It looks like the Oregon football program is headed to probation because of violations it committed while Chip Kelly was the head coach. Kelly released a statement today about the matter.
“I am aware of the recent reports and of the ongoing investigation being conducted by the NCAA and the University of Oregon. While at Oregon, I know we were fully cooperative with all aspects of the investigation and I will continue to contribute in any way that I can. But until the NCAA rules on the matter, I will have no further comment.”
Today he went further while answering a question about whether the coming penalties had anything to do with him leaving. “No, that had absolutely no impact on my decision to leave,” Kelly said. It doesn’t pass the smell test, but this is understandable when you’re working in a corrupt and unjust system.
This doesn’t surprise me at all and I’m not really mad at Kelly even though, I don’t think he’s coming completely clean. I know about how they set up the cheating. The coach doesn’t do it, but the program has somebody else do it, so that the coach and the school president have plausible deniability. This is the way gangsters, drug pushers and the worst parts of our society behave.
You’ve got a system that is broken, but there are so many people making millions of dollars so nobody wants to change it.
The behavior that was unmasked during the Penn State scandal is the type of behavior that’s going on far too much in college sports because the system is set up to violate young athletes to make millions and billions of dollars and they don’t want anything to change.
Kelly was doing what he had to do because most of competitors are doing the same thing, but haven’t been caught yet. I’m confident that most of the big money college programs are cheating in some manner. They go by the philosophy that in order to make breakfast you’ve got to “break some eggs”.
When are they going to admit it, that big time college sports like major college football and basketball are professional organizations. I consider them thieves, which bring in billions of dollars but don’t pay its most valuable employees, but make like they’re trying to help the players. They’re really trying to help themselves. The whole thing is hypocritical and that’s why you have so many scandals.
College coaches and programs know that they can use small sums of money, prostitutes, drugs and other items to entice poor, high school aged athletes to come to their schools. Everybody at the college programs are making big money, so they have a huge incentive to cheat.
This is why the scandal went on a Penn State. It was because of the money. There are millions of people, who will break laws for big money.
It disgusts me. I read about how a kid like Sharrif Floyd, who will go amongst the first ten in the draft, grew up in squalor in North Philadelphia and was abused as a youngster. When he moved out of the house of a man, who was his tormentor and who he had previously thought was his father, his coaches couldn’t even help him because of NCAA rules. He was having trouble finding food to eat, yet the NCAA rule prohibits his coaches or any decent adult from helping him. Think about that. This kid is on the street basically, but nobody can help him because he might be a future college athlete.
There’s something wrong with such a selfish organization which makes rules like that while bringing in billions of dollars off the work of young men, who subject themselves to head injuries and bodily harm, which will stay with them the rest of their lives, yet aren’t compensated or protected by workmen’s comp laws.
All of these colleges have professors who are screaming about other industries which take advantage of the underprivileged, and they violate the poor more than anybody else.
Where’s Lovie Smoth when you need,
So much for the “Tres Amogo’s”
(Lurie, Smolenski & Roseman) with their
“Due Diligence” that we heard about since
January.. This Organization simply lacks a Top Leader with the Balls and Knowledge the Set an Identity that is conducive to being a Championship Caliber Football Franchise and this my Eagles Fans is the bottom line Truth
don’t forget the other profiteers G- The media Networks and Advertisers not just Colleges
There ought to be a way for the NCAA to (at a minimum) have a program that High school and college coaches can refer a kid like Sharif Floyd to be connected to a social worker who can link him to services that are available to all other kids of his age and means and allow for them to have support that can be transparent to the Governing bodies that putting a roof over a kids head comes with no strings attached.
And / Or they could just pay college athletes and then charge them for school like every one else. No more scholarships just pay your way, get a grant or student loan and cash a pay check as a paid athlete. (till the NFL and NCAA end up in court and then the whole damn thing just gets worse) NFL should be paying for it’s own farm teams but what ever.
