18
2011
On snakes, rats, weasels, and Hurricanes.
Utopia’s own Makaveli_Reborn (Adam Bates), a former University of Miami football player, lends his thoughts to the recent allegations of cheating at Miami and other institutions.
There is an awful lot of righteous indignation floating around college football lately. A man spending the next 20 years of his life in federal prison for fleecing investors out of more than $900 million says he gave some money and benefits to some Miami Hurricanes over the last 10 years. I’m not interested in talking about what did or didn’t happen. I’m not interested in confirming or denying the spiteful ramblings of an insecure snitch with an inferiority complex. I’m interested in talking about hypocrisy.I want to talk about the hypocrisy of the NCAA and, by extension, its constituent school administrations; the very people that have enriched themselves so shamelessly on the backs of the kids they’re soon to righteously delight in punishing.
First, a little background: I had it easy at the University of Miami, and it often felt like it was too much to bear. I had an easier time in class than most of my teammates, and far less was expected of me on the football field. I went to school on academic money and I played football because I wanted to and because I had played my whole life, not because it was the only way for me to get through school or make a better life for myself and my family. I can’t speak about what it’s like to be a high profile recruit, an All-American, or a future NFL star and the pressures such statuses entail. But I can tell you this: college football is a grind.
The NCAA says players put in twenty hours a week. Anybody who has spent any time around a college program knows that sixty is a better number. Then add twelve to fifteen hours a week of class on top of that. Seventy-five hours a week, in exchange for a stipend mathematically designed to make your ends almost meet.
The president of the NCAA makes more than $1 million a year. Any head coach worth his salt is making two or three times that. Talking heads at ESPN/ABC/CBS and the presidents of most major institutions join them in the seven digit salary club.
That’s what this is really about, and people have to understand that. Why is it a problem for AJ Green to sell his jersey when the NCAA sells 22 variations of the very same jersey (http://sportsillustr…sion/index.html)? Why can’t Terrelle Pryor get some free ink from a fan? Why don’t people react the same way to that as they do to hearing that Peyton Manning is selling phones for Sprint or that Tiger Woods gets paid $100m to wear Nike gear? What’s the difference?
The difference, as far as I can tell, is that the NCAA has done a wonderful job duping people into believing this multi-billion dollar a year industry is pursued for the sake of amateurism. It’s a total sham. The coaches aren’t amateurs, the administrators aren’t amateurs, the corporate sponsors and media companies that make hundreds of millions of dollars a year on the backs of these players aren’t amateurs. The only “amateurs” involved are the guys doing all the work. Pretty nice racket if you can get it.
The NCAA and ESPN are going to be telling you that some great kids are scumbags because they allegedly broke rules designed to keep them poor and implemented by people making money hand over fist. An ESPN shill in a $5,000 suit is going to ask you to morally condemn the kids who provide the framework for said shill to make enough money to afford that suit because those kids might have taken some free food and drinks. They’re going to be called “cheaters” despite the obvious fact that boat trips don’t make you run any faster or hit any harder.
Oklahoma gives Bob Stoops $3 million a year and nobody blinks. A car dealership in Norman gives Rhett Bomar a couple hundred bucks and everyone wets themselves. Urban Meyer sat on TV this very day, making approximately $1,500 an hour to sit there and flap his lips, and was asked to judged a bunch of 20 year old kids for allegedly accepting free food and drinks and party invites.
Is that immense delusion intentional or do people actually not realize the hypocrisy they perpetuate?
What’s that you say? The rules are the rules? I call bullshit. When the rules are propagated by the very same people they’re designed to benefit, I say the rules must be independently justifiable. What is the justification for saying that AJ Green can’t sell his jersey? That he won’t be an “amateur” anymore? Doesn’t the scholarship itself render him no longer an amateur by any objective definition? Doesn’t the fact that Georgia spent hundreds of millions of dollars advertising itself to AJ Green render him no longer an amateur? Doesn’t he stop being an amateur when UGA promises him that his career at Georgia will net him NFL millions? Doesn’t the fact that millions of dollars change hands thanks to the service he provides make him not an amateur?
