It should not be of any surprise to college sports fans that the University of Miami is being investigated on charges of NCAA violations. When I saw this headline I read it and immediately moved on and didn’t think twice about it. Miami is just another university in a long line of prominent athletic programs to get busted for rules violations. Just think about all of the players, coaches and universities in the past year that have been in the news for improprieties: Cam Newton, Terrell Pryor, Jim Tressel, Oregon, Chip Kelly, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, USC and now Miami. The difference with this story is that the charges are much bigger and broader. Many pundits are throwing around the possibility of the infamous “Death Penalty” which has only been doled out once to a football program (SMU back in the ‘80’s).
If the NCAA gives Miami the death penalty then they are opening the door to kill traditional college football as we know it. Think about this: there were many very prominent players and former players (now NFL players) on the list of people who received improper benefits from booster Nevin Shapiro. Now remember this, Miami hasn’t been any good since Butch Davis’s players left for the NFL. Shouldn’t Miami be dominating college football like they did in the 1980’s under Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnosn and Dennis Erickson? This begs the question: what are the top college teams doing that we don’t know about…yet? Actually, we have a decent idea of what the other teams are doing. Take the two teams in the BCS Championship game from last year, Auburn and Oregon. Auburn landed a star quarterback, Cam Newton, who was allegedly being shopped around in a pay-for-play agreement after Mississippi State said that they were told they needed to pay $180,000 to land Newton. Oregon, on the other hand, has had multiple run-ins with the law along with some shady connections with a recruiting service. It seems pretty intuitive that to become a national powerhouse in college football that you need to break the rules. I refuse to believe that these kids are passing on the Miami’s of the world in favor of other top programs because they think facilities are better, or because the coach knows his X’s and O’s better. Now, if Miami does in fact receive the death penalty then it leads me to believe that there are many other top college programs that could potentially receive the same penalty.
There are a few different ways the NCAA can take this. The first is to just go on without changing anything, pretending most programs are clean until a news source brings them to light and punishing the newfound offenders. Second, they can drastically increase their investigative staff and vociferously go after every single rules violation on the books and punish them accordingly. Those two are probably the most likely scenarios, because they keep the cash flow from boosters to universities moving. Even with increased oversight, schools and boosters are just going to put more resources and efforts into hiding their violations. My solutions are much more drastic. If the NCAA really wants to clean up college athletics then they need to get rid of boosters altogether. If the government can put caps on the amount of money people can give to political campaigns, why can’t the NCAA limit or dispel contributions to athletic departments? If wealthy alumni want to make contributions to a school then make sure the university presidents have the ability to put all or part of that money toward actual education. Put everyone on a level playing field. Reduce the number of dollars going into the business. Share television revenue among all Division I schools. Base athletic budgets entirely off of ticket sales and merchandise revenue. Right now there are many schools that are operating athletic departments without big donations from boosters. If they can do it, then everyone can do it. The solution is to make the business of college athletics as less of a business as possible.
The other option is to completely take college athletics out of colleges. Turn them into profession or semi-professional club teams. If universities want to participate than that is fine, let them sponsor a team by offering their name, colors, tradition and whatever facilities they currently have. But, these club teams will operate entirely out of the purview of the university. There can be a club team in each university city and the club can offer a tuition stipend as part of any compensation the market dictates. This way, we can solve the problem of player compensation, minor league football, and still let the majority of athletes who are not going to make the NFL still receive money for college to gain a valuable education. And if we make these teams non-profit organizations than boosters can still receive tax deductions for any charitable contributions. Boosters can supply all the money they want and educational institutions do not need to have reputations tarnished because of impropriety. This solution will shift the charade of college athletics from the notion of amateurism to the feeling of tradition and history.
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