“University Of Miami Football Scandal: Current NFL Players Allegedly Received Money, Various Illicit Benefits While In School” – TheHuffingtonPost
“Pryor’s career at Ohio State, which started with so much promise, came to an abrupt and scandal-ridden end Tuesday evening, when he announced through his attorney that he would not play for the Buckeyes this season. He had already been suspended for the first five games for breaking NCAA rules by accepting improper benefits from the owner of a tattoo parlor.” – ESPN.com
“USC Trojans Get Black Eye Over Reggie Bush Scandal – Reggie Bush received improper benefits while attending the school. The Trojans football team will not participate in postseason play for two years and will forfeit 10 scholarships for the next three seasons.” – Time
The Ohio State University football team is valued at $71 million and USC’s is valued at $53 million. The University of Miami netted nearly $60 million dollars last year. During the same year, 2010, football and basketball programs accumulated over five-billion dollars in revenue – five-fucking-billion dollars. And this is non-taxable income because college athletics are federally tax-exempt.
With our wonderfully moral government’s blessing, the NCAA has been making astonishing profits on the backs of athletes. With our wonderfully biased media, college athletes are vilified for taking “illegal” benefits while the universities are cast as victims.
You know why boosters funnel benefits to athletes? It’s not because they are kind-hearted saints, it’s because there is money to be made. Boosters, sportswriters, university presidents, and the NCAA are making money by exploiting basketball and football players. These athletes are completely subject to the whims of the NCAA, stuck in a state of servitude.
Is it fair? No.
The NCAA is geared towards commerce, exclusive economic morality, with no morality beyond that. They are the legal arbiter of the system at large, unfairly I may add, and they ignore subjective morality guiding all their decisions using a strictly objective economic-value model.
So until there is an overhaul of the system or until these athletes are properly compensated I say take as much as you can get your hands on. Bags of money, houses, prostitutes on yachts, free abortions for your girlfriends; everything, take everything offered.
And I’m sure there are some bigoted readers out there yelling at the computer screen, “but they get a free college education – over $100,000 in scholarships and they still want more!”
Well, first of all, the ratio of school revenue to scholarships awarded is monumentally skewed in favor of the university. If these athletes were actually student-athletes then the academic part of their stay at the university would or should supersede all athletic responsibilities – but they don’t. How are the “student-athletes” supposed to value their education when the university doesn’t? The athletes practice in the mornings and in the evenings and have to schedule classes around their practice schedule, not the other way around. They miss classes on account of tournaments, travel schedule, and practice requirements. They are funneled towards majors that require minimal effort – next time you watch a game on ESPN count how many African-American studies or Communication majors there are. Now I am not saying these majors don’t have worth; but there are clear steps, or systems, in these majors at those institutions that are conducive for athletes to continually earn marks allowing them to continue playing without impeding their practice or game time performance. On top of that, students are pushed towards teachers who will pass them, who will grade them on an athlete’s curve. So the education may be free of tuition but it is also free of education. There are so many built-in avenues for athletes to skirt the educational requirements that they never develop the habits necessary for academic success if and when most of them don’t make it to pro leagues. Once their athletic eligibility has expired these students are now thrown into the real world of academics, usually in class levels they are not prepared for and have not developed proper study habits for. The university damages the academic life of the athletes while they make money. The young men are chastised for not taking full advantage of the education available but we ignore the fact that the schools are sabotaging their education.
The system is fucked and is a form of slavery. So while all the narrow-minded partisan clowns out there are indicting the athletes, I say take as much as you can. The institutions don’t give a fuck about your education or respect that you should be a student first and an athlete second so why worry yourselves with potential sanctions or NCAA penalties. No matter how many “illegal” benefits an athlete takes – he is still woefully underpaid. All the booster money in the world does not touch the amount of revenue the intuitions or the NCAA makes.
It’s a completely fucked system. Fuck the system.
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I wonder what the people of the future with think about these fucked systems?