Is it because athletes should be treated like other students, lest they not appreciate the “college experience?” Other kids get to sell their belongings, don’t they? They get to go to parties and drink and throw themselves at women, don’t they? They get to have jobs and earn their worth, don’t they? And other kids don’t spend sixty hours a week having their bodies broken or their spring mornings running themselves to death in the dew in the dark.
It’s nonsense. Unmitigated, indefensible nonsense. The players are “amateurs” for the simple reason that they’re cheaper to employ that way. What is bad about giving a poor kid some money to spend? What is wrong with showing your appreciation for the service someone provides by giving them some benefit of their own? I’m supposed to believe it’s wrong because the NCAA says it is?
These players are worth far more than a free trip to the strip club and a trip around the bay on a yacht. AJ Green is worth more to the NCAA and the University of Georgia than the cost of his jersey, and Terrelle Pryor is worth more than the value of a tattoo.
I don’t know much about players taking “illegal benefits,” and if I did I wouldn’t be snitching about it like a lowlife, but I can tell you this: I hope to the bottom of my soul that every player in America is on the take, because they’re getting shafted. The powers that be make too much money this way to ever change, and the rest of the country seems far too committed to delusions, institutional partisanship, and jealousy to see their own glass houses, so take what you can get while you can get it, youngbloods. You earned it.
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This is superb: either you’re brilliant, and/or you got a great education at UM. Well-written, outstanding cutting through the b.s. see my blog, you might like it.
PERFECT! JUST PERFECT! NOTHING MORE NEEDS TO BE SAID. TOO BAD IT WON’T CHANGE… THAT PART SUX.
What about the fact that these players are on full scholarship, get meals, tutors, etc that the general populace of students do not get. Add all that up and they are getting plenty to learn at a institute of higher learning. Considering that the average pro career is what maybe 4 years, more of the athletes should take more time to learn instead of going to strip clubs, hookers, and wanting to hangout with a snitch and lowlife, or is he only a snitch and lowlife when he stops giving out all the perks to these players? Or is it that these players expect these types of perks and don’t consider the consquences? By te way no athlete is above the school.
this is a typical comment by a person who probably never played college sports. Never played college sports. We put our bodies through things that non athletes cannot bear. The amount of money the University makes on a typical game day and the city they the game in probably take care of all scholarships given to a football player in two games. C’mon man.
Mark, the education, tutors and the like are not for the athlete… They are for the school to ensure that the athlete remains in school. No athlete is abaci the school and no school is above life.
The sacrifice that athlete makes to be at a bowl game and get two tickets to give away,to miss being with family and friends for the holidays…I don’t know if the value association is accurately placed.
My opinion…oops, my experience – because not everybody makes it to the league…
Mark,
It’s funny how when they get injured their suddenly dropped like bad cattle. Where is their “free” education then? The caretakers of the athletes are more concerned with their jobs (coaches and the AD) than the academic careers of their players.
The NCAA is nothing more than institutional slavery.
I’m not sure why this is being classified as a snese of entitlement. In a college athlete’s case entitlement means I should get this because I am a college athlete. Period. But In a business where everyone is being fed with the exception of the ones keeping the business going, how can we call this entitlement? At the minimum they deserve something. And if the schools dont want to break bread then they shouldnt be allowed to tell the student athletes how and where to get money from. As long as it isnt something that breaks the law they shouldnt have that kind of power to dictate how these young men and young women eat. Very interesting discussion!
Right on, brother. The adults in the system – college presidents, coaches, bowl executives (especially) is making incredible wealth. The kids? “How dare you take anything!” I cringe whenever I see one of these multi mullion-dollar coaches defending this incredible system with a straight face.
