[FULL DISCLOSURE: I am an alumnus of the University of Georgia, but not affiliated with the university in any official capacity. These comments merely represent my personal opinion and nothing more.] I need to vent my frustrations, before my head explodes. I need to express my anger, even though I have no idea how demanding the right thing be done will actually help or accomplish anything, except it might make me feel a little bit better. We can save the argument for another day about whether the NCAA should allow players to be paid. Though I think that players should be allowed to have some sort of income, it's irrelevant to the point that I intend to focus upon today. Likewise, for the time being, we can also ignore that the NCAA earns nearly $1 billion dollars per year in revenue, in spite of the fact the organization is treated as a non-profit by the IRS. Right now I don't even want to bring up the relevance of the Ed O'Bannon court decision to this suspension, even though the ruling would seem to be quite pertinent. It's also helpful and important to note that the NCAA lost that case. However at the moment, I only want to figure out the answer to one question: what is the NCAA going to do about its very serious and growing credibility problem? And what message did Mark Emmert and the NCAA think they sent the college football world by increasing Todd Gurley's suspension from two to four games? I agree with Bill King of the AJC, when he says their message is "honesty doesn't pay." While I believe most Georgia fans are proud of their school, their … [Read more...]
The University of Georgia, Todd Gurley, and the NCAA’s growing credibility problem
Travesty of justice: Kolton Houston versus the NCAA
Full disclosure: I am a graduate of the University of Georgia, class of 1983. I bleed red and black. It is fair to say I am an avid Georgia Bulldog fan. Nevertheless, I'm quite sure that my school allegiance doesn't color my judgment in this matter, based on the available facts, not emotion. That caveat aside, I will say that it is nothing less than a travesty of justice that Kolton Houston remains ineligible to compete on the football field. And that's not just my admittedly biased opinion. ESPN's Outside the Lines told the basic story, a rather depressing tale of how one young man has been forced by this monopoly that controls every aspect of collegiate sports to pay, and continue to pay, for the mistake of a medical professional made almost four years ago. The NCAA has unchecked power over the lives of people such as Kolton Houston, a young man who reportedly dreamed of wearing the Bulldog uniform since he was four-years-old. And as Lord Acton famously said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Once upon a time, all the way back in 2010 a high school athlete was injected with a forbidden anabolic steroid to facilitate healing from shoulder surgery. No doubt, somebody made a bad judgment call. Compounding an error in judgment into a tragic mistake, the injection went into fat instead of muscle, causing Houston to test positive years after that one-and-only treatment. As a result of that error, Houston has become the most tested athlete in the history of college sports. The evidence remains incontrovertible -- … [Read more...]
