. If anything, their acceptance of Martin’s laundered money was a lever.

Bob,

Very true. My point here that I didn’t do a good job of making clear is that while Chris Webber was long gone from Michigan and could have told the NCAA to pound sand he could not do that to the IRS when they wanted to talk with him.

I am not a tax attorney and don’t know all the details, but have read that the booster who supposedly paid Pryor to sign the items has a business with a significant tax lien. Tressell is on less than good terms with the U.S. Attorney’s office for leaking the information on the tatoo shop owner. Is it farfetched to believe one Federal agency would pick up the phone and suggest that they take a look at Pryor and his unreported income and the source of that income.

Scipio,

If the pre-requisite for questioning the status quo is that a completely defined alternative has to be presented then this discussion isn’t really worth having. I allude to the BCS vs. Playoffs debate for a great example of why. Each person who opposes the BCS will likely have a different view of exactly what to replace it with, many of which are mutually exclusive. I’m not interested in having (the analogous) discussion of whether to have a 4 or 8 team playoff. If your assertion is that there is NO possibly way to pay the players, then let’s talk.

I was a graduate student at UT in a field (engineering/math) that is revenue generating. By all standards, I am just as much of an amateur as a student athlete. As a research assistant in my field, I am paid significantly more than a research assistant in the liberal arts (a non revenue-generating field). I recently left UT, partially because of the fact a different university was willing to pay me more to be a research assistant. My salary is determined partly by the field I’m in, and partly by my performance. I am free to leave, and the university is free to terminate me if my services should be unacceptable. The questions of gender equity I’ll set aside; those are a broader social issue, and we’re not going to solve those via any NCAA regulations.

Clearly the analogy is imperfect. I make far less money than a football player, and although the College of Engineering dwarfs the athletics department in revenue (and this is far more true at other universities), it gets far less media attention. My point is this: universities have successfully been able to rid themselves of the notion of “amateur” status with regards to all of their other students (viz. me). I don’t really understand why athletes should be treated differently.

And my The Wire analogy was meant to be more of a joke (and Avon was supposed to be the institution and not a person per se).

I’ll leave the analogy-making to more talented writers next time.

Speaking of scholarships – in this grand debate of compensation, are we just flat out ignoring the value of a 5-year education from a major university in all of this?

Because given how much education costs have soared in the past few decades – far out-pacing inflation – I would think you’d HAVE to consider that as part of the payoff.

Of course the universities are getting much more out of the top players than those players are getting back. But let’s not pretend that these guys are somehow being deprived of any significant recompense for their abilities.

If an athlete goes to school with no intention of taking advantage of that boon, because he’s fucking off going to parties and keeping it real and shit, and then he finds himself SOL when he doesn’t go #1 in the draft, well … boo-fucking-hoo. He had all kinds of chances and very real compensation given to him that won’t go to a lot of people out there.

Though judging by some of the comments here, I guess he could blame that on the Man, too.

Of course selling your gear and autograph puts the team at a competitive advantage. You think if Pryor went to Eastern Michigan his warez would be worth as much?

As to compensation, I think not being paid is part of what makes CF special and distinct as it distances itself culturally from the NFL. A scholly and opportunity at an education is enough for me to satisfy the Institution v Player grey area of who deserves what. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I’d like the infrastructure to support the for love of game feel and pageantry of CF.

All the people talking about the poor college athlete have apparently forgotten that all the other college students aren’t getting paid either, and most of them have to pay for their education. On top of that, the football players are also up to their eyeballs in poontang – and thats not even an improper benefit.

The fact that some football programs are making beaucoup bucks makes it easy to say that the players deserve some of it, but its not like they need it more than anyone else. Even conceding that they have a market value as college football players, the problem with paying them (assuming Title IX didn’t exist) is that it would flat-out destroy college football. First, it would price most teams out of the market, as Scipio mentioned, the bigger the payments the fewer teams that could compete. That right there would probably be the death knell because when the fans of 100 schools stop watching games on TV, the revenue dries up.

On top of that, the reason people are so passionate about college football is because your team’s success is a source of pride in your alma mater – the reason your team wins is because your school is a more attractive place to be, does things better, etc. etc. If schools outright started paying players, no intellectually honest person could even get that vicarious satisfaction anymore – now you win because you buy the best players. The entire athletic tradition of everyone’s college experience, rooting for fellow students, is gone. My bet is people would lose interest, boosters stop contributing, etc. If you are going to root for pro players, root for the NFL. College football would be like arena league – seriously also-ran.

Now, you could prohibit schools from paying players but let players sell autographs and such. That sounds like a fair solution because then only the players with value will make $. But thats dangerous because then you have all these guys who should be studying and getting better at football turning into marketing machines trying to make a buck. Not only a serious distraction but also pretty unseemly and counter to what the college experience is about. Then there’s the slippery slope argument – where do you draw the line? The clearest line is no monetary benefits of any kind.

Other than that, I don’t have a great argument against selling autographs, but even players that don’t go pro get serious post-grad benefits from alumni. I know of a ton of players who get jobs just because they played for major universities.

Assuming any NFL team is stupid enough to draft this loser, I predict he will be a huge flop.

I’d like to applaud pleaseplaykindle for bringing some level-headed thought to this conversation and, as I understand it, I agree with his/her general stance. Pryor may be a morally repugnant shitheel and he certainly deserves whatever he has coming to him, but Pryor didn’t create the culture of permissiveness at Ohio State and flaying him in the public square does not resolve the larger problem in major college athletics.

Someone offered Mario Puzo’s The Last Don as some instructive reading on the topic earlier but I think Michel Foucault’s Crime and Punish could provide further insight into the problem. Right now the NCAA is acting as royalty acted in Medieval Europe, enforcing laws sporadically but heavily. USC gets heavy sanctions, Auburn gets nothing, UNC loses half its starters for a season, Oregon gets a pass on the Will Lyles shit, Boise State gets kicked in the nuts for existing, etc. and so on. No consistency in the punishment, barely any explanation or rationale given for action is given.

If the NCAA actually cares about cleaning up college sports (and that’s a BIG if), it should shift into a more modern, Panoptic approach to punishment. Expand and clearly define the rule book and enforce every penalty equally. Maintain a compliance officer at every school and randomly audit/investigate programs throughout the year. Give the impression that the NCAA will punish every infraction and is actually capable of investigating wrong-doing. Of course that would take money and effort, two things the NCAA does not expend for any reason beyond promoting itself. If nothing else, the NCAA must reform its penalties to actually hurt the programs it intends to punish. Fuck all this stripping former wins and titles, no one really cares about that. Hit the money. Bar programs from TV appearances, threaten to cut revenue streams, do whatever it takes to make schools actually fear being punished.

Ultimately, however, the NCAA is a business and, like any other, will expend no resources to change unless profitability is threatened. So until cheating becomes so rampant that people quit watching/attending games, or some higher power demands the NCAA pays players, this won’t get any better for people who value the integrity of college athletics.

I’m no expert, so perhaps I am missing the obvious – hence the handle.

Let’s assume for a second that the NCAA allows players to sell their own stuff and autographs. How is that not the same thing as simply allowing fans and boosters to pay players?

Imagine a 6-8, 280 pound 18 year old who runs a 4.4 40 and jumps high enough to touch the top of a backboard without a running start. Imagine he held an on-line auction the day before Signing Day. How much do you think his used jock strap would sell for? $250,000?

It would be an instant arms race by fans and boosters. If you want to change the system completely, this accomplishes that – in about the worst way possible.

I don’t mind players selling their stuff and profiting from their own image. But it makes them professionals, not amateurs. If they wanted to do that at age 17, they should have taken up golf or tennis.

JP63316,

I like your suggestion of hiring a compliance officer to be assigned to each school and would ask if that would take place at each and every NCAA participant school.

The NCAA at one time did ban schools from television at one time. I can’t speak with any real accuracy as to why they stopped, but I can also tell you that it did not keep schools from cheating.

Don’t recall all the details , but I wonder the amount of impact the court case that opened the door for the conferences to negotiate their television contracts, the Tarkanian lawsuit, and the invasive reach of certain networks and companies has had on how the NCAA oversees its member schools

. The NCAA at one time did ban schools from television at one time. I can’t speak with any real accuracy as to why they stopped, but I can also tell you that it did not keep schools from cheating.

They stopped when the TV contracts got big enough that their media partners did not want to have any of the elite programs off the table.

srr50,

Thanks for the incite. Sounds similar to the head of the Sugar Bowl making an appeal for the Buckeye 5 to play.

What was the comment Turkish made about not wanting to get into Bricktop’s pocket?

Its a hard life.

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