[Hat tip to Kevin Weakley for sending me the link to the article that inspired this blog.] The worst contract in American sports -- that's what Sports Illustrated magazine's Andy Staples called the National Letter of Intent, a document that commits a high school athlete to a scholarship from a particular university. Upon signing the Letter of Intent, that athlete forfeits one year of college eligibility in the event he or she fails to enroll in that school. In contrast, the school doesn't really have to honor the scholarship offer to the athlete. As Staples points out, Sure, the NLI claims to guarantee a scholarship, but that simply isn't true. That is contingent on the player being admitted to the school and on the football program staying below the 85-scholarship limit. A school can dump the player at any point between Signing Day and preseason camp, and he would have no recourse. This guarantee is no different than the one on a conference-approved financial aid form, but it costs the player something the financial aid agreement does not. This situation drew national attention when highly sought linebacker Roquan Smith verbally committed to UCLA in a ceremony televised on ESPN, but news broke revealing the primary recruiter who gave Smith his very first scholarship offer and cultivated a relationship with the player over three years would be leaving to take a coaching job in the NFL, working for the Atlanta Falcons. Had Smith signed the letter of intent and faxed it, he would have forfeited a year of eligibility unless UCLA granted him an unconditional release. … [Read more...]
Unsolicited advice for Roquan Smith
Dear Roquan Smith: We've never met, in case you might be wondering. My letter is addressed to you, but I'm posting this on the internet in the hope it will catch your attention, as well as those of others who might find my advice beneficial. This advice would probably be equally useful to any other young athlete who faces a tough decision about which school to attend...I am not speaking as a college football fan, but as a grandfather. I am a grandfather. My intention is to speak to you as any grandfather would speak to his grandson, with no disrespect intended to your actual grandparents. I want to offer you the exact same advice I plan to give my own grandson, if he works hard enough and grows into an athlete talented to be offered similar opportunities to those you currently have. But before going any further, in the spirit of full disclosure I must tell you that I am a Georgia Bulldog fan, plain and simple. My opinions are often jaded. I shall make every effort to not show any favorable bias towards UGA in this open letter directed to you, but you should know that it naturally exists. However, I don't know or speak for Mark Richt, nor do I represent the university in any official capacity. I do love UGA, graduating in 1983 with a degree in Management Information Systems from the business school that has served me very well in my professional career. For twenty years, I helped develop computer software that did everything from making an electronic deposit into your checking account to encrypting your PIN after a device captured it, and all sorts of … [Read more...]
Coaching change
So, you're a Georgia fan who's tired of the underachieving football program, huh? After all, the Georgia coach has been on the job for THIRTEEN whole years and still hasn't won a national championship, has he? Enough of this mediocrity! This is big boy, SEC football. In this conference, it's always, what have you done for us lately? Don't believe me? Just ask Gene Chizik... So what if our coach has won a couple of measly SEC championships for Georgia up to this point in his coaching career? That simply isn't good enough. Look at the bigger picture -- we've been in a championship drought for the last few years now. Our coach has, gasp! a losing bowl record. Can't win the big game anymore. And we're talking about big-time college football at a prestigious university. We deserve a championship team. This sort of incompetence simply cannot be tolerated. We have every right to expect to expect our football team to win at all costs. No matter what. It shouldn't matter that we demand more discipline of our players than our competitors. As alumni, we want to be proud and brag our players are smarter, better people...as long as they win, too. Surely you will concede that our program seems to be headed in the wrong direction. The SEC competition is only getting stronger, while our team seems to be regressing...so enough already! Just get rid of the guy, okay? Congratulations! You just fired Vince Dooley, the greatest coach in Georgia's history, three years before he led Georgia to the 1980 national championship. This is exactly why you should … [Read more...]
The entrapment of Todd Gurley
When media reports were published claiming the man accusing UGA running back Todd Gurley of accepting improper payment to autograph sports memorabilia had hired an attorney, my initial reaction to the story was one of surprise. The first, most obvious question that popped into my head was this: Why does the guy who allegedly entrapped Gurley need an attorney? It turns out that apparently by accusing Gurley, this person has tacitly admitted violating a Georgia law passed in 2003 that would make him legally liable for damages incurred by the University of Georgia through his deliberate causing of recruiting or regulation violations to occur. Now the conventional wisdom of pundits in the media currently seems to be that Gurley may have played his last game for the University of Georgia. However, I'm not convinced that #3 won't be suited up again next week for the Dawgs fairly soon, perhaps even as soon as next weekend against Arkansas. The rationale for my thinking is simply this: unless there is a smoking gun like video of money changing hands or cashed checks showing a direct payment of cash by the accuser to the accused, how will the NCAA justify giving Gurley more than a one game suspension, considering how similar recent cases have been handled? Reports in the media have emphatically indicated that the video allegedly showing Gurley autographing merchandise does not show any money changing hands. These reports suggest it is only the word of one accuser described as disgruntled and unscrupulous versus the best player in college football, Todd Gurley. And … [Read more...]
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...]