I agree with most of what you said but on the other hand I have experienced the other side as well. I had buddies that went on and played college football and I lived with two guys that played college ball and I lived with them all four years. I saw what they went through and experienced but I also saw them have access to privileges I couldn’t even come close ro having. Tutors, balanced nutritional meals designed to keep you healthy, full access to weight rooms and exercise equipment, and a PAID EDUCATION.
In statement you said closer to 60 hours a week was more like it, well I can promise you with what I had to do and a lot of my friends had to do was a 60-70 hour week as well. I was taking a full load each semester along with working two jobs just to pay for my living expenses, vehicle expenses, food, and all the while still studying on my own, b/c I couldn’t afford a tutor. So please come off of your high horse and look at this from both sides of the fence before running your mouth about something you have no idea about. Until you have walked in my shoes don’t run your mouth.
You are missing the big picture Gabe. Get off your high horse. Of course the student atheletes get nutritionists, tudors, and access to weight rooms. They kind of need those things for what they do….duh! They make the schools millions. The schools are protecting their investments. The point of this article is……why does the kids that make institudes millions, get held to higher standards as the adults that are in charge of them ? If a booster takes a coach out on a boat and supplies him with liquor and whores, will the NCAA punish the school ? Hell no. So why punish a school for a booster taking student atheletes out and doing the same thing? How does these actions affect the NCAA as a whole? let me answer that…they don’t. These were kids enjoying college…..they were 21 years old and not breaking any laws.
Lets go a different route…..what if a kid has an academic scholarship? Isn’t that kid getting a free education? So that student getting a free education shouldn’t be able to go to parties and enjoy whores? Right? Can someone explain the difference? There shouldn’t be double standards for student atheletes. The student with an academic scholarship isn’t making the University millions. The student athelete is. This is why Universitys turn their cheek to parties and booster events, until they get caught. Then they know nothing. ALL Universities have this problem.
Ha! You couldn’t get a tutor at college? Most colleges have tutors available for everyone! All you needed to do was go to the department of the academic niche you were struggling in and you’d get a tutor.
No one likes a f**king crybaby, epecially one that’s getting to live the dream of playing major college football while getting his college education paid for. Anytime this jackass wanted to, he could have given up his scholly, walked away from the team, and worked his way through college flipping burgers like lots of other students. This guy is an utter fool
He was a WALK-ON. No scholarship. Did you even read the piece?
Of course he didn’t read it. He’s jealous that he wasn’t good enough at athletics to play anywhere and he wants to punish those he wishes he could be because he couldn’t be one of them. He’s probably in the Tea Party.
It’s ok to merely make a relevant comment without also trying to prove your political leanings are also superior to someone else’s.
Best thing I have read all year!!
Fact of the matter is the universities and the NCAA generate BILLIONS of dollars off of these kids:
“The NCAA today outlined the terms of a new fourteen-year, $10.8 billion television contract with CBS and Turner Sports. March Madness will expand to 68 teams as part of the new deal.”
“The news that the ACC has reached a new TV deal with ESPN for its football and basketball rights could have interesting implications for the Big 12. According to the Sports Business Journal (via College Football Talk), the ACC has reached agreement on a 12-year deal worth $1.86 billion.”
How the players get paid I don’t know or really care, its just phenomenally hypocritical for the schools, administrators, and coaches to make not only a livelihood but one that pays them top-1% money and the players can’t go out on a guy’s boat, or have sell HIS OWN jersey, etc. Its incredibly hypocritical.
The people who say “I went to college too and worked hard and I didn’t get paid a dime! They get to go for free and get tutors!” are missing the point entirely. The colleges are making HUGE BANK off of these guys. They weren’t making a dime off of you. (And if you need a tutor in college, come on, maybe you need a tutor to explain the very logical outrage at the hypocrisy of the NCAA).
