The College Sports Fraud

August is here and with it comes the dawn of another college football season.  The meaningless preseason polls are out, the experts are busy crowning the upcoming season’s champion before even one game is played and soon students, alumni and fans across this land will partake in the traditions of painting their faces, tailgating and binge drinking.  And it is a sure bet that one of the college programs out there somewhere will be accused of some sort of recruiting violation before the year is up.

Over the past several years, the debate among the college and pro sports communities about when an athlete should be allowed to turn professional has heated up.  When I say “sports,” I am, of course, actually only referring to football and basketball, the biggest money-making programs in college sports.  This debate does not take place in college baseball or hockey, and incidentally, one rarely ever hears of recruiting violations in these sports either.  That is because, decades ago, those two sports developed minor league systems in which to develop their prospective athletes.  In baseball the debate as to when a player should be allowed to turn pro is nearly non-existent and it is not uncommon for players to be signed right out of high school and placed in a team’s farm system.  Of course, when a player chooses to do so, he forfeits his college eligability, but to many players it is worth the loss to gain the chance to eventually play major league baseball and make money playing the game, something that is denied even the best of college athletes.

However, with no effective minor leagues in which to play, football and basketball players do not have that choice.  And that is the way the NCAA wants it.  These are the big money sports, the sports on whose revenues many of the schools’ athletic departments will depend.  If the best football and basketball players in the country were allowed to turn pro right out of high school, some of the interest in the college games would be lost.  That is why there has been such a cry in the college basketball community over the “one and done” player, the athlete who plays only one season of college basketball before he turns pro, and why the NBA is acting to raise the age of eligibility for entrance into its draft (never mind the fact that its biggest star, LeBron James, never played a minute of college ball).  Forget the idea that colleges have the athletes best interest in mind.  If they did so, players would receive a stipend for their services.  After all, most of these players are student athletes in name only as many will never come close to finishing whatever degrees they are supposedly attending their institution of choice to obtain.  This makes for an uneven bargain between institution and athlete, one in which the athlete may gain nothing but memories if he is unable to cut it in the NFL or NBA, while the institutions rake in millions off of supporters and ticket revenues.

The relationship between the NBA, NFL and NCAA is an interesting one.  Ostensibly, there is no real connection between pro and college institutions.  The fact is, though, that college football is nearly the only feeder system into the NFL, and while the NBA has European leagues and a developmental league, most of its stars still come from the college system.  As a result, many players who later come into positions of influence in those leagues also still have close ties to their alma maters and use their influence to maintain their sport’s dependency on colleges.  Part of the reason for this is that both football and basketball were developed at universities, while baseball and hockey were developed in other areas and thus never gained that sort of dependency.  This long-standing relationship acts as an umbilical cord between professional and college levels in which one remains dependent on the other for its supply of talent.

But it is time for this umbilical cord to be cut for the good of the athletes and the universities.  State-funded institutions of higher learning were never meant to be college athletics factories, but in many cases a great deal of effort and capital are expended in attempts to develop first-rate programs, efforts which benefit only a minority of those who attend these colleges.  For the athletes, an extremely small percentage of them will make the cut in the NFL or NBA, and for those who do, the majority of their careers will be very short, and only a few have the discipline to handle the distractions of college athletics and work on their college degree.  Minor league systems at least pay their athletes something for their time and effort.  If colleges were truly interested in the welfare of their athletes, the would end the archaic eligibility rule that states that athletes can never been paid for playing their sports and allow those with unsuccessful minor league careers to have athletic scholarships.  It would be no less hypocritical than what is happening now, where coaches and athletic directors become millionaires while many athletes leave with nothing.

Is it possible for the NFL and NBA to develop minor league systems?  The NBA could probably have a farm system working by next year if they wished, though the logistics may be a bit more demanding for the NFL.  Still, for better than a decade the NFL was able to maintain a presense in Europe that was effectively a minor league, although that league had the same age restrictions that the NFL had.  And there’s the real point, whether the NBA or NFL would ever do what major league baseball or the NHL and allow athletes to enter their system directly out of high school.  The downside to this is that farm systems are costly, but conversely these athletes would be training in systems that would allow them to develop their games much better.  Players for the Pacific Coast League’s Las Vegas 51s will face a much higher caliber of talent in their sport than players for the Nebraska Cornhuskers will face in theirs.  One of the biggest complaints by those who follow football over the past few years is that athletes entering the NFL from college have not developed pro-level skills, or that what worked for them in the college game does not work in the pro game.  A minor league would allow for a team to develop a player in their system gradually rather than thrusting that athlete into an uncomfortable situation.

Still, it is money that talks, and money for college football and college basketball is not going to dry up too soon.  Stadiums are sure to be packed next month, and viewers will tune in to the least attractive games by the millions as outlets such as ESPN present college football on an almost nightly basis.  The individuals who stand to gain the most from this are the coaches, many of whom have see no problem in bending the rules in order to develop a successful program and guarantee themselves a bigger payday.  If the NCAA pays heed to President Obama and institutes a playoff system in place of the sham BCS, the money will grow even bigger.  So it is unlikely that the NCAA will mess with success, even if only a few are allowed to partake in that success. and if the NFL and NBA took steps in order to develop farm systems for younger players, one can be sure that a number of powerful individuals with ties to college athletics would be lobbying against it.  The self-perpetuating fraud of college athletics is sure to continue, and it’s all because of the money.