Reggie Bush ain't looking too clean

ho-freaking-hum.

who was victimized by bush here? he committed no crimes. he accepted money. whoop-de-damn-doo.

now explain why i should give a darn? 8)

 

Exactly. Let's just watch him play.

 

Actually Ragu, the NCAA itself probably loses money on college football because there is no I-A playoff for it to control. The member institutions, the BCS and the bowls make the moneyin I-A football.

The I-AA, II and III playoffs might break even at best.

With a three-year scholarship at a school that costs about $40,000 a year to attend, Reggie Bush was more than adaquately compenstated for his work. You can say, "The school made millions off of Reggie Bush" and you be right, but Reggie Bush and his family will likewise make millions off the school.

He needed USC to evolve into his current position. He doesn't go to the NFL as an instant millionaire right out of Helix High, I can guarantee you that.

The rules aren't that tough to follow. Thousands of other student/athletes (yes, 99 percent of them I've encountered in more than 20 years covering a D-I school fit that profile) do so without any difficulty whatsoever.

 

Ragu, if your post is in response to mine (can't really tell), I'm not making any case at all. I'm just laying out some factual information. The conversation is fascinating, but too often takes place in a vacuumn. The "right or wrong" of paying athletes, unfortunately, has nothing to do with it. It is, as they say, what it is. Won't happen.....because it CAN'T happen.

Oh...and if this isn't in response to my post.....never mind. :-\

 

My problem with a pay-for-play system is that there is no way it can be done that won't lead to further mismanagement and corruption.

Let's say the NCAA does come up with a stipend system. What will prevent agents, marketers, runners, etc., from out-bidding them? Agents always have more money and will provide more individual attention.

These guys supplied Reggie Bush's family with $1,500 a week. They gave them limos, hotel rooms, clothes, etc. How can any school compete with that?

And why is it that we all have this assumption that when you work for someone you are supposed to get as much out of it as they are? There is no law that says because an athlete plays for a college, he must make as much money off them as they make off him.

The real world certainly doesn't work that way.

 

Layman, thanks for that intelligent post. It's the only one on this thread that says something that hasn't been said 1,000 times before.

And count me among who don't think this is exactly the crime of the century. Bush accepted some money and now that he's in the NFL, the NCAA really can't touch him. He got away with it. As long as he was a student in good academic standing while he was a Trojan, I could care less.

 

Layman nailed it as to why it won't work, and Micropoliton nailed it as to why Reggie Bush got millions of dollars back from USC in exchange for the millions he made the school.

Like anyone who attends, college is an investment. I paid about 50 grand to get ready to be a journalist, and now I'm happy and making 40K/year.
Bush's situation is a little bit different from most students, but the similarities are there. Reggie Bush was a cash cow for USC for two or three years. In exchange, Pete Carroll and the staff got him ready to make millions and millions of dollars in the NFL.

I understand families in need. But you gotta wait your turn to make money. Like it or not, this is the system is in place, and lawlessness should not be responded to with shrugged shoulders. Reggie Bush, like every potential student-athlete, knows the rules and signed papers saying they understand the rules before they ever suited up on the football field.

 

Did Bush's family work at all? They certainly seemed capable of traveling to away games and going on other trips, so was it their travel schedule that kept them from finding work?

 

I'd say the size of the cash taken by Bush is relative to how you're judging it. If you're looking at it from a sports writer's angle, pretty big. If you're looking at it from a professional athlete's angle, it's new rims for a couple rides.

You're reasoning here is flawed, junkie. The value of an education is worth varying amounts to different people -- it's only worth $15,000 a semester to the institution. Reggie Bush and many others like him are not in school for academic training. They're there for athletic training. And before you get all uppity and talk about how wrong that is, the school knew that when they allowed in Bush and numerous others, all who would not have qualified for acceptance otherwise, because they could "run fast." It's quite hypocritical to come back later and expect that athlete to place more value on education than athletics when the school didn't do so on the front end.

And if you honestly believe the guy working the blizzard machine at the DQ puts in more work than a football player, you need to spend a little more time around a college football player. What these guys do, especially during the season, isn't easy. And I'd be willing to bet that the guy working that blizzard machine wouldn't swap places if given the opportunity. Yes, there are tutors and whatever else for these athletes, but a lot of that is in place because the school is sucking away so much study time with football-related crap and because it allowed in kids everyone knew beforehand would struggle with a college course load.

You seem to have some disdain for college athletes. Not sure why that is. But it's led you to believe that every student-athlete is simply wasting their scholarship. Not true. For every Reggie Bush -- a kid who likely wouldn't have been accepted into college and didn't really take academics that seriously -- there are 20 kids who wouldn't have made it in, are taking full advantage of that scholarship, will graduate and make much better lives for themselves and their families. There are a few, like Bush, who know that a degree from a university, no matter what everyone says, is worthless to them. And it is.

Layman, I never suggested the schools pay the athletes. I suggested that some athletes be allowed to receive money from agents and whatnot -- that a system be put in place for that. And I would think that a stipulation of that would be that that player must have his scholarship revoked as soon as that happens and be forced to pay his own way, or have the agent pay it for him. This is a terrible setup the way it is. The athlete who accepts cash will not be punished, the agent will not be punished. The school, which is virtually helpless in trying to prevent this, will be punished and stands to lose millions of dollars.

 

Hate to disagree with my bro in Steeler fandom (Oz), but this outrage over athletes taking money on the side seems to overlook the restrictions placed on them.

Yes, their education is paid for and they get special aid that the rest of us don't. They also get paid a hell of a lot more after school than us. That's life. They can do something we can't do. The demand is there.

The thing is, they are earning that scholarship money by the time they put into their sport. I know they are doing something we would all love to do, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

They are also restricted in terms of what work they can do to earn spending money while they are in school. You have olympic athletes being told they can't keep their football scholarship if they take skiing sponsorships and eligibilities being threatened if an athlete sells t-shirts that have nothing to do with his sport.

Ok, I have no real sympathy for Bush here and when I was in school, I'd have traded places with these guys in heartbeat. But the flaws in the system also help create situations like this with ridiculous restrictions that are placed on student-athletes.

 

What's failed to be mentioned here is that as part of Bush's scholarship, he gets a monthly check from USC that's probably about $1,500 bucks. Also, if he can prove his family is not well off, he can get clothing allowances and all this other stuff.

I'm not buying the poor me shit these athletes are trying to pull. You're in college. Most college students are fucking broke. If you don't like USC making money off you, then fucking quit.