How bad is this for Oregon?

The NCAA is pretty sensitive about things like players being steered to a school by an agent/friend/uncle/whatever for cash, just like the Albert Means case. It looks horrible to the public to have an athlete play for a school solely because an agent got paid.

 

um, yeah, I know. My point is this isn't nearly as big a crime as academic fraud or outright paying of players by boosters.

 

Sometimes a major bust starts with a traffic stop or parking ticket.

 

I was trying to explain it to a guy tonight. Maybe there is a harmless explanation for what Oregon did with Lyles, the problem is that they were less than forthcoming about it. Some schools, they wouldn't have to worry - but you start making local reporters look bad, they'll start digging, remembering that "little thing" that didn't go anywhere from a few seasons back, they'll call up that player who is now outside the university's control, they'll start connecting dots...boosters, players, school employees, families etc. You start acting like you have something to hide and people will start looking around.

 

I'd argue that it's a bigger crime.

Instead of the athlete benefitting from payments, or passing his classes without doing the work (which it would be if the kid isn't really college material), in this case, someone else is benefitting from the athlete's labors.

Unless the players get part of the money, these guys are just sucking off on their charges' abilities.

Which led me to my earlier question. Why do these athletes and their parent(s) let these guys come into their lives, and influence them on where they go to school? Most regular students and their parents do the research and visit the schools themselves. Why do these guys listen to people steering them to a specific college?

 

I imagine it's some combination of those guys presenting themselves as experts and the kids/families wanting to feel like they're important.

 

They can do that on their own. They have enough people telling them that they're great. If a kid is talented enough, why does he need some "expert" telling him to go to Oregon, or USC, or anywhere's else, unless, of course, he's getting some of that agent's money.

We probably don't hear about it, but I'd like to hear of athletes asking these guys, "Why do you give a such a major shit about me going to Oregon?"

 

Don't know that it's all about feeling important from the families' point of view, though I'm sure there's some element of that. But if you've got a kid who you're being told is a big-time recruitable athlete, you probably have no idea what to do about it when it comes time to start thinking about college. Hell, my kid isn't an athlete so we didn't have to deal with the byzantine NCAA crap but I still felt lost and stupid trying to steer her through the college application/selection/admission process. So when someone comes to these people and tells them he can help because he knows how the system works and what to do, it would think it would be pretty easy to say, "Sure, you take care of everything and let us know what we need to do."

 

That's one thing I can see. But I can't see how they would let someone like that influence what college to go to. It's one thing to help navigate through the process. It's another thing to let some guy who was a stranger to you until two years ago (or less), start twisting your arm to attend a certain school.