Let's sue the stars

USC couldn't have picked a better time to have the NCAA hand out their punishment. (Seriously, after four years the punishment for OJ Mayo and Reggie Bush gets handed out at the same time as NCAApocalypse? What are the odds of that?)

While briefly taking over the headlines on Thursday, everyone has seemingly forgotten about the proverbial book that was thrown at USC while they try to figure out just who will be playing where and when it will happen.

And while most have set their focus on expansion, Gregg Doyel offered up one of the most intriguing columns I've read in a while. According to Doyel, Mayo and Bush should repay USC for the money they cost the school:

Mayo owes USC $206,200. That's how much the USC men's basketball team earned for participating in the 2008 NCAA tournament, and it's how much the school had to repay the NCAA because Mayo wasn't an amateur and therefore wasn't eligible. This isn't about reputations -- this is about cash. O.J. Mayo literally cheated the Trojans out of $206,200, and I want him to repay it.

Bush's monetary responsibility to USC is more difficult to pin down, but much larger than what Mayo owes. Thanks to Bush's willful cheating while in school, the NCAA has prevented USC from participating in a bowl game in 2010 or 2011. There's no way to predict what will happen this season or next, but USC played in two BCS bowls during Bush's time at halfback and earned roughly $3 million for those appearances.

USC can't play in a BCS bowl, or any bowl, in 2010 or 2011. That's potentially $3 million the football team won't be able to earn for the school.

I want Bush to write that check.

On the surface, I love this.

The way the system is currently set up, it is in the best interest of the best players to cheat, especially in basketball. Don't get caught until after your one or two year stay in college is done, and there is exactly zero the NCAA can do to you. Sure, they can drop the hammer on the school and vacate some wins, but do you think OJ Mayo cares that a first round win in the Pac-10 tournament now officially never happened? Do you think Reggie Bush cares that his 2005 season is wiped from the record books? Do you think either of them truly cares that they are costing USC sports a grand total of three postseasons? Bush won a national title, a heisman, and was the second pick in the draft. "Vacating" those things doesn't change the fact that he lived through them.

The people that take the brunt of the punishment for a collegiate athlete cheating are the players that are left at the school after the cheater leaves.

That is why Doyel's idea is so interesting to me. Maybe -- just maybe -- if we force these star athletes to be liable for the violations they commit, they will stop committing them. If you never got punished for robbing a bank despite getting caught, wouldn't you continue to rob banks? Bush got paid somewhere around $300,000. If he has to repay $3 million to USC for getting a couple trips to bowl games wiped from the record books, doesn't that create an incentive for future Reggie Bush's not to take money?

Yes, which is exactly why USC will never do it.

The $3 million that the school has to repay is far from all the money that USC made off of Reggie Bush. We've all seen the numbers being thrown around during this expansion talk. The money that a school like USC makes off of football is in the eight figures. While that $3 million no doubt hurt the USC athletics department, it certainly doesn't mean that the program won't be able to operate.

The reason USC is able to make the money that they do off of their television contract is because people want to watch the Trojans play. People want to watch the Trojans play because they generally have some of, if not the, best talent in the country. If USC takes Reggie Bush to court, do you think they are still going to be able to land the best recruits in the country?

There are always going to be star athletes that want to get paid in college. Believe it or not, but it is in the best interest of these programs to allow the kids to receive the impermissible benefits, so long as it can't get tied back to them or the coaches. Look the other way while boosters line your star's pockets, and you'll keep landing the star players. Keep the star players coming through your program, and your program will keep on winning. Win games, get on TV, make the BCS, get paid.

Taking Mayo and Bush to court will end the desire of many recruits to attend USC.

If that endless string of five star recruits dries up, so does the flow of money.

The money those stars would pay back pales in comparison to what USC made off of them.

So yeah, that lawsuit? Never gonna happen.
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USC finally gets the NCAA's punishment

Remember all that talk about how USC threw their basketball team under the bus to try and avoid the penalties they knew were coming against their football program?

