College Sports Make Me Sick

Well at least were not alone now.
Two college basketball programs, on opposite sides of the financial and prestige spectrum, are now joined at the hip. Except one had a golden ticket to buy its way out of a mess.

With the announcement of Kelvin Sampson's "resignation," Indiana faces a public mess similar to the scandal five years ago that rocked Saint Bonaventure their basketball team is still reeling from. Some of Indiana's players, including a Big 10 Player of the Year nominee, have said they will boycott the next game due to the coach's dismissal.

How loyal of these players, standing up for their coach being pushed out the door, except there is one problem. Sampson cheated by illegally calling recruits, not once but twice, got caught, and now walks away with $750,000, a half a million of which came from an anonymous alum.

I cannot seem to grasp who is more asinine in this higher education conundrum: This beyond wealthy alum funding an admitted cheater; the University for hiring this lowlife who, after cheating at Oklahoma deserted, leaving them with NCAA sanctions; the NCAA itself, punishing schools but not the scumbag coaches personally; Sampson, now onto tarnishing his second straight school; or these players sticking up for him.

I go back to the issue at St. Bonaventure because, let me disclaim, that I am a passionate alum, who hates to revert back to those sad times. But because we are in the Atlantic 10, a non-BCS Conference lacking in resources both on the court and off (i.e. alums with the disposable income to brush this under the rug), we were labeled everything negative under the sun by the mass media. If all of the facts came out that because of the questionable decisions by a deceptive coach, our players felt betrayed, thus electing to skip the remainder of the season since they were ineligible for postseason play, people might have understood. While I never agree sittng out the final games should have happened, remember, we are talking about 18-21 year-olds, in a circumstance we cannot understand. The problem was the adults involved were not properly helping the kids out, which is supposed to be what the core of college athletics is all about. I can understand why these Indiana players stand behind their coach, they don't know better.

But the fact of the matter remains that a coach with such power, who once broke the rules did it again, not two years later compounded it by lying. His punishment of a settlement for $750,000 makes me sick, losing what little shred of faith I had left in the purity of college sports.

With the millions raked in each year from television contracts, bowl game revenue and merchandise sales, the NCAA can try to smoke screen us by referring to all players as "student-athletes" in interviews and explaining in their free ads that those other 360,000 "student-athletes" are going pro in something other than sports, but its just a man behind the curtain taking us all to the bank. These players are all exploited, especially those at a top rate basketball school like Indiana. Except at tradition-rich Indiana, they can reload quickly, currently enjoying a top-10 program, where the Bonnies have yet to field a winning season since Jan Van Breda Kolff walked away from allowing a player with a welding certificate to suit up.

I think I am becoming numb, or turned off from professional sports, so maybe this is the last straw now that it hits the college level. Between Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Floyd Landis, Marion Jones and countless others we'll never confirm, there is something inherently wrong with sports, teaching our kids the only way to get by is to cheat. It's ok the NCAA says, just leave your mess at your old school for them to clean up. All you have to do, according to the Sampson scouting report, is pick up the phone, make over 100 illegal phone calls, convince your players you are the martyr, and walk away with close to one million dollars.

I have always been a passionate college basketball fan, especially during March Madness. But if you will excuse me, I think this year I am going to call in sick.