The NCAA has begun to lay down the law on major basketball and football programs in the last few weeks, and they are doing so in a way that has not been done before. The sanctions imposed upon the USC football program were some of the most harsh that we have seen in years. The decision to restrict any interaction with the infamous Pump brothers was expected, but harsh nonetheless. Suggesting that major Division 1 basketball teams stay away from an event put on by the legend that is Sonny Vaccaro was shocking, but understandable.
What we are seeing take place has the potential to shift the landscape of the way in which amateur athletes are funnelled through the system into the professional ranks. It has the potential to do so, but reality could be that this is just a blip on the radar and business continues as usual. The reason? As always, money. There is simply too much money in play in the business of high performance athletes, and unless the NCAA completely restructures the way they operate, those who make the money will continue to do so.
The majority of the violations that have been occurring as of late are related to the contact between players that are not yet eligible for the NFL or NBA draft, and prospective agents. The scenario is fairly simple to imagine. Highly rated prospect with chance of being drafted is contacted by someone on behalf of a major agent. Promises are made. Money is exchanged. New cars appear. Rent gets paid for. All with the hope that the athlete is question will sign on with said agent once they do decide to join the professional ranks.
It comes as a shock to very few when these athletes choose their agent within days of deciding to enter the draft. From an outsiders perspective it can be confusing how they can choose who they want to represent them for their entire career so quickly, while it takes them years to choose which school to attend during the recruitment process. There is not supposed to be any official contact between agents and players until they officially declare for the draft, but that is clearly not the case.
So what can the NCAA do? Well they came down heavy on USC thanks to Mr. Reggie Bush and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that he took from a prospective marketing company. The University of Kansas basketball program will have to look elsewhere for major financing now that the Pump brothers are no longer associated with the program. Now UNC and Alabama have joined the growing list thanks to some of their highly rated football players attending a party put on by an agent.
But the question remains, how severely can you punish a program for the actions of individual players who are acting in their own best interest? These athletes are looking to make money, and thanks to the ridiculous system that the NCAA has set up, they get no cut of the massive amounts of money that they help their schools make. So they go looking elsewhere for money.
University of Alabama’s head football coach, Nick Saban, said that he might simply lock out NFL teams from entering the campus. But despite his best intentions, this will do little to fix the problem. The way the main perpetrators in question, the agents, operate is ingenious, and the NCAA will be hard pressed to cut them out. What they do is rather simple on the surface. They identify a player that they wish to contact and potentially sign. But they do not personally make contact with the players, instead they have “runners” set of on most major campuses, and they are the ones who approach the players with these offers. These runners could be some of the player’s friends or just a random freshman, and they attempt to infiltrate the player’s circle of trust and make him an offer he essentially cannot refuse. The most difficult part of preventing this from happening is that the extent of these agents’ contacts and relationships are endless, and if you cut off the head, more runners will just keep popping up.
Once again, there is simply too much money to be made in the business of ushering players through high school, into college and through to the pros for anyone to get in the way. For those that think this only takes place on college campuses are also sorely mistaken.
In an attempt to increase the exposure of high level basketball and football players throughout the nation who play out of small schools in non-traditional recruiting hot beds, an intricate system of prep schools has been developed to ensure that these players receive the maximum exposure necessary to make them into pro’s. In basketball circles, Oak Hill Academy and Findlay Prep are some of the most well known schools where players go for the final year or two of high school. To no one’s surprise, most of them receive scholarships to play at major Division 1 schools upon graduation. These players clearly don’t just simply decide to enrol at these high schools on the other side of the country as 16 year olds. There are countless representatives of these schools who likely work in conjunction with agents, AAU teams , schools and shoe companies. It is all part of the system to make inordinate amounts of money off of kids who are not yet old enough to vote.
No amount of NCAA regulation will prevent this from taking place, because at the end of the day, the NCAA is itself a business. How much money do they make off of March Madness? What about the BCS Bowl games? But every so often, they have to make it seem as if they are cracking down and laying down the law on these programs that allow their players to accept money and gifts. But it is all part of the system, and there are too many pockets being lined to take down the system entirely.
Editor’s Note: Lawrence Dushenski is a Toronto Raptors fan. You can follow him on twitter @LD10. Read more of his articles by clicking here.