Here’s an evil Idea. Each NFL team could have a developmental team for college age kids 18-23 and pay them as pro athletes to compete in lets call it NFL 2. Then lets see colleges recruit scholarship vs paycheck and choose to do school or not on your own. You can get a degree at 30 but you aren’t launching an NFL career at 30.
Who cares what he did?!? It’s a disgrace that the College athletes don’t get a dime anyways, when they make these College programs, Millions-Billions of $$$$. So they get a little hand grease, to come to certain Colleges. Big whoop! It’s been done since the stone ages, by every School. Don’t believe the hype! Every once in a awhile the NCAA, will slap a program on the wrist, to make an example out of them, to make it look like, they’re doing something, so they don’t set off a major scandal in College sports. Everyone with a brain molecule knows it goes on! This is all BS, nothing less, nothing more!
“It’s a disgrace that the College athletes don’t get a dime anyways, when they make these College programs, Millions-Billions of $$$$.”
Free room, board and tuition that in most cases amounts to $50k a year. Otherwise…they don’t get a dime.
I suppose they should scrap that and pay the kids…what would be fair for 18-22 yr olds?….2k a week? After taxes that’s be about the same as what they currently get. Then they could buy a new TV and some cool rims. That’s more valuable.
VV i used to agree with what you say. but the ‘professional’ college athlete doesn’t get a degree. you can say that is their fault but be honest a kid that takes basic hs courses, scores well below the university average on the SAT and a coach gets him in, come on that education is out of his reach! college sports is a joke, it is rich men getting richer off of the labors of unpaid kids. those scholarships cost the university NOTHING! absolutely NOTHING!
it is one scandal after another– college sports are a joke-
Well is does help keep a few more thousand Young Males off the Streets who otherwise, could be getting into a lot more serious trouble when you think about it.. Many of these kids would not be able to Attend College otherwise and for the ones who take advantage of it, are far better off with their experiences gained than never attending at all…Only a small % of College Athletes ever make it to the Professional Level and many of them go on to be succesful and productive Citizens .. A small % do not, which you will find anywhere, but at least 1000’s of kids got the Opportunity that otherwise would not have..
is it worth the corruption? and if thats what the goal is then that is what they should say, not lie to people that a kid with a 800 SAT is going to actually graduate from michigan! i say they be honest and put the non-college ready kids in a vocational program– under the flag of the university– i say that for every athlete that the university puts in that program they have to put 2-3 non-athletes from their state in the same program… make them step up
hac, I couldn’t have said it, any better.
plus the time commitment of D1 athletics makes academics extremely difficult for even the brightest students. there is no freaking way a below average kid could keep up in season. anyway its a tough problem- no scandal in college surprises me– there are 100’s of violations we don’t know about — academic cheating, recruiting, payoffs, ripoffs, kids being totally used for revenue
Exactly! Sickening!
vin, not all college athletes, are there on free scholarships, so your point is partially moot. My point being, from what I was trying to say, is who cares, because ALL schools have boosters, recruitment payoffs, & bribes, so when the NCAA acrs like they’re cracking the wip on someone, is BS! Also, if you still don’t think College athletes should get paid, I want to hear your opinion next year, when Kevin Ware is unable to play, & Louisville revokes his scholarship. Will that be fair, after he helped them, get to win a National Championship. These kids are guaranteed nothing, & most don’t make the next level, after making these schools, sick $$$$. I agree, that they’re given free academics, but, make no mistake, they’re brought in for their athletics & the schools push them through, academically. It’s been done forever! That’s why alot of these athletes wonderlics & IQ’s are so low. They should be paid something, I don’t know what, but something.
College athletics is a unpaid internship in which they get all the things that Vinnie mentioned plus on the job training by the best coaches in the nation, plus national media attention. Plus the chance to get a college degree if they want it when they never would have had that opportunity. So what if these guys are effin poor during college. So were the rest of us. I certainly ate my share of ramen noodles and then after I graduated, I had to pay all of the money back, so I was still poor for a while. Everyone is so quick to forget about free tuition, room and board. And they have to work really hard to maintain their scholarship? That is not an excuse to pay them either. Lots of people work hard to put themselves through college including working more than one job. They are not an exception
How could you possible attempt to monitor this when you have clearly stated that the NCAA can’t monitor anything else? How would you limit it? Would the big schools be able to offer more to their players? Kinda unfair advantage there? Does this only include students that indicate that they are never going to graduate, since the vast majority are not going to be pro athletes. How do you determine who gets paid and what?
bugs, I worked 2 full time jobs in the summer, & 1 full time job, during school, to put myself through college, then more recently went back to school, at 41, & reinvented myself, with an entirely new career, so I know too well. But, that’s not the point. It’s all about the schools, bleeding what they can get out of the athletes, & make billions, & also about the hypocrisy of the NCAA & the bogus sanctions, that are given. We agree, to disagree.
internship to what? there are 1000’s of players in college football recieving scholarships… only a handful make it to the pros.
base their ‘academic, technical or vocational’ program on their aptitude or potential
For the top athletes it is an internship to play in the pros. They are trying out by showing what they can do to prospective companies.
I do like your idea of fixing the system instead of adding more to the complexity of it by adding something else for the NCAA not to be able to monitor.
I see your point, but I think that the players are in turn doing the same things to the colleges. You and Cigar bring up some solid points.
a division one athlete isn’t even allowed to work at mcdonalds during the academic year… the ncaa is a huge kingdom broken down into hundreds of fiefdoms and the serfs (student athletes) are definitely the bottom feeders!
Right. My wife was a division 1 soccer player. I know the rules involved. She worked 2 jobs in the summer to have money for the school year.
I don’t think that Noel felt bad about being a serf for 1 year. Or Muhammed at UCLA.
It’s a disgrace that a HC like Chip Kelly is getting a $6.5 Million a Year Contract from the Eagles without ever Winning or Coaching an NFL Game… Absurd…
I like Cigar’s idea about vocational schools associated with the Unis for those students who struggle academically.
I believe academic requirements/graduation rates should be manatory for Uni athletics. I applaud college football teams like Stanford, Notre Dame etc that are able to maintain higher academic standards and competitive programs while factories like Amabama are certainly guilty of chewing up young men. What is ‘Bama’s graduation rate….something around 30%. Disgraceful.
As for other concerns…such as the Ware injury (and I doubt his scolarship will be cut) that could easily be fixed. The OHL (Ontario hockey league) guarantees 4 years paid uni for players who are drafted. (these kids 15-19 -drafted from there to NFL) NCAA could easily guarantee scolarships (as long as player meet requirements such as going to class, GPA etc)
Vinnie I totally agree with you and Cigar
the money is only there for 2 male sports: basketball and football — basketball players can go overseas and/or leave after a year ( they have choices) football players don’t ( one choice play NCAA college football for 3 years )
title 9 guarantee’s whatever the male athletes get the female athletes get —
I can’t really ride with you on this one Gary. I mean beyond the full ride, room and board, preferential class treatment which all but excuses student athletes from attending all classes, exposure on national television and exposure to NFL scouts I don’t feel like the Universities or the NCAA owe the students any more than that while they are at the Universities. If the student athletes need money for basics they should apply for Pell grants on time like every other student that’s in need.
Certainly the extraordinary merchandising popular sports programs should be dramatically curtailed, the answer isn’t to just keep running things the way they are being run and then cut the student athletes in in dark backroom deals like what goes on these days.
As far as helping kids like Sharif Floyd while in highschool, I understand the sympathy to a certain degree, but what kind of message do you think that sends the other kids that happen to not be gifted athletes, but are in the same situations? “Well, if you’re a gifted athlete you deserve to eat, but if not sorry guys…”
What a way fill up prisons quicker.