Unfortantly, the issues with big buissness NCAA football are complex and run deep. They run deep in BCS games (Fiesta bowl), the (re)alignment of confrences (pac 12) and into individual schools (USC, OSU, UNC, UM…). With this meduim of technology, which we all love more and more issues will arrise, and unfortantly the integrity of the NCAA, an its commanding purpose, education, falters.
One could make an arugement for and against NCAA athletes being paid for play… How much does one key or bench player generate vs how much is a scholorship really worth, when you take in effect future earnings and no student loans, intrest?
With these issues, and the U’s being the biggest and most recent one. What is the NCAA going to do?…
They are either going to give the U the death penalty, which will bring fear into all major NCAA athletes, coaches, boosters, administrators minds or they will change their stance vs pay for play.
Only will the death penalty curtail the growing problems, that big money brings, only the death penalty will stop the money from coming in. Only the death penalty will change the environment of NCAA sports.
There is no gray area now, no safe haven for the NCAA to hide, no acceptable scholorship reductions or probation periods, that will suffice. Its time. Either pay up, or cut the cord.
I dont believe a single critic of this blog addressed the blog itself. You people want to complain about how non-athlete working stiff students have it just as bad as athletes in terms of time and opportunities lost? Well, I agree. Whole heartedly.
BUT THAT WASNT THE POINT OF THE BLOG.
Look, I had a full ride to FSU on a national merit scholarship. Yes, it made the school look good to have me there. That being said, I wasnt generating MILLIONS in revenue for the school. The point of the article is that these men are amateurs in name only, and the adults making the money should pay the people being broken to earn it. Simple as that.
So your college experience was hard. Sorry. It happens. When you can prove you helped generate hundreds of millions of dollars for your school, then I will argue for you to get a piece of your pie too.
BS..plain and simple.
These “kids” are volunteering to do this.
They are not forced to participate…. They choose to take this responsibility, which includes all the rules and regulations contained for a chance of wealth and becoming famous.
They CHOOSE to go to school … for FREE… and usually a great school. Something a good percentage of us cannot do, ether financially or other reasons.
They do this to gamble (while taking this free education) on the chance of becoming multimillionaires.
National US median income: 45 – 50k
Average football player salary: 900k, with an average signing bonus of 1.5 million.
The average player plays for 4 years… you would have made what the average HOUSEHOLD (not just person) made in 72 years (or 102 years if you add in the signing bonus!!!) Plus players get full pensions after 6 years.
They choose to play this lottery. Everyone knows most don’t get in… But just like the average American playing a state lottery, you know its a small chance.. but are willing to take it.
They don’t want to go through this effort? Then attend college on their own if they want to .. seek their own financial aid or work. I worked full time while attending classes full time.
Practice on your own… hire your own trainer if you want. Then walk on to the team you want to try out for.
Its funny how a lot of people argue that they hate pro football and perfer cfb, because of how pro players are PAID TO PLAY… and have no heart.. unlike college football. And how they are bigheaded and divas. Many old school fans still love when teams like the acadamies play.. because we al knowthey are not playing to be pros. They are playing for the love of the game.
As for the part of:
“Is it because athletes should be treated like other students, lest they not appreciate the “college experience?” Other kids get to sell their belongings, don’t they? They get to go to parties and drink and throw themselves at women, don’t they? They get to have jobs and earn their worth, don’t they? And other kids don’t spend sixty hours a week having their bodies broken or their spring mornings running themselves to death in the dew in the dark.”
No one is denying kids to live the college experience. They can party. They can drink. They can throw themselves at women. IF THEY DO IT ON THEIR OWN.
But its a totally different issue when someone is paying and giving these to the students in hopes that they will attend the boosters institution of choice.
As i mentioned.. i worked 40 hours.. plus full time school, earning an engineering degree. Which i can tell you, consisted of working/studying/designing at the classroom labs until sun-up. Only to go to back to work after less than 3 hours of sleep. All while paying most of my way. Which gave me very little time to live the college life or party.. but I did the most I could. Did i complain. NO .. because i knew what I was getting myself into.