I think the NCAA did, because they absolutely threw the book at USC football, including postseason bans, significant scholarship reductions, and having 13 wins vacated.

OJ Mayo and Reggie Bush will be remembered for all the wrong reasons at USC.
(photo credit: LA Times)

USC's basketball team avoided anymore serious penalties. If you recall, back in January, USC AD Mike Garrett self-imposed the following sanctions against the Trojan basketball program:

• All of USC's wins from the 2007-2008 season will be vacated from the record books.
• They lost a scholarship for both this season and next season.
• One less coach is allowed to recruit off-campus next summer.
• The total number of recruiting days USC is allowed to have for the 2010-2011 academic year was reduced from 130 to 110.
• A one year postseason ban, which cost them the Pac-10 and a potential NCAA bid last year (We were not happy about this).
  

In addition to the self-imposed penalties, the NCAA has levied the following (via Jeff Goodman):

• Four years probation from June 10, 2010 through June 9, 2014. (So don't mess up again -- for at least four years.)
  
• The committee stated that the program must also vacate all postseason wins, and conference tournament wins during the 2007-08 season. (I bet they will really miss that first round Pac-10 tournament victory.)
  
• Disassociation of the former men’s basketball player in question (Mayo) and the representative who provided extra benefits (Rodney Guillory). The disassociation includes the refusal of any financial or recruiting assistance, as well as other conditions. (I mean, this was obvious. They'd be fools to allow Guillory to come back -- again -- and I bet Mayo has forgotten where he even went to school by now.)
• Prohibition of all non-university personnel, including boosters, from traveling on football and men’s basketball charters; attending football and men’s basketball team practices; attending or participating in any way with university football and men’s basketball camps: including donation of funds; and having access to sidelines and locker rooms for football and men’s basketball games.

This last one is a bit tricky. Is the NCAA really going to be able to enforce all of that? What about the legitimate family and friends of the players, will they be allowed to make it down to the sidelines or come by and watch a practice during a visit? Are they really going to track every dollar that comes into the camps USC hosts? I highly doubt the NCAA has a lot of trust in the USC athletic department right now.

So like I said, USC really didn't get much in the way of additional penalties.

But there is another point that needs to be made. From Rush the Court:

Forgotten in all of this are three gentlemen who should be revered by any and all fans of USC basketball: Mike Gerrity, Marcus Johnson, and Dwight Lewis. They were the three seniors who lost their last opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament because of the self-imposed postseason ban last season. Gerrity, who had just transferred in as part of his three-college career and performed beautifully for the basketball team, never got to play in an NCAA Tournament — all because the athletic department was seemingly hoping to reduce the eventual sanctions on the football side. We’re not saying they should have their jerseys retired, or anything, but USC basketball supporters should find a way to remember those fellows for a long, long time.

Its true. I know that the early part of the college basketball season is a distant memory for most people at this point, but USC was the story in college hoops for a good two week stretch. Once Gerrity got eligible, the Trojans won eight straight games, including a a twenty point win over Tennessee and a non-conference win against UNLV.

The Trojans went from one of the worst major conference teams in the country in the preseason to arguably the best team in the Pac-10. Granted, that isn't saying much with last season's Pac-10, but USC looked destined to be a tournament team.

And because of OJ Mayo and Ronald Guillory, they never got the chance.

I hope everyone around and associated with the USC basketball team remembers that.
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USC's self-imposed sanctions are a joke

I don't follow college football all that closely. I don't believe in a sport that doesn't allow an undefeated team (or three) a shot at a national title.

Sure, I'll watch the occasional Saturday afternoon game, and will never turn down a ticket to a big time gridiron match-up, but that doesn't mean I know much more about the sport than Tim Tebow's good and Notre Dame isn't.

That also means that I don't know all that much about the Reggie Bush situation. What I do know is that Bush allegedly (with overwhelming evidence supporting those allegations) was given a bunch of money (six figures) and other improper benefits while at USC. I also know that the investigation has dragged on for years despite the overwhelming evidence.

