This is what most of us suspected.

https://sports.yahoo.com/exclusive-feder...38484.html

And Sleezipari's record is still intact. Everywhere he has been there have been issues.

The story mentions how this could change the NCAA tournament this year. Do you think school presidents will say enough is enough. Will a college president risk his schools reputation to knowing his coach is probably playing an ineligible player. Pitino's career has ended. His AD's career has ended. This will run deep.

(02-23-2018 12:04 PM)ez272 Wrote:  This is what most of us suspected.

https://sports.yahoo.com/exclusive-feder...38484.html

Will this be the end of "big time" college athletics. If most of the big time programs are cheating, which may be the case, the whole thing is a farce. Create minor league systems for basketball and football, just like you have for baseball. Let the kids get paid, in the open, and stop claiming they are "student" athletes which appears to be an oxymoron.

Maybe I am living in a fantasy world, but I still tend to believe we have done it the right way at UALR for many years. Maybe we didn't win as much as some wanted, but I believe Shields did his best to bring in "good" kids who wanted to leave college with a degree. So far, from what I can tell, Wes has tried to continue that. Win or lose, that is a program I can support with my time and money.

Look at what college athletics has become in the power five conferences and look at how ALL THAT TV CONTRACT MONEY is being spent. Millions and millions of dollars for new lockerrooms, operation centers, a specialty coach to break down the offense of your next opponent, a specialty coach to break down the defense of your next opponent. All of this just to show a recruit my "bat" is bigger than his "bat." Why? The average cost of a 4-year degree at UALR is $40,000. Average. Why? But that is UALR. What is the average cost of a degree at a power five conference school? Much more I bet. Why? Money is being spent and it is being spent in all the wrong places. Coaches used to pocket the money he received as part of a shoe contract. Not anymore. The athletic department took that away to help fund the monster. How about college presidents taking control of the money made from athletics and put things back in perspective.

And when you look at the UALR feasibility study for starting football and the questions asked about the benefits football brings to a school and the lengths power five schools go to prove they have a bigger bat and what that means to student recruitment, well, it means a lot. It means a lot to those power five schools and it means a lot to mid-major schools, just on a different level. Mid-majors still benefit do they not?

If the college president is ok paying a coach millions of dollars how does he rationalize that? By the number of students that decide to go to that school because they are a fan of the athletics program. They come to the school because of the prestige that football or basketball program brings to the school.

Big time college sports have become money "whores." If you have the money, you can buy anything.

(02-23-2018 05:41 PM)LRTrojan Wrote:  Big time college sports have become money "whores." If you have the money, you can buy anything.

Eloquently and accurately expressed, LRT.

And the only solution that seems to be put forth is to make college athletes professionals. Which solves what? We already have professional sports - at a higher level.

And the idea that the athletes ought to participate in the money since they earn the money is, IMHO, completely bogus. If a brilliant graduate assistant is helping a professor develop some new product or substance, and the discovery nets the university millions of dollars, is the graduate assistant going to get paid a big slice of that? Of course not. He was a student. He signed up to get an education while he was being paid as an assistant. And he did not have the civilized world worshipping at his feet, like the athletes have. They made a contract to play for the university in exchange for their scholarships. If they did not want the contract, they could have gone to the D-league of the NBA.

The thing that the websites keep emphasizing is very interesting: "This is not the NCAA, folks; this is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These guys do not sanction you or slap your wrist or vacate championships; they haul you off to prison in handcuffs."

Have you seen this one?

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketb...estigation

Notice this paragraph:

"Miller's contract provides that even if he is fired with cause, the university would have to pay his base salary. The contract defines his base salary as his salary plus his peripheral salary. That adds up to roughly $10.3 million through May 2022. The only part that Miller wouldn't be entitled to is $1.7 million from Nike and IMG that is due to him if he completes his contract."

What sort of fools are running that university? Well, maybe "fools" is not a strong enough word. I think LRT got it exactly right. College sports has become a brothel.

My interest in professional sports waned as the multi-million dollar salaries became the norm. All that seems to matter to most players is money, and loyalty to a team or city is a thing of the past. Over the years that led me to become much more of a college sports fan. But, now I don't see a ton of difference. I still enjoy going to and watching UA-Little Rock sports, but have little interest in watching "major" college basketball teams with their multi-million dollar coaches and players who apparently are being paid under the table. The idea of the "student-athlete" is a farce and its taken the "fun" out of it for me.

(02-24-2018 10:58 AM)mjs Wrote:  The idea of the "student-athlete" is a farce and its taken the "fun" out of it for me.

Bingo!

(02-24-2018 11:07 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  

(02-24-2018 10:58 AM)mjs Wrote:  The idea of the "student-athlete" is a farce and its taken the "fun" out of it for me.

Bingo!

And I BINGO'd too on this one.

College athletics goes through these phases periodically.

The SEC formed because a group of schools in the Southern League got frustrated with the scholarship rules, the ACC also spun out of the Southern.

The Pacific Coast dissolved over an aide dispute. A new league formed eventually becoming the Pac8.

During the 1950's the whole thing nearly blew apart over cheating and what should be included in a scholarship.

We've had point shaving scandals at NYU, Kentucky, and Tulane.

There will be a purge to clean things up and eventually as time passes the cheating starts again.

What the NCAA desperately needs is for the NBA to change the collective bargaining agreement to allow teams to sign high school players or in the alternative, open the G League up to high school players with some nice signing bonuses to siphon off those one and done candidates. Get them into the G League and the league becomes more valuable, watch Joe Stud before he gets drafted.

But have we had the FBI involved?

(02-25-2018 07:27 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  But have we had the FBI involved?

Yes. NYU, Kentucky, Tulane, and Central Michigan and I think the FBI got involved with UNLV.

As long as we are only dealing with assistant coaches who do the dirty work, this will mean little. When they haul one of the big name head coaches or one of the lottery picks off to prison, then it will get people's attention.

And I hope that happens.

Izzo is just dodging the issue, hoping it will go away. Mark Fox spoke very frankly about it and said that it starts with the coaches. Right on the money, by my way of thinking. The coach is the CEO of the team; he is responsible for all that goes on.