This is not going to go over well with college sports fans and some of my best friends who are either sportswriters/broadcasters or coaches, but I don't believe the NCAA is the problem.
College football and mens' basketball is corrupt. No question. When I read of the newest allegations (should we even call them 'allegations' when box after box of proof is presented?) at the University of Miami, I wasn't surprised. If you were, you don't know college sports.
A fan crossed the line between being a fan and trying to be part of the program.
It's such an old story I'm shocked if anyone is even shocked anymore.
In this case, a wiseguy named Nevin Shapiro, who is now serving 20 years in federal prison for his role in a $930 million Ponzi scheme, said he provided Miami players with cash, prostitutes, cars and other gifts over the past decade. He provided box after box of receipts and other evidence. He loved the Miami football program so much he had to buy his way in with money (which equals influence in college athletics), and then became such a common figure around the program there are multiple pictures of him with university administrators, including president Donna Shalala.
All across the land these days, schools are getting into trouble because of "rogue boosters,'' a term popularized by the NCAA in its investigation of the University of Alabama and its description of the late Logan Young.
It's always the same. USC to Miami - accusations fly of improper benefits, from cash to clothes to cars to houses to prostitutes to whatever, and the school responds with "we can't be held responsible for the actions of our fans!"
And it's true.
But they don't have to encourage the behavior either - which is exactly what schools do by demanding huge contributions for the best seats in the house, for access to players and coaches, for recognition.
It's also because fans have to pay so dang much just for the 'privilege' of buying season tickets. It's extortion by athletic departments, demanding larger and larger contributions in exchange for a fan improving his seat selection at home games.
Schools tightly control souvenir sales, making fans buy only officially licensed products, limiting competition to those who can pay the extortion fee required to have a "license."
No wonder fans feel so invested in the program. They are.
School presidents claim they can't keep up with all these "rogue boosters." But inevitably, they knows the people who are the biggest "rogues." They are the ones who contribute the most.
Shapiro was a regular in the Miami press box, and at functions attended by university officials.
I sat in a press conference listening to former University of Alabama president Andrew Sorenson sound to sanctimonious as he said, "We can't be responsible for the actions of thousands of our fans!"
I said to him, "But you're not being asked to be held responsible for thousands. In this case, it's three - two of whom had free access to the athletic department, one of whom you had dinner with on more than one occasion."
Sorenson quickly left the press conference without an answer.
I pick on Alabama only because I was there and know that program. But you can go up and down the college ranks and every school has at least one "booster'' who gives money in exchange for access and influence. Even the legendary John Wooden, who is so highly regarded as a man of high character and principle, had Sam Gilbert - credited with keeping all those incredible basketball players that played for Wooden 'happy' for all those years.
You know why I don't blame the organization of the NCAA for all this?
The rules are not the NCAA's fault. Everyone loves to talk about the overly-complicated NCAA rule book, but every rule in there is because some coach or booster somewhere first did something that gave him or his program an unfair advantage. College coaches live to find loopholes in rules. The examples are legendary.
But blaming the NCAA as an organization because its members can't keep the rules is like blaming immigration laws for the thousands of illegal immigrants in this country.
Oh, wait - people do.
Apparently what "fans'' and experts would prefer is that athletic departments just admit they are money-making machines and start paying players, thinking that somehow that would keep players from being enticed to break the rules.
Come on. Do you really think that would do it? That's like saying raising the speed limit would stop speeding, or making drugs legal would stop illegal drugs, or making gambling legal will stop illegal gambling, or educating young people about sex will stop unwanted pregnancy and abortions.
Pro athletes make as much money and get as much free stuff as anybody in society. It doesn't stop some of them - and I repeat, "some" of them - from wanting more, and going to illegal measures to get it.
Sorry. I just don't buy into the idea that because everyone does it, you just give up and say it's OK for everyone to do it.
Whatever 'it' is.
Now let me seem to contradict myself for a minute. I do believe football players and men's college basketball players deserve far more than the scholarship provides for. Coaches are making millions of their skills. Athletic departments are making millions off their skills. Everyone up and down the line is making millions off the players. Why shouldn't the players expect a piece of the pie?
First of all, athletes should be allowed to try to turn pro whenever they want to. Right out of high school, after their freshman year, whenever. Once they feel ready, let them go. That begins to eliminate a number of the kids who don't have any business being in college anyway, who really wouldn't be there except its the best way to get to the pros.
Let every player have one shot at entering the draft without penalty. If he doesn't get drafted, or doesn't like where he was drafted, let him come back to college. Some of them will realize they just might need something besides athletics to become successful.
No more extortion by the athletic departments. Athletic departments are tax-exempt entities of tax-exempt institutions of higher learning. Then make tickets affordable to all, and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The millionaire has the same chance of getting a 50-yard line seat as the pauper, as long as the pauper can afford the price of the ticket.
Presidents and AD's say they want tougher penalties, so here goes: if a program cheats, shut it down for a year. Nobody gets paid. And penalties go with coaches so they can't leave and coach at some other college. If they want to coach, they go pro or high school or down to the local "Y." Cheat again, double the penalty.
Sure, such penalties hurt other schools, too, particularly the schools in the conference. But nobody ever said life was fair. The bigger you are, the harder the fall.
The 'death penalty' has to be real - but not just for the school, but for the coaches, the administrators, the fans.
There's more, but what's the point?
Do I sound angry? I am. I love college sports. It was my life. I know so many good, decent, honest administrators, coaches, players, and - yes- fans who don't deserve this.
None of these "get tough'' ideas will help keep a "fan'' from wanting to feel so connected to a football program that he or she tries to buy relationships with players by providing benefits - from simple things like baking cakes to big things like cars and prostitutes; none of that will help the problem of "fans'' who feel their money gives them the right to scream at school administrators in public areas, or those that do even stupid things like try to kill symbolic plants on a college campus.
The really sad part is there are so many good fans, who just enjoy the games, and do want nothing more than to let the players know they truly appreciate them without feeling the need to 'buy' those players' favor.
But as is always the case, the majority wind up paying for the sins of the minority.
And no change in the NCAA rules book will ever change that.
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