I want all sports fans to consider the following with college football barely a month removed and with March Madness right around the corner.
From Reggie Bush at USC, Corey Maggette at Duke, Chris Webber at Michigan, Nebraska football, and Lou Holtz at South Carolina just for examples.
Over and over in college sports it's all about making it to the "next level". I would contend that most "major level" college programs have inherent problems with inappropriate gifts or contact between either boosters or agents and the athletes. The problem is the NCAA knows when and where to look and I suspect that they conduct their investigations after seasons are over, and not during seasons for the simple fact it is the athletes that help generate the money the NCAA uses. They aren't going to slit their own wrists, so they investigate afterwards and punish the school, when they know fully well that the athlete has moved on, but the coach and the booster/agent are still around.
Most of the times when major sanctions come down on a school the coach either quits or is fired, I would think in this situation sanctions should follow the coach as well - case in point would be where Lou Holtz was guilty of inappropriate gifts and monies to athletes. Holtz left SC State, and the school had to endure a cut back on scholarships. In a fair system Holtz no matter where he went should have endured the same. In the case of boosters or agents providing inappropriate gifts, boosters should be banned from school activities, dinners and functions including the games if they are found to be guilty of the charges. Agents should lose their license and since most agents are lawyers they should be reported to the state bar association as well as being banned from any contact with the school as well.
This is all just some rantings since we all know fully well that the NCAA won't do a thing because it needs the athletes to generate the money. So USC will go unchecked in football, Duke will go unchecked in basketball and Miami and Florida State will continue to recruit borderline criminals/athletes for their athletic programs.
I used to watch college sports so I could see the up and coming atheletes, now I watch so I can see where the connections are in the programs. Look closely at the sidelines, the guys watch the scoreboard and their watches the most probably have "vested" interests.
