How Do We Fix the Dirty Culture of College Recruiting?

[dawgs]

We are watching professional athletes. We just don't want to admit it.

Take away the facade (with special c) and allow market forces do their work. We believe in free market capitalism in everything else.

Ironically in everything except professional sports. Profit sharing, salary caps, team control, drafts, etc. are all the opposite of free market capitalism.

[dawgs]

I actually like that the FBI is dipping their toe in this.

Even the FBI just investigates 1 case every 3-5 years in college recruiting, it will create an enormous deterrent. It's one thing to get a show cause, it's another to commit a felony & go to the clinker.

Coaches won't go along with it if there is a chance of criminal charges

Yeah, I think this is what you gotta hope for. Freeze can lie to the NCAA and worst case scenario is he retires early on the millions he’s made while cheating. Freeze lies under oath and his ass goes to jail. That’s why the burner phone stuff just came out in the ole miss saga.

[bostondawg]

I absolutely love the ideas here of scorched earth policies for small penalties. Give a kid a few grand? Death penalty for a year. I agree--make the cheating not worth it.

Some other points:
-baseball and soccer have no salary cap. As in, there isn't supposed to be an even playing field between teams. It's capitalism at its finest. So I think comparing college sports to the NFL/NBA isn't appropriate--plenty of sports don't have even playing fields.
- how do you guys think a relegation system would affect recruiting? I suppose very little? Throwing darts here.

[smootness]

Ironically in everything except professional sports. Profit sharing, salary caps, team control, drafts, etc. are all the opposite of free market capitalism.

Because teams within a pro sports league aren't really competing against each other. They're all in it together.

[ShotgunDawg]

I absolutely love the ideas here of scorched earth policies for small penalties. Give a kid a few grand? Death penalty for a year. I agree--make the cheating not worth it.

Some other points:
-baseball and soccer have no salary cap. As in, there isn't supposed to be an even playing field between teams. It's capitalism at its finest. So I think comparing college sports to the NFL/NBA isn't appropriate--plenty of sports don't have even playing fields.
- how do you guys think a relegation system would affect recruiting? I suppose very little? Throwing darts here.

I don't think a relegation system would work as it would create even more of an incentive to cheat while also making filling out future schedules a nightmare

Relegation systems are designed for professional sports in order to give owners, that are stingy with their money, a kick in the ass to spend more money & attempt to compete.

For example: a relegation system in baseball would offer the Marlins an incentive to spend money & build a healthy franchise.

College athletics don't have this problem & a relegation system literally addresses none of the current issues in college athletics

[ShotgunDawg]

Rick Ray with comments. There is a real problem here folks & I agree with Rick

[dawgs]

I absolutely love the ideas here of scorched earth policies for small penalties. Give a kid a few grand? Death penalty for a year. I agree--make the cheating not worth it.

Some other points:
-baseball and soccer have no salary cap. As in, there isn't supposed to be an even playing field between teams. It's capitalism at its finest. So I think comparing college sports to the NFL/NBA isn't appropriate--plenty of sports don't have even playing fields.
- how do you guys think a relegation system would affect recruiting? I suppose very little? Throwing darts here.

Baseball doesn’t have a salary cap, but they also have 6-7 years of team control over players after the hit the big leagues, and savvy teams know that signing a ~30 year old first time free agent too a massive arod/pujols type deal in the post-steroids era is foolish. So few guys remain above average into their mid and late 30s, that by the time guys can make big money, it’s usually a poor decision to sign them to big money. Nevermind revenue sharing and limits on international signings. Yeah there’s no salary cap, but baseball has done everything else to ensure teams like Cleveland and Kansas City and Arizona can compete with Boston, the Yankees, and the dodgers.

As for soccer, outside of Leicester city’s fluke run, when was the last time someone with dropping huge $$$ won the epl? When was the last time someone besides Barcelona and Real Madrid won La Liga? Or someone besides Bayern or Dortmund won bundesliga? Outside of a once in a lifetime run by Leicester city, euro league soccer standings are pretty boring. At least half the teams in the champions league have a legit chance of winning it.

[dawgs]

I don't think a relegation system would work as it would create even more of an incentive to cheat while also making filling out future schedules a nightmare

Relegation systems are designed for professional sports in order to give owners, that are stingy with their money, a kick in the ass to spend more money & attempt to compete.

For example: a relegation system in baseball would offer the Marlins an incentive to spend money & build a healthy franchise.

College athletics don't have this problem & a relegation system literally addresses none of the current issues in college athletics

Problem is they are only motivated to spend enough money to put them solidly in the mid tier safe from relegation.

[dawgs]

Because teams within a pro sports league aren't really competing against each other. They're all in it together.

Need to get you on the political trail with that kinda message

[Tbonewannabe]

Because teams within a pro sports league aren't really competing against each other. They're all in it together.

Exactly, the NFL is competing against other entertainment. The salary caps and such are there to make sure the NFL product doesn't become repetitive and boring. This is why when another team challenges for the title then it is a lot more interesting. If Bama and Ohio St play for the National title every year for the next 10 then you will see college ratings go in the crapper.

[dawgs]

Exactly, the NFL is competing against other entertainment. The salary caps and such are there to make sure the NFL product doesn't become repetitive and boring. This is why when another team challenges for the title then it is a lot more interesting. If Bama and Ohio St play for the National title every year for the next 10 then you will see college ratings go in the crapper.

But yet baseball ratings are the best when the Yankees or Red Sox or cubs are winning titles...

[JoseBrown]

I think beating auburn Saturday night is the only solution**

Unless the NFL and CFB popularity fails, there's no fixing it. Pay players and someone will pay more

Definitely, probably and for sure you're right.

[Westdawