Some thoughts while waiting for the next ‘quake to hit…
A Sports Illustrated article this week quoted in detail a sports agent’s history of paying college football players as a way of wooing their future NFL business.
The article painted what Coach Bob Stoops called a “very disturbing” situation among college football players. It told of a rampant problem of college football players breaking NCAA rules by taking money from agents.
But, it also demonstrated the hypocrisy of high-dollar college programs who feed off the talents of young athletes in order to perpetuate their success.
The NCAA should allow college football players to be paid. It’s as simple as that. No, not some negotiable salary and not some amount that would give one school recruiting leverage over another.
Rather, any qualifying player should be given a cash stipend that would dissuade them from turning to illegal means to have movie and gas money.
These players already are compensated by the university in the form of scholarships, which include both tuition and room and board. Does anyone seriously believe an additional $300 per month is going to transform them into professional athletic whores?
That $300 is within the range of dollars agent Josh Luchs said he was paying dozens of college players the last 15 years.
It’s actually less than what non-athlete students — also on scholarship at universities — are getting paid to be research assistants, newspaper editors, groundskeepers and a whole host of other job holders on campuses across America.
They can get paid. But, star athletes who bring in millions of dollars to universities and the NCAA cannot?
That doesn’t make sense. It only increases the temptation of NFL-bound players to cheat. And, it isn’t fair.
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This week Nebraska hosts Texas in Lincoln. We’re rooting for the Huskers to win. Some folks are PO’d that Nebraska is jumping ship to the Big 10, but frankly a high-ranked Cornhusker team only helps the remaining Big 12, and especially Oklahoma.
If the Sooners can win the rest of their regular season schedule they’ll need Nebraska to be undefeated and ranked high to help Oklahoma in the BCS rankings following the Big 12 championship game in Arlington. That would position the Sooners well in vying for another national championship — likely against the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Nebraska is a 9.5-point favorite. Because the Huskers have found the offensive star (QB Taylor Martinez) they lacked last year, I think we can safely say that the Nebraska team of old is back. We’ll know for sure on Saturday.
While Texas’ defense has proven to be less than what they were touted at season’s beginning, they’re still a stout group that should give Martinez a greater challenge than he’s faced all year (hey, I’m not dismissing the Husker’s impressive 14-point win over South Dakota State).
But more importantly Texas’ anemic offense might not score against the Black Shirts.
Meanwhile Coach Mack Brown says they’re retiring Colt McCoy’s number 12 jersey. McCoy won more games in his four-year career than any player in college football history and is the school’s all-time leader in TDs, TD passes and passing yards.
But retiring No. 12 is sort of like retiring chocolate ice cream at Braum’s. It can’t be a real retirement, since every Texas player who’s ever heard of legendary Dallas Cowboy QB Roger Staubach has wanted to wear No. 12.
Besides that, you mean to tell me Mack is going to tell some bluechip high school recruit in Abilene he can’t wear legendary Colt McCoy’s No. 12 jersey at Texas? I think not.
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Mississippi students have voted the Black Bear as their new mascot. The bear received 62 percent of the votes.
Out is Colonel Reb, who was banished seven years ago in the move away from old Confederate roots.
The black bear is connected to Old Miss via one of Oxford’s famous residents, novelist William Faulkner, who wrote The Bear. In it, Old Ben stands as a symbol of pride, strength and toughness. And, the tale of the “teddy bear” began with the story that President Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear on a Mississippi hunt in 1902.
Still there was a petition of 3,500 students wanting the old Confederate veteran Col. Reb to return as the mascot. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and just say they are traditionalists.
Of course Mississippians killed most of the native black bears in their state. There is only an estimated 75 left in the wild.
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