Need I mention Joe McKnight?

Somewhere in that mess is a violation that the USC athletics department can prove. Somewhere in there is evidence of wrong doing by the program that could be enough to cost the football program scholarships, a postseason, or even their head coach.

The USC basketball program hasn't been squeaky clean, either. Everyone knows about the way that OJ Mayo was treated during his recruitment and his time with the Trojans, and Tim Floyd even lost his job because of improper benefits he was alleged to have given a Mayo handler.

The violations involving Tim Floyd and OJ Mayo only hurt the current USC players.
(photo credit: daylife)

Today, USC athletic director Mike Garrett handed down some significant punishments for USC basketball team resulting from the Mayo-Floyd fiasco:

• All of USC's wins from the 2007-2008 season will be vacated from the record books.
  
• They lost a scholarship for both this season and next season.
• One less coach is allowed to recruit off-campus next summer.
• The total number of recruiting days USC is allowed to have for the 2010-2011 academic year was reduced from 130 to 110.

But the most significant punishment was a ban from all postseason play for this season.

No Pac-10 Tournament.

No NCAA Tournament.

Nothing.

If the title didn't give it away, this punishment is an absolute travesty.

It makes no sense to punish this year's players for violations committed by a different coaching regime. OJ Mayo is long gone. So is Tim Floyd, who lost his job as a result of the accusations he gave Guillory money. Three USC players from last season headed to the pros. Four Trojan recruits jumped ship, with three landing at Arizona and one heading to Clemson.

Only four players remain from that 2007-2008 team - Dwight Lewis, Marcus Simmons, Kasey Cunningham, and Ryan Wetherall. Lewis is the only starter. Kevin O'Neill, the current coach of the Trojans, was coaching conference foe Arizona at the time.

What does all that mean?

The kids paying the punishment for OJ Mayo and Tim Floyd breaking the rules are not Mayo or Floyd.

It is Mike Gerrity, the two-time transfer who finally landed on his feet with the Trojans. It is Alex Stephenson, who transferred from UNC the season before they won a national title to be closer to his ailing father and to get more playing time. It is Marcus Johnson, who was very close to leaving school to pursue a professional career along with Taj Gibson, Demar Derozan, and Daniel Hackett. It is Dwight Lewis, Nikola Vucevic, and all the other Trojans who decided to remain with the program despite facing a few seasons that looked to be a lost cause.

This would be much less of an issue if USC's basketball team was, in fact, terrible this year, as many (including myself) predicted they would be.

But they aren't.

In fact, they may actually be the best team in the Pac-10.

Before Oregon's win over Washington on Saturday, they were the only team in the league to notch a win over a ranked opponent, beating both Tennessee and UNLV in non-conference play. After sweeping the Arizona schools this past weekend, they are sitting atop the league at 2-0. Since the addition of Gerrity solidified their point guard position, the Trojans have won eight straight, and are arguably the hottest team in the country.

Mike Gerrity and the rest of the current Trojans are the ones paying the price for Mayo and Floyd.
(photo credit: LA Times)

This is a team that could realistically have won both the Pac-10 regular season and tournament titles.

This is a team that had a great chance of not only making the NCAA Tournament, but also winning a game.

This team was the feel good story of the 2009-2010 basketball season.

And all that is gone because Garrett decided to bring the hammer down on the basketball program and a group of kids that had nothing at all to do with the violations they are being punished for.

Which brings me back to the football team.

Why hasn't that program been punished?

Maybe because they win titles. Maybe because they are the most visible athletics program USC has. Maybe because USC doesn't want to have their BCS bowls and Pac-10 titles vacated. Maybe because the money that the football program brings in is greater than the money that the basketball team does.

Mike Garrett said this in the statement released today announcing the self-imposed sanctions: "When we've done something wrong, we have an obligation to do something about it and that is exactly what we are doing here."

