Are college sports really pure anymore?
Nate LipkaIssue date: 5/14/09 Section: Blogs
Money even takes precedence over the on-field product, in many cases. Why else do fledgling major conference teams receive invites to the NCAA Basketball Tournament over elite mid-majors? And why else would the BCS still exist in place of a true college football playoff?
The laundry list of grievances against the NCAA is even longer than that of unchecked violations at USC, but what's the solution? Pay student-athletes their due and destroy any remaining façade of sanctity in college sports?
The consequences of such a decision are too dire to even comprehend.
Barring some sort of salary cap (which the schools would ignore, as they largely do with current rules already), big schools with deep pools of booster money would buy all of the top talent in the country, rendering the already disadvantaged smaller institutions light-years behind.
Self-promotion and personal branding would fully replace school pride.
Most troubling, the line between professional and amateur sports would be nonexistent, the positive attributes of student-athleticism lost.
No, the painful truth is that collegiate sports are, for all intents and purposes, too far to turn back, the smoky back room powers' grip too strong, the NCAA's own hypocrisy rooted too deep.
We can lambaste the Kellers and the Floyds and the Mayos of the world all we want, but until we turn our attention to the head honchos at the top, the NCAA will continue its ever-accelerating slide away from what made us love college sports in the first place.
The laundry list of grievances against the NCAA is even longer than that of unchecked violations at USC, but what's the solution? Pay student-athletes their due and destroy any remaining façade of sanctity in college sports?
The consequences of such a decision are too dire to even comprehend.
Barring some sort of salary cap (which the schools would ignore, as they largely do with current rules already), big schools with deep pools of booster money would buy all of the top talent in the country, rendering the already disadvantaged smaller institutions light-years behind.
Self-promotion and personal branding would fully replace school pride.
Most troubling, the line between professional and amateur sports would be nonexistent, the positive attributes of student-athleticism lost.
No, the painful truth is that collegiate sports are, for all intents and purposes, too far to turn back, the smoky back room powers' grip too strong, the NCAA's own hypocrisy rooted too deep.
We can lambaste the Kellers and the Floyds and the Mayos of the world all we want, but until we turn our attention to the head honchos at the top, the NCAA will continue its ever-accelerating slide away from what made us love college sports in the first place.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
cv services
posted 12/21/09 @ 12:40 PM MST
College sports purportedly contain a sort of glowing purity, a supposed ever-even playing field smoothed out by a slew of rules, regulations and standards. (Continued…)
Post a Comment