This is Christmas week, not April fools.
I’m beginning to think, though, that’s what college sports’ brass take us for — fools.
Check out my latest video commentary or read below:
Stop me if you’ve heard this one.
A college sports bigwig tells us, “It’s all about the student-athletes.”
So, you know that joke?
Me, too, and I’m not falling for it anymore.
Perhaps you had a chance to see Sunday’s edition of The Oklahoman. It had all you needed to see the hypocrisy of, “It’s all about the student-athletes.”
My counterpart Berry Tramel had the gut-wrenching story of Mike Reed. A year ago, the linebacker was the “it” football recruit at Oklahoma. He was a junior college superstar before signing with the Sooners.
Then, Reed seemed to disappear.
As Berry wrote, there was a good reason for that. Reed brought his family to Norman to live with him. A good and honorable thing. But when his wife got sick, Reed had to drop a few classes and became ineligible to play.
The family’s monthly income: $616.
The rent and electric bill cost about $630.
When the family sought help from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the Reeds were told by OU that they shouldn’t take the assistance because it might be in violation of NCAA rules.
Elsewhere in Sunday’s newspaper was a special section entitled “Money bowl.” It was our annual bowl preview section, and this year, we turned our attention to the money involved in bowl games.
Some numbers to chew on:
Fox Sports will pay about $80 million to broadcast BCS games.The Big 12 will rake in more than $35 million in bowl payouts.
Bob Stoops will receive a $100,000 bonus for making a BCS bowl.
All of that money is floating around college football, and yet, Mike Reed can’t get a little help in keeping the lights on?
Perhaps athletes should be paid. Perhaps they shouldn’t. Perhaps there should be means by which special cases can get assistance. Perhaps not. Listen, I’m not sure what the right answer is, but I can tell you that the system as it is is wrong.
The conferences, the schools and the coaches keep getting richer and richer, but then you have an athlete like Mike Reed being told that he can’t take a few hundred bucks a month to buy food for his family.
College sports bigwigs should be ashamed of themselves.
“It’s all about the student-athletes”?
We’ve heard it before, and now, no one’s laughing.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:28 am
jenni,
New to your blog. I have been hanging out in Berry’s….and will continue to probably. But hey……more tends to be better more ften then not.
With that…….
If a player is getting a full ride, they ARE being paid. It is roughly $21,000 per year to attend OU. About $1600.00 per course. All other expenses aside……..a trade off of free education for talent is fair. I hate this pay for play argument. These kids are getting paid. Granted, the University makes a fair amount of money off from its players and their performance……but how is that different then say, McDonalds making millions per day off from the performance of their staff, at their pay levels. Which is probably about $21,000 per year. same darn argument. except that McDonalds does not provide a show case for kids who will potentially make millions of their own down the road with that same talent. Not to mention the opportunity a free degree opens up from a highly respected University.
On the other hand, there should be rules that allow assistance for hardship. We do it in society, the NCAA could do the same for players like Reed. Problem is, for every Reed……you have 10 Bomars screwing it up or 35 Florida State players, or a Lendy Holmes and yes, even a Demarcus Granger. So where do you draw the line? The NCAA always draws it straight across the board. The NCAA is driven by University Leaders. Those are the folks that can solve the issue. There are reasons why they don’t. The millions they receive from the hard-to-manage donors. Unfortunately, in the end the dollar means more then any one soul. It is our society.
a little about me…..I am St. Albans, Vermont…near beautiful lake Champlain. A life long Sooner fan in a household of Michigan fans.
More later………
Have a great day all!
Jenni, I do enjoy your column. Keep up the great work!
January 7th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
OU must not have been paying Granger enough, since he had to steal a coat from a store in Tempe, AZ. This low life thug should be dismissed from the university, but it will never happen since winning means more than anything else at OU. Kelvin Sampson cheats and gets hired by Indiana. You cheat, you should be through coaching or playing for life!! Soooo much for the myth of “student athlete”!!! or “amateur sports!!!