And he's right.

The basketball program does need to face some sanctions.

Which is why I would have no problem with the school vacating the season Mayo played, or the team losing recruiting days, or even having their number of scholarships reduced.

But why hasn't the football team been punished?

And why is it necessary to take away the postseason from this group of kids?

Gary Parrish says it best:

Either way, the whole thing is a laughable mess. And guess who pays the price? The basketball program, that's who. And, so far, it's only the basketball program, which is both shameful and transparent.

I don't think the USC team is laughing.
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BREAKING: Tim Floyd paid Ronald Guillory

If Guillory's name sounds familiar, it should. He was the runner that got OJ Mayo and USC in the news prior to the 2008 NBA Draft. Apparently, Louis Johnson (the former Mayo confidant turned media-snitch that spawned the entire investigation) saw Floyd hand Guillory an envelope with "a grand" in it.

From Yahoo! Sports (the same outlet that broke the UConn recruiting scandal):

On Feb. 14, 2007, Johnson and Guillory packed up Guillory’s black Infiniti SUV and were preparing for the drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to attend the NBA All-Star weekend. Before they left, Guillory informed Johnson several times that he had to meet with Floyd so the coach could give him cash for the trip. Sometime between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., Guillory and Johnson headed toward Beverly Hills to meet with Floyd. During the drive, Johnson listened as Guillory and Floyd exchanged several cell phone calls as Floyd explained where the meeting would take place.

Upon arriving in Beverly Hills, Guillory pulled up to a stretch of cafes in the downtown shopping district, where Floyd was waiting on the sidewalk. Because there were no parking spaces, Guillory asked Johnson to circle the block in the SUV until Guillory was ready to be picked up. Johnson exited the passenger side of the vehicle, at which point Johnson saw Floyd and the two exchanged greetings. Johnson then got into the driver’s seat and proceeded to circle the block while Guillory and Floyd met.

After approximately 15 minutes, Johnson saw Guillory waiting on the curb in front of the stretch of cafes and pulled over to pick him up. Once Guillory was inside the vehicle, he produced a white envelope with cash inside. Guillory told Johnson that Floyd had given him “a grand,” and Johnson was able to view $100 bills inside the envelope. He said he believed there appeared to be “substantially” more than $1,000, although he did not count the bills.

My initial reaction to seeing this article: no wonder Taj Gibson, Daniel Hackett, and Demar Derozan left school; and no wonder USC did not allow Renardo Sidney to sign an LOI. They had to have known that this was on the horizon.

Improper benefits in college basketball and college football is akin to steroids in baseball - everyone knows it is happening, but no one is truly willing (or able) to do anything about it.

To be honest, I couldn't care less. I personally believe that these athletes should be getting paid by the universities. I've written about it numerous times, but these kids (especially the stars at the big universities) generate a ridiculous amount of revenue for their respective universities. And what do they get in return? A scholarship for an education which will be largely useless to them.

For the majority of the kids playing D1 basketball, they are going to school because they want to be professional basketball players. While this is will only work out for a select few, it does not mean that the rest of the kids looking to further their "basketball education" cannot find a way to make a living off of the game. Be it as a coach, an announcer, a writer, a front office guy, a scout, a trainer (physical or skills wise), a ref, a player's assistant, a money manager, an agent, a runner for an agent (only half kidding here), there are a million ways to make money in the sports industry that does not actually involve playing the game.

Not everyone that goes to med school ends up being a neurosurgeon. It doesn't mean that they should find a different career because they may end up as a career nurse.

So if OJ Mayo, or any other player, pocketed some extra cash as a result of his talents, I don't see anything wrong with this.

You want to end all of this corruption? You want to get rid of this "black market" in college sports? Pay the kids that generate the money.
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Bettering College Basketball

A buddy of mine, Andy of Bi-Monthly Blog fame, recently asked why I had not yet commented on the moving of the college three-point line from 19'9" to 20'9". I am going to wait until closer to the start of the season to discuss the move (partly because I am torn over its effects, partly because I wasn't thinking about anything other than the draft until recently), but it got me thinking about changes that could (and should) be made to better college basketball. I wrote about one of those changes here and here, regarding Brandon Jennings and the one-year rule, but there are a couple of other changes I would make as well.

