With the recent investigation of former Florida Gator lineman Maurkice Pouncey amid a summer of other investigations and sanctions by the NCAA, one has to wonder, what is going on in college athletics. This isn’t the first year we have seen illegal activities involving sports agents and illegal benefits provided to players. A trend that permeates football, basketball and baseball, blurs the lines between amateurism and capitalism. With a recent rise in profiles of high school players in the media via scouting dominated web sites, as well as well as emphasis and demand for college singing day broadcasts, the amateur athlete in America has gone from local hero to national sensation. I myself remember 3 years ago browsing a scouting website looking at where my alma mater East Carolina was going to find the next Chris Johnson. A general interest in the subject led me to view other schools and what a rival UNC was up to in recruiting for that year. Of the players that they had listed, the top one considering the Tar Heels was Washington D.C. prospect Marvin Austin, who at the time was listed as the #1 overall player in the country. The scouting report of Austin drooled over his talents, billing him as the next Warren Sapp. Imagine that, a 17 year old high school student is being compared to one of the greatest defensive lineman in football history. The attention that draws to a young person can only seem overwhelming because it’s not only getting your name in the paper and a flash on a Friday night football show anymore, its building you up and bringing more spotlight than most low level pros receive. Much to my chagrin Austin signed with the Tar Heels and stepped on the field as a true freshman as the most hyped player on the roster. That star status has followed Austin to his upcoming senior season where he returned to win a conference championship with other rising seniors. However for Austin, his recent run in with benefits provided illegally by an agent, violates rules stipulated by the NCAA and faces possible suspension for his final year. For Austin and others like him who are touted as future first round picks with millions of dollars awaiting them around the corner, why are these harsh limitations on contact and benefits with representatives placed upon them? If Austin was not an athlete, say a brilliant scientist or talented musician who was being wooed by companies to work for or record companies to sign with, being offered expensive dinners or trips or even gifts to forge a partnership following graduation, I ask does that blur the line between the so called purity of academic prestige upheld at prestigious schools (Florida, Southern California, North Carolina)? The line the NCAA takes is that the influence by outside forces takes away the amateurism of college athletics and disrupts the reason the player in question is at the school anyways, to play football, wait... I mean learn. For the millions of dollars the University stands to make from Austin’s success in college and in the pros by way of image association and recognition, he is rewarded, if he stays and graduates, with a degree. Sorry, but last time I checked the out of state tuition for the University of North Carolina for four years does not even come close to equaling the monetary benefits Austin provides to the school by way of those powder blue #9 jerseys for $49.99 at the student bookstore. This all the while being at risk of his physical health and possibility of not being able to play professionally, robbing him of a lucrative livelihood. In the most recent case involving Pouncey who is alleged to have received $100,000 dollars before his final colligate game from an agent is seen in this writers eyes as nothing more than a business deal between a future NFL millionaire and his representative. With this allegation the Florida football program could face sanctions imposed by the NCAA and loss of scholarships, or a loss of the opportunity for someone who would not receive a top flight education to go elsewhere. In all the NCAA position towards agent involvement with players is misguided and does more harm than good. It more often indirectly punishes players in the future coming into a program or not coming in I should say, as well as criminalizing players who are the prey in almost all of these situations. In all, the rules must change. There can no longer be a hypocritical stance by the NCAA towards a player’s future and his own personal business. After all, what Austin is learning in school is how to succeed later in life, to be able to do that in the present should be applauded not demonized, for it is he who will suffer the consequences of his actions, not those enticing him with the benefits that come with being athletically gifted. If the NCAA does not reform their position concerning this problem in college sports, then it is doing itself and the academic institutions it governs a disservice by conflicting policies with the realities of the current environment. Its ineffectiveness to curb what it calls a problem only furthers the stance that the battle they are fighting is futile. They should accept the realities of the monetary benefits everyone stands to make form a program’s success and shift towards a policing and ensuring academic success in the classroom and making sure that they are doing what they are there to do after all…learn.
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