A Dirty Game

Written by Josh Katz

User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 

Here in the Northeastern United States, it is difficult for folks like myself to become fully immersed in the culture of college football. There are no real D-1 powerhouses, no perennial championship-caliber programs to throw support behind. With all due respect to schools such as Boston College, Rutgers, Syracuse and Connecticut, it’s almost as if true college football is played everywhere except for our little corner of the country. I am sure if I lived in Alabama, Texas or California I would feel differently, but college football has always been filler for me; an appetizer of sorts until the big boys step onto the field on Sundays. Believe me, I am not taking anything away from these players, but baring the BCS games, I just cannot find the will to care beyond a casual interest. With no bona fide team to cheer for, I have learned to look at college football in a different way, examining the events that surround the sport rather than the events that take place on the playing field. In recent years, scandals of epic proportions have rocked the NCAA, universities and athletes alike. It seems a dark cloud is hovering over the game much like the way steroids and performance- enhancing drugs hovered over Major League Baseball for so many years.

There is a fundamental problem at the core of college football programs and how they recruit their players. Let’s rewind to 2005, the year when then USC running back Reggie Bush ran his way into the hearts of all who watched. Bush was spectacular for the Trojans of Southern Cal, taking them to a national championship against the Longhorns in a losing effort, and winning a Heisman Trophy* along the way. Bush was unlike anything we had ever seen before, the total package of quickness, agility and strength, which had NFL recruiters foaming at the mouth for a chance at drafting him. We now know that Reggie Bush’s career at Southern Cal was a sham. Everything Bush had done was eradicated like small pox from the record books because of shady money deals, fancy cars and improper benefits, a direct violation of NCAA policies. It is hard to swallow that everything from Bush’s college career from his early recruitment stages to the day he was drafted by New Orleans was done with illegality. Nobody was talking about what exactly went down, but the ensuing events said it all. Beloved head coach Pete Carroll split without so much as a goodbye. USC fired their athletic director Mike Garrett, and Reggie Bush gave back his Heisman with a generic apology, no questions asked.  The Reggie Bush scandal seems to be a microcosm of the problems that have infected college football. It makes you wonder what other high profile athletes were involved in these illegal musings.

But the formula is both obvious and simple:
Rich, powerful agents + impressionable & gifted athletes + lots of money = bad news.

The latest scandal involves the #2 team in the country in the form of Auburn, and the #1 player in the country, Cameron Newton. Newton is enjoying an outstanding season, reviving an Auburn team that is headed for a BCS title game in January baring a loss. It is unclear as to whether or not Newton took money or broke any NCAA rules at this time, but the cloud of suspicion and alleged wrongdoings will hang over both Newton and Auburn until some serious questions are answered. Let's say for argument's sake that Auburn goes on to win a national championship, and even more so, Cam Newton wins a Heisman Trophy. That is the LAST thing that the NCAA wants. What then? What if Auburn wins, and we find out in the coming months that illegal recruitment was involved? They’ll have no choice but to vacate their wins, much like USC was forced to vacate their 2005 season. What if Cam Newton really did break the rules? The Heisman Trust will have no choice but vacate yet another trophy, right? These are undoubtedly messy times for the NCAA.

Regardless of the fate of Auburn and Cam Newton, I think we can agree that the NCAA needs an intervention. Whether it means banning agents from contacting the athletes, or magnifying every aspect of the recruitment of players, something needs to be done. This is not just a black eye for the NCAA, but a broken nose. A broken nose that will not stop bleeding anytime soon.