Before I get to that, I just want to say one more thing about the one-year rule. The reason I am so against it is not because I think high schoolers should be playing in the NBA - in fact, I believe the exact opposite. My problem with the rule is that the reason that it has been put into effect is because it allows the NBA to draft players that have already built up name recognition - if Derrick Rose was coming off of a state title instead of a trip to the NCAA finals, does he still go #1? Is there the same discussion revolving Oden-vs.-Durant or Rose-vs.-Beasley as the first pick? The NCAA benefits from the rule as well because they get the best players in the country suiting up for a year. The only people who don't benefit are the players themselves. They spend a year making a mockery of the term student-athlete while everyone makes money off of their talents except themselves.

If the NBA was serious about the claims that they want more of a chance to scout players they are drafting, and that they want the players to be more prepared for the NBA, make them go to school for two years (which, depending on how the Brandon Jennings situation pans out, could very well end up happening). Two years in college will give the players more of a chance to grow into their bodies (how many 19 year olds are physically ready to handle the NBA), learn the game, and develop their skills while keeping the moniker student-athlete somewhat accurate.

But that doesn't account for the issue that the players generate a ton money and do not get much compensation (what is a scholarship really worth to Michael Beasley when he only has to go to class for one semester) when, if they were playing professionally, they would be able to. Bottom line, I think that the players should be getting paid. Nothing huge - maybe like $600 a month depending on the school (bigger schools equal more revenue equal more compensation). Think about it - for any teenager that doesn't have to worry about things like rent or the cable bill, $150 a week will seem like a lot of money. Being able to get a couple of new shirts or a new pair of Jordans every week could keep a lot of players happy (especially when a lot of them get at least that already). I'll take it one step further - have the money come from the boosters that provide players with the (currently) illegal benefits. If you make the players file a tax return, then you can kill two birds with one stone - if there are legal consequences to the player receiving OJ-Mayo-esque benefits, then it will greatly reduce the likelihood of players taking that chance (right now, only USC is facing any backlash - losing scholarships, forfeiting games, fines - while Mayo gets away with just a little damage to his reputation).

Another change, as I mentioned Wednesday, is that I would make basketball (and football, baseball, or any other sport where the possibility of a career in that sport exists) a major, especially for schools with big time sports programs. Just to clarify, I'm not saying that these schools (or the NCAA) should allow these athletes to participate in the sport and represent the school without going to any class at all. Instead, educate them in something that will help these kids down the road. As Rick Reilly so tactfully noted in his column last week, there is a huge problem with athletes ending up broke way to quickly after they retire. This happens for many reasons - horrific spending decisions, poor money management, bad investments, and the fact that after taxes, agent/publicist/etc. fees, and the obligatory mansion (or two) and Bentley (or three), there really isn't that much left.

Brian Cuban (Mark Cuban's brother) had an enlightening interview with agent Jordan Woy about this issue, where Woy says

if athletes educate themselves, learn money management skills and make smart, safe investments along the way, they are usually in very good shape. After representing athletes for over 20 years, we call this our “life plan”. We take out clients to learn business networking. We have people from industries such as real estate, oil and gas, financial planning, credit repair, asset protection/estate planning, etc. come to educate the players and their wives so they can learn about these business and also determine if they are interested in any of these industries for life after sports.

Why not put the players under this "basketball" major in classes like this? For one thing, you might actually get some of them to attend and pay attention in class. Maybe you could even turn some of these one-and-done guys into honest-to-goodness student-athletes. I mean, I guarantee that Michael Beasley would have gotten more out of a class on how to value real estate or how to invest money effectively than he did from english 101 or geometry. You could even have classes on becoming a basketball coach, an announcer, or even a writer.