So please Makaveli_Reborn… Save me the drama.
They ‘volunteer’ to do it because it is clearly better than the alternative. Duh. You’re missing the point altogether if that is your response. Whether or not what they are being provided with is better than not getting the same opportunities is completely irrelevant to whether or not it’s better than what they should be getting.
He never once complained about the opportunity he was provided or the situation he was in. What he ‘complained’ about was the fact that many of these extremely talented individuals are being exploited (most notably the low income, poorly educated ones – a demographic he doesn’t even fit into) for their money-making potential, an exploitation that is leveraged by the fact that this is their only viable means of getting a quality education.
“Whether or not what they are being provided with is better than not getting the same opportunities is completely irrelevant to whether or not it’s better than what they should be getting.”
Damn I worded that poorly. More succinctly: the common “they’re lucky to get what they get” argument is bullshit because it’s still much less than they deserve.
Wow. I thought Duh U was actually a good academic institution in general. After reading this tripe by someone who was obviously mesmerized by the surroundings of South Beach it appears that his education is about as meaningful as one from those online ‘universities’.
Here’s hoping that the NCAA finally has the cojones to give Duh U what it richly deserves and that’s the Death Penalty.
I call oversimplistic bullshit.
If you want to advocate paying players, fine. That mean the $56,000 a year that college costs the average guy at the U can’t = 85 players on scholly. So now teams are maybe 55-60, and you have to have cuts. No way the U can afford to carry 3M or so in football players who are basically tacking dummies and long snappers.
So here is what you do: Dump 20 players from each and every school’s Di team. That’s 2500 – you read that right – more kids who will likely NEVER go to college. Ever. Fair trade off?
Even better? Last year a study showed that more than 60 football DI programs LOST money. If you demand that La Tech, Idaho U. and New Mex PAY players, guess what? They drop DI football. If 20 schools drop DI football, there go another 1300 scholarships.
Scholly value:
How many 18 year olds do you know who leave HS and could earn from day one $56K? 40k? How about more than minimum wage?
The problem with your rhetoric? Guys from DIII who PAY to play football and make it to the pros. D2 programs fill stadiums too. You know what? There are more than 300 universities playing ball in other than D1.
I have news for you – in my company the top guy earns $550K. He never went to college, and he hired a guy from Harvard with a Masters to work last week – smarter than the CEO – and he is earning $45K. His school loans are almost $300K. IT HAPPENS IN THE BUSINESS WORLD. But you don’t see that.
Oh by the way, men play lacrosse and workout 20 horus a week and practice too. They also have life changing injuries. Women play sports – UGA sells out womens Gymnastics.
The system needs work but save me the BS – and this is from me – a guy who went to NFL Camp after playing in the Ivy league – and I paid my way there
OK, so you bust your body for the school. A music major who went on scholly to a NE school – she plays violin, world reknown, plays for school symphony. Scholly. Hours spent outside of school for practice? She said “always” and at least 55 hours a week above school. All year long.
You are so emotional about it, you just have no vision. Does a coach make $3M? Meyer did. the WKU football coach (a DI team) earns $250K.
Ask any male student on any campus of a top football program if it were possible to magically grant them the athleticism to play on the team, would they play (of course, after reminding them that they must abide by the terms under which all current player must “suffer”)…9 out of 10 say yes before you even finish the question. It is true that the schools, apparel brands, tv networks and the like are getting a pretty sweet deal but that does not negate the fact that the players are getting a pretty sweet deal, as well. Unfortunately, the majority of them only appreciate the instant gratification provided by worms like Shapiro.
And BTW, I did all this at the DIII level in two sports so I’m fairly familiar with the sacrifices and was still happy to do it even though I got about 1/100th of the permissible benefits (classroom, field, and “companionship”) provided to the kinds of guys we are discussing in this thread.
