Real Sports story implicates Auburn, other schools

No shocker here. We all know college sports is dirty. Still, this is fairly candid.

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/ex-auburn-players-claim-systematic-pay-to-play-29592

 

Get used to it. None of this ever is going to change until the NCAA starts to hand down penalties that truly act as a deterrent. Take the program out of existence for a year. Now that will get someone's attention.

I don't think any of these players were standouts, so you only can imagine what the really good players were given.

 

I don't doubt some this happened. But I have a hard time swallowing all of it.






Yeah, I know .... "That's what she said."

 

I don't even give a shit about the $1,000 handshakes, at MSU - or even Auburn or OSU. So many worse things are happening at Auburn/OSU that have gone unpunished, so this seems to be nothing.

Nothing will ever come of this.

 

I've always thought there was no way the NCAA would ever use the Death Penalty again because it worked too well when SMU was hit with it.

But with the new regime in Indy I'm starting to think they're going to make an example of somebody. And I'm talking about a BCS-level program, not Cleveland State.

 

The NCAA won't punish one of its premier teams because of money. See what happened to Auburn and Cam Newton. The NCAA and Auburn worked hand-in-hand to make sure Newton wouldn't be ineligible. Auburn declared him ineligible, and the NCAA said he was a matter of hours later. The NCAA has never moved faster on anything because Auburn was lining up for college football's biggest championship game (SEC) and the biggest postseason game (national tournament).

 

I think they'll have no choice to nail one, maybe two BCS-level schools with SMU-like sanctions if they want to get serious about this.

 

Like I said, I used to believe that. But the vibe I'm getting from the new NCAA Prez is that they're going to drop the hammer on somebody once they build a convincing enough case. That somebody could conceivably still be Auburn.

However, my guess is that it will be low-level BCS program. Which means somebody like Mississippi State, Baylor, Minnesota or anybody in the Big East.

 

Fixed. Harsher penalties won't make much difference as long as the glaring hypocrisy and unfairness of the system increases every year.

There was a nice 20 minute Frontline piece on this last night (you can watch it here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/money-and-march-madness/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=bigimage&utm_source=bigimage) in which NCAA prez Mark Emmert looks so weaselly that notorious shoe money hustler Sonny Vacarro comes off as the voice of morality by comparison.

Salary inflation has been running amuck at the NCAA and amongst everybody else who profits off these kids' labor. The top NCAA officials are pocketing millions these days, coaches are now salaried at several million per year, yet the kids still can't take a dime. Most players today see the NCAA rules for what they largely are, a way for a bunch of fat cats to avoid having to share their loot with the labor.

 

Still doesn't seem like they are getting a fair cut of the revenue they generate. But those players should probably claim all that cash on their taxes and make sure they get a 1099.

 

Bowl CEO makes 600k a year. Within five years there will be a major congressianal investigation into NCAA and its finances. They are raking in two billion per year and nobody really knows how it is spent.

 

Stanley McClover was first-team All-SEC and a Top 100 national recruit out of high school. Like it says in the link, he had four sacks in one game against Alabama.

Troy Reddick was a three-year starter for a team that went undefeated and won the SEC his junior year.

Chaz Ramsey started as a true freshman and would probably have been an All-SEC caliber player had he not suffered a career-ending back injury.

Raven Gray was a five-star recruit out of high school, but never could get it together academically.

In short, these were damn good players. Maybe they weren't Cadillac Williams, Ronnie Brown and Jason Campbell-level, but still major contributors or guys who Auburn coaches hoped would be.

There have been rumors going around about Cadillac getting paid for years. He switched his commitment from Tennessee to Auburn on signing day. That would be your real smoking gun, but as someone who's made millions in the NFL, he has no incentive to talk.