This sort of feels like a last stand for the NCAA.
Who takes them seriously anymore?
California, under threat that their schools could be banned from post-season play, all but unanimously passed their law that allows players to take money and not lose their scholarship. 20+ more states in the process of drafting a similar bill now.
The NBAPA agents all refused to follow the NCAAs rules for agents.
Will Wade literally talked about how much he paid for a player on the phone. Wade was reinstated and that player played the rest of the season.
Sean Miller has an assistant convicted in the scheme. There is as much evidence against him as anyone, somehow not fired.
Duke conducted an internal investigation, when we all know what got Bagley to North Carolina. We have evidence of Zion being offered by several schools. But they found nothing…
Miami paid Nassir Little. Jim Larrañaga still the coach. And Little played all season at UNC.
Avenatti is singing like a bird with a former AAU coach from California. Says Bol Bol went to Oregon for cash with documentation. Says Ayton went to Arizona for cash with documentation. Says Bagley went to Duke for cash with documentation. Not a peep from those schools.
Wendell Carter Jr. a player for Duke - Parents went to lunch with an agent. That agent, alone, somehow wracked up a $100+ tab on his own. Carter’s parents didn’t even eat… Must have been a hell of a steak.
KU landed two guys who were paid, and went for a third. And we’re denying the hell out of it being our responsibility.
Maryland paid De Sousa and not a word has been spoken about Turgeon in the national media. Much less Maryland coming out and making an official statement.
Collin Sexton only got a 4 game suspension and Avery Johnson finished the season.
Personally, I think KU will and should fight this to the death. I think they SHOULD take it to court. And, on top of the obviously circumstantial evidence presented in the NOA, my argument would be that the NCAA is unable to fairly and broadly enforce the rules and is unable to monitor their member institutions. There were 30+ programs named at the trials. Unless all of them were investigated with the same thoroughness as KU was, they are unable to fairly apply the rules across the board. The NCAA themselves, lack institutional control. I’d argue that they should have known that Apparel sponsors were offering impermissible benefits as much as KU should have known. I’d argue that the NCAA didn’t take control of recruiting until 2018, when they set up rules for AAU events. I’d argue that the commission they put together themselves realized how widespread this was, and that it’s a failure of duty on their part that it took this long to investigate. If they were unwilling to investigate the underbelly of College Basketball until recently, how on Earth is one single member institution supposed to combat it?
The issue is widespread, and that is largely due to the fact that the NCAA has been unwilling to use their resources, which consist of a billion dollars of revenue, to combat impermissible benefits from 3rd parties and protect the “NCAA Collegiate Model.” If they are unwilling to do it, why should KU be? If they cared, there would be 30+ schools under investigation right now. There would be an official NCAA employee working in the compliance department at every single NCAA institution in the country. But there isn’t. Because the NCAA arbitrarily applies the rules when they feel like applying the rules. And they do that after taking no steps to prevent rules from being broken.
I’d love to see the NCAA rules enforcement process get audited by a major accounting firm. They have no controls and no prevention process. They, as the parent company over 300+ institutions, knew that those institutions were essentially “under attack” and prone to corruption with a 3rd party. Yet, their “prevention process” is to simply ask that people who have millions of dollars at stake turn themselves in. And institutions who have tens of millions of dollars at stake to also turn themselves in. It may be the right thing to do. And acting with integrity should be expected from us fans. But the NCAA has a duty to it’s other member institutions to enforce the rules and put in processes that create as even of a playing field as possible. Yet, they don’t, haven’t and won’t.
The NCAA created this issue when they allowed 3rd party money to infiltrate college athletics. And it’s the NCAA’s fault they did nothing to prevent the wide-spread corruption since. They can’t all of a sudden decide they don’t like it when they are the ones who created it…