Needless to say, it is not as simple as creating a basketball major. For one, there are only a few schools, and only a few players at those schools, where doing something like this would even be feasible or logical (maybe just a generic professional athlete major where you can get a concentration in a particular sport would be more effective). There is also so much potential for corruption and grade fixing, a la Jim Harrick, but doesn't that already happen way too often? If a school is going to cheat, the school is going to cheat regardless of what classes the player is in.

Another risk is that some of the players under this major don't have the talent to be a pro and thus the classes that they would take would not be as beneficial to them - learning how to manage your money won't help if you can't make any. But isn't this a risk that is inherent in any major for every college student? How many college students know what they want to do in life when they choose their major? I have an econ degree, which probably won't help me too much as a sportswriter.

The bottom line is that the real student-athletes are still going to go to class and get a degree in a field they want to pursue. But by adding this option, you can help some kids learn how to capitalize on their talent and the money that they make off of it.

The last change that I would make is to eliminate the play-in game in the NCAA tournament. If one less middling high-major makes the tourney, is it really that big of a deal? Since 1985, when the tournament was expanded to 64, only 19 times has an 8 seed or lower reached the Elite 8, and only five times has one made the Final Four - 11 seed George Mason in 2006, 8 seeds North Carolina and Wisconsin in 2000, 11 seed LSU in 1986, and 8 seed (and eventual champion) Villanova in 1985.

You want more stats? Of the previously mentioned 19, only four were at-large bids that were lower than 11, meaning that they were one of the last schools to get into the tournament as an at-large - George Mason and LSU from above, 12 seed Missouri in 2002 and 11 seed Loyola Marymount in 1990 (in 2002, 11 seed Temple won the A-10 tourney). So only four times in the last 23 years has a team that could be effected by the reduction of an at-large made it as far as the Elite 8. The last few teams to get in are always either a mediocre power conference team or a very good mid-major that lost during their conference tourney. To be honest, I wouldn't mind losing one of them each year.

The biggest reason that I believe the NCAA tournament should go back to 64 teams (or at the very least remain at 65) is one simple reason: NCAA tournament pools. The way it is currently set up, the whole bracket can fit onto one, standard 8 1/2" X 11" piece of paper. All anyone in the world has to do is print out the bracket, fill in some team names, and throw down 10 bucks in your office pool and boom, you're thrown head first into the excitement of March Madness. That's the beauty of it. No matter who you are or what you do, no matter how much you care or know about college basketball, you are only one bracket away from having everything on the line.

Part of the reason it works so well is that it is so easy to print out that one piece of paper. If the tournament expands to 72, 96, 128, or whatever number Jim Boeheim asks for next, will your boss have the time to fill out that many games? Will your girlfriend have the energy to pick out her favorite mascots on multiple pages? Will the tourney still be the national spectacle it is if every average Joe and Jane doesn't fill out a bracket?

So there you have it - my proposed changes for the 2008-2009 basketball season. Leave a comment and tell me what you think. Continue reading...

Mayo to Miami?

As Chad Ford reported, it is looking more and more likely that the Heat want to use the second pick on OJ Mayo. For weeks, Mayo has been in Chicago working out, and becoming fast friends, with Dwayne Wade. He was also the first player to work out with the Heat, which by all accounts was a very impressive work out. He shot well, dominated workout partner Tyrone Brazelton in 1-on-1, and finished some impressive dunks on alley-oop drills that the Heat ran him through.

Mayo may be the most NBA-ready player in the draft skill-wise, and also seems like a perfect fit with Wade in the backcourt. Both have the ability to play the point and the two, which would allow them trade-off initiating the offense and being the main scoring option. The biggest question right now is what Miami will do with the second pick. According to Ford

If the Heat decide they prefer Mayo to Beasley, the big question will be what to do at draft time. The most obvious choice is to take Mayo with the No. 2 pick, but given how much Beasley is wanted, the Heat should be able to get some serious offers for the No. 2 pick.

