The sports news has been filled recently with great examples of just how ridiculous the National Collegiate Athletic Association is, and how it doesn’t seem to have the best interests of student/athletes in mind in the least.
Two examples involve a freshmen college basketball player from my home state, Jamal Crawford at the University of Michigan.
The NCAA suspended him for 6 games when they found out that, while in high school, he had lived for a time with a Seattle-area businessman.
Question: What the hell business is it of their’s? Maybe Crawford came from a scary neighborhood, and was looking for a little safety and sanity in his life. Perhaps this businessman was a big hoops fan and was just being generous. Even if you want to be cynical and say the businessman wanted to get something out of it, hoping he could cash in his chips when this kid became an NBA millionaire, that’s pretty naive of the businessman, as it’s a long, LONG shot when you’re talking about a high-schooler.
About the time Crawford was done with this suspension, the NCAA got back in his face, preparing to suspend him FOR LIFE from collegiate competition. For what? Drug use? Beating up his girlfriend? Stealing something? Hell no; the NCAA doesn’t much care when athletes do that kind of stuff.
Crawford, as a high school senior, wrote a letter to the NBA declaring himself eligible for the pro draft. He later found out that he couldn’t do that and still play college ball, so he wrote them back a few days later and told them to never mind. Too bad, the pompous NCAA says.
Never mind that once an athlete gets to college he can check out where he would be drafted by the NBA and decide to come back to school. NCAA rules don’t say high schoolers can. The Detroit News had a story Sunday in which the guy who wrote the rule called the NCAA’s actions on this with Crawford “ludicrous.” He said the reason high-schoolers aren’t mentioned under the rule as being allowed to check their draft status is, he didn’t think NCAA had the authority to have a say in it.
Armed with the evidence of what the guy who wrote the rule said he intended did the NCAA back down and admit its mistake? Not a chance. The arrogant asses showed their mercy to Crawford, rescinding his lifetime ban and giving him “only” another suspension, this one for eight games.
Here’s a kid trying to do the right thing, go to college, etc. Isn’t this organization designed to encourage this? To help him succeed?
Just tonight, I heard Auburn University is benching their star basketball player, while they investigate whether he had dealings with an agent (gasp!).
You hear this one all the time. What is the crime there? Say a kid thinks he’s got game, thinks he has a shot at the NBA. Probably comes from a poor family, not a lot of advice on how to be a millionaire from his background. Why shouldn’t a person be able to get advice?
What exactly is the NCAA trying to protect? The integrity of collegiate sport? Give me a break! Do you know how many billions of dollars are made in college sports, of which the kids generating the revenue see nada? Yeah, they get an education; last time I checked that costs about $80,000.
I’d love to see colleges get together and abolish the NCAA.
“You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment.” - Bill Hicks