For 4 to 5 years they are treated like gods and (hopefully) walk away with a college degree at the end. Under no other circumstances would any of these guys have that opportunity.
CFBfan2011, Gabe, Robert
Sorry for ur lots. I am dissappoint
To further his point, it’s posted on a website designed solely for a video game which also reaps millions of dollars off of these players (the video game, not the website…though neither would make money if these players didn’t offer their skills for our entertainment)
I’m in the camp of people who don’t really care to hear about how players are being exploited. Like many of the above posters, I paid full tuition minus academic scholarships to get through school. I was talented, too, just not at sports. I didn’t cry about that, either.
College football players who receive athletic scholarships to D1 programs are being paid. They’re being paid with that scholarship. Whether or not the student athletes choose to really take advantage of that benefit and work hard and stay for a degree is up to them.
As far as the argument that this is not enough, I really do not care. I am not receptive to this line of argument claiming that the players are taken advantage of because schools and executives are making money from the games they play. That’s life. They’re offered opportunities to play for something larger than themselves and the’ve got the opportunity to have unique experiences that other students (such as myself) were not able to.
Perhaps what we need is a minor league football system to compliment the college game where players are paid which provides them an alternate route to the NFL. I wonder how many players choosing to go that route would end up wishing they took the education.
All of you people do know that the football money pays for all the sports that do not make a dime as in woman’s b-ball, softball, badminton, horses, tennis, track, baseball, cheerleaders and all the other sports that do not pay for themselves. If a football player does not want to go to college and play football they can always get to the NFL another way, like buy a ticket to a game. Everyone struggles in college money financially.They are no better then a CPA, DR, Lawyer(as much as I hate them) you go to college to learn. You can only take a horse to water, you can’t make him drink it. These people that say a player in the NFL only last 4 years, hell in that 4 years they enough to last a life time
just a question. do all football players have to meet the same GPA requirements to get into school as other students?
or are GPA requirements lowered for them?
my opinion.. you want to make money?? take advantage of your education or get drafted into the NFL.. its up to you. quit crying. the NCAA doesnt owe you anything.. dont like it. then dont play and pay for your own education yourself.
just my opinion. but I am sick of the entitlement attitude most athletes have
While I agree with most of your thoughts, I have to say there was a line crossed at Miami. $100 handshakes, parties, gifts etc are no big deal to me, players deserve at least that. When it comes to providing prostitutes, that’s going too far. Now the booster has the players involved in illegal activity.
I’m an average looking guy that didn’t play college sports, and I had no trouble getting laid in college. Surely these football players are capable of getting some without somebody having to buy it for them.
awesome write up!!!!
well done!
Sorry I call B.S. Your school broke the rules, so now you want to say the rules are not just. How far exactly do you want to change the rules? Would you like the NCAA to say that prostitution and underage drinking are cool?
I never played major college sports, but I did work my way through school. After I got my degree I worked my butt off for 7 years living in a crappy apartment before my school bills were paid off. So please don’t tell me that what the athletes are getting is worthless to them.
[...] player, Adam Bates, has a some very interesting thoughts on the recent allegations at Miami – On snakes, rats, weasels, and Hurricanes. I don’t agree but it’s definitely a school of thought out [...]
I think you are completely missing the part that the kids DO get paid to play. A kid going to college for free and receiving a monthly stipend for up to 5 years (if red-shirted). At USC when they were on their “dynasty” run the monthly stipend was $960/month. Let’s see, 5 years at USC ($20,192 a semester) plus room and board ($12,078 a year) plus $11,520 a year for 5 years. That totals $319,910 in exchange for that athlete playing football. Seems to me that $64k a year is more than some professionals make in Arena Football. Just because they aren’t getting handed a check for that amount doesn’t mean they aren’t already getting benefits… And aren’t they a lot better off when they graduate and move on to the real world with a degree? And before you cry me a river about how they don’t all graduate, that is the KIDS choices that affect whether or not he graduates, no one else.