Both the Minnesota Timberwolves (No. 3) and the Seattle SuperSonics (No. 4) would love to move up to No. 2. But sources say neither the Wolves nor the Sonics have anything the Heat really covet, assuming the teams wouldn't include Kevin Durant, Al Jefferson or Jeff Green in a deal.

The Memphis Grizzlies are the most obvious trade partner. As noted last week, an offer of the No. 5 pick, Mike Miller and Kyle Lowry in exchange for the No. 2 pick would be very tempting to the Heat. They also likely could pawn off Mark Blount as part of the deal.

But there's no guarantee Mayo would be available at No. 5. While neither the Wolves nor the Sonics seem keyed into Mayo at the moment, they have been talking to other teams about trading their picks. To name just two teams, the Knicks and the Clippers would love to move up in the draft to get Mayo.

Whatever the Heat decide to do, it is clear that it is becoming a three-horse race at the top of the draft. Continue reading...

Stephen A. Smith talking sense?

Anyone reading this post will most likely know who Stephen A. Smith is - the brash screamer that covers NBA and College basketball for ESPN. For the most part, it seems like Stephen A. is generally disliked. Once you get past the yelling and some of the nonsensical babble, he actually has a very interesting perspective on certain issues. Where most sports writers view certain issues, especially those dealing with race and class, with an elitist, holier-than-thou attitude, SAS looks at these issues from the athletes or the kids perspective - when he writes, he writes from the point of view of the people involved.

Yes, there are times where he comes off sounding ignorant and flat out idiotic, and the fact that he believes volume makes him correct makes me want to slap him. But he still has a very interesting point of view. He wrote a column for espn.com looking at OJ Mayo and the money that he was given before and while attending USC.

As I wrote yesterday, I completely agree with Stephen A. here. First of all, if the rules are followed correctly, everyone in college sports is getting paid - from the coaches, to the sponsors, to the schools, to the agents, to the merchandise vendors, even the writers. Everyone EXCEPT for the people actually responsible for generating the revenue - the athletes themselves. I know that they are supposed to be compensated with a scholarship and an education, but you think an education is what they want? Does an education put cash in their pockets?

For every other profession, when you are in college you can get an internship, or something along those lines, that will pay you and help train you for your future. With sports, you can't. It's not like Darren Collison can say "I'm going back to school, but I'm interning with the LA Lakers this summer". Sure, he can go work out with them, but he's won't be making any money off of it, whereas talented summer interns for law firms and financial brokerages get paid. Why can't a college athlete make money off of their talents?

The bottom line is that these guys are going to school to be trained, educated, and prepared for their future profession - the NBA, NFL, MLB, whatever it is. It's the same for regular students. If you're a finance major, are you going to take a biology class? And if you do, are you going to really pay any attention to it? I'm not saying that these athletes should be allowed to major in basketball or that they shouldn't be educated in anything else, but sooner or later people need to realize that for some folks, sports IS THEIR JOB. It's how they are going to put food on the table. It's what is going to keep a roof over their head.

The NCAA will never be able to combat the runners for agents, because these kids are always going to be seen as a meal ticket for someone. So why not allow it? They deserve to make something off of all the revenue they create, right? What if they said that an athlete could get paid a certain amount, maybe a couple hundred a week, have them file formal tax returns, get the government involved, the whole nine yards. The problem with the current system is that once the player's leave school, the only punishment that can be handed down is the forfeiture of all that season's games (see Chris Webber or Marcus Camby). If the government gets involved and taxes need to be filed, wouldn't increase the incentive not to take extra money? You would either be caught when you filed the returns or would have to lie on them, which (believe it or not) is actually a crime.

I don't know, maybe that wouldn't do anything. It was just a thought. But my point is, does it really matter if OJ Mayo makes a few thousand off his basketball ability while still an "amateur". He's going to be making millions off it in a few months anyway. Continue reading...