The Rest of College Football

[Rocky Bleier]

Saban acted like a jerk right to the end of the game. His QB has adopted his personality. Funny how he backed off when Jones gave him that shove. Don't get in a big man's face on national television.

[Rocky Bleier]

"Coach, you're not even close."

Priceless.

[iam416]

That was early-80s dollars, too!

[Optimus Prime]

Nah, just an admirer of Quentin Tarantino’s disturbed psyche. Although Marcellus Wallace brought the phrase to life, it’s all QT!

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[Jeff Buchanan]

I think this rampant payola that goes on within and advantages the SEC is a concern of Delaney's. it is a factor in what is driving his conference alignment strategies. Any one with a clue knows its happening and the NCAAi is not capable of stopping it as it is so entrenched.

We've all correctly observed that the NCAA is dead meat in alignment that gathers the 60 best programs in three conferences. This payola will be dealt with in a future organization equipped to do so by the powers outside Mike Slive and the SEC.

Can't happen soon enough.

[iam416]

They're going to address it via stipend, Buchanan. There is still almost no way any private association can track cash exchanges without testimony from someone involved.

As a guess -- the money goes to a handler (recall, Jordan Diamond had a handler who "scouted" out Columbus a few days in advance of his OV) via another 3rd party (i.e., non-booster). The handler disburses the money on some basis (monthly, weekly, whatever) in pure cash. He gets a fee. So, Boosters==>non-booster==>handler==>recruit. Good luck tracing that. That's what Auburn did with Newton (I think -- obviously, I don't "know").

OP:

Correct. I've always loved the phrase "pipe-hitting".

[hack]

1. I'd be very interested in hearing more about what Delaney thinks about this, and providing a level playing field. He seems to be a great negotiator when it comes to building the conference roster he wants and getting tv money, but I have no idications either way about what he thinks about a level playing field. That means the cheating but also where crucial games are going to be held, etc.

2. Nice post above from Talent. He knows that more NCAA violations were discovered than osu got tagged for, but he knows he can deny that and blink innocently and pretend, too. But I agree, overall, that either it's hard to uncover or the NCAA lacks the formal powers and incentive to do it. ESPN reporters and the like are another story. Nobody is forced to talk to them; they're gonna hear a lot of rumours and won't get stuff to the point where you know it well enough to justify printing it if you have a proper ethics policy in place at your publication.

[iam416]

2. Nice post above from Talent. He knows that more NCAA violations were discovered than osu got tagged for, but he knows he can deny that and blink innocently and pretend, too

That's actually not what I said. Ohio State was tagged for EVERY violation that was discovered. The problem is discovering them. That's the point.

I have never pretended or denied that some OSU players get extra benefits -- from people buying them drinks to $100/$500 handshakes. It's wholly implausible to think otherwise, and, tbh, it's implausible, IMO, to think otherwise about any major CFB program.

I would, however, be surprised if OSU was systematically paying recruits.

You can think whatever you will of M.

The most fundamental point, though, is that the way things are done right now, you're not going to catch anyone barring some sort of really lucky break. Leaving the NCAA isn't going to change that.

[entropy]

Couple things the NCAA can do..

1) limit scholarship offers.. per year.. No more oversigning and dumping kids. Maybe go as far as giving them 4 yr scholarships

2) the presidents give the NCAA the legal ability to search records and accounts. Won't stop all the cash, but I'm not worried about $20 handshakes... I am about $250K QB's


The other commissions need to stand up and demand more too... stop playing the SEC in SEC country. More demands on NCAA rules instead of conference rules. Other conferences need to start matching pay for coordinators as well. Stop letting talent go.

As fans, we can stop watching the SEC.. ESPN has invested a lot into this product. Stop watching. They'll get the hint that America is no longer interested and ESPN will have to change its tune.




I firmly believe the SEC bends and breaks the rules. They've had generations of practice and probation to get it right. Else, you might as well have the SEC on its own and the rest of the country in another league.

[Hannibal]

They're going to address it via stipend".

In other words, it won't be addressed.

The real way to address this would be to decriminalize all of it. That way, the playing field would be level. If boosters want to spend $200,000 for a QB to play for their school, then let them. That also gets you around the gender equity problems (i.e. if you pay the football players, you've got to pay the women's lacrosse team too).

[entropy]

hanny... not sure I agree. Then your talking about 200K players.

Raise the stipend and do more tracking of players and parents money... in and out.

[iam416]

2) the presidents give the NCAA the legal ability to search records and accounts.

At the end of the day, it's just a contractual arrangement. Whatever the contract is, it's still superceded by Federal law like, e.g., laws protecting student privacy.

Ohio State is now requiring access to its student-athlete checking accounts. That, alone, is fairly controversial. I'm not sure most schools would agree to give that power to anyone.

Moreover, getting access to parents accounts would be much trickier. And getting access to handler accounts next to impossible. Remember, booster==>non-booster==>handler==>recruit/recruit's family.

How can you stop that? Even a huge $250,000 transaction. The transaction from the school tie is between someone unaffiliated with the recruit, so it's ok. The transaction from the non-booster to a third-party handler is totally legit. And then he handler to the recruit. You have to trace the whole thing, and it's really hard. That's the problem. They're not buying houses or BMWs for recruits -- they're funneling money in a way that makes it very difficult to trace.

[Hannibal]

hanny... not sure I agree. Then your talking about 200K players.

Raise the stipend and do more tracking of players and parents money... in and out.

SEC programs already have at least $200K players. What I want is for Michigan to have them too.

Stipends will be completely worthless when it comes to eliminating cheating. Completely 100% worthless. I don't buy that the reason that athletes accept $100 handshakes is becuase they are starving to death and they don't have shoes to wear. Stipends would address this problem if it were, for real, the actual problem, but I don't think that it is.

[iam416]

The real way to address this would be to decriminalize all of it. That way, the playing field would be level. If boosters want to spend $200,000 for a QB to play for their school, then let them. That also gets you around the gender equity problems (i.e. if you pay the football players, you've got to pay the women's lacrosse team too).

That's the solution.

I look at this way. It's perfectly legal for a booster to pay the nation's top biology student to come be a grad student at the University. It's good for the University and it's perfectly fine for the student to capitalize on his efforts. So, we don't have any problem paying students to attend the University.

It's perfectly legal for MLB to pay high school graduates millions of dollars if they have, e.g., a cannon for a right arm. So we don't have any inherent problem paying YOUNG athletes.

I don't understand why we should have a problem paying young athletes to attend the University. Really don't.

[entropy]

the IRS cares... and I wonder if they could be leveraged. Somebody is spending that 250K and the gov't is not getting their taxes.