Saturday, September 10, 2011

Sports Rant

Football season is finally upon us, and I'm sure the NCAA could not be happier because finally there are other things to report on other than the scandals. But the scandals continue. There are now stories out that the NCAA knows someone paid Cam Newton's family for him to attend Auburn, although they cannot as of yet compel this individual to testify. Miami is in serious jeopardy of having the death penalty imposed (and if the NCAA wants to get tough that is what they need to do), Ohio State continues their problems and on and on it goes.

Now, just like last spring, it appears that the Big 12 might be on it's last legs. I'm not sure that anything else so well demonstrates the absurdity of big time college football than this. We have a conference of ten teams called the Big 12, and a conference of 12 teams called the Big 10. The reason they ended up with this is because each added or subtracted teams, and as a result it turns out that the college administrators cannot do simple math either. Rename the darn conferences, don't keep pretending that you are something you are not.

We also have to stop paying attention to anything that Jim Tressel says. We were first told that he "volunteered" to be suspended one game, and then multiple games when he was still with Ohio State as a result of his actions. He didn't volunteer for anything, they were simply hoping that the NCAA wouldn't issue stricter punishment if the university did it itself. Then when he joined the NFL he wasn't going to be suspended any games, even though Terrelle Pryor is going to have to sit out for what he did in college, and this is totally ridiculous as well (and he is now going to appeal). But then when the commissioners office called and expressed some concern, then Tressel again "volunteered" to be suspended some games.

Please, let's get over the idea that Tressel is a good guy. I think SI totally proved the opposite to be the case. He has a track record everywhere he has been of having serious allegations raised against the program, with the people pointing fingers at him, but he's always tried to place the blame elsewhere and said "I didn't know." Well this time we do know he knew, so let's stop the charade and call a spade a spade. The only thing Jim Tressel cares about is winning, and rules don't mean anything. The part of him that is concerned with ethics is gone. He is, in other words, an ethical eunic. Let's deal with him as such.

Finally, this is a screenshot from ESPN from last spring, which again shows the sorry state of NCAA sports, and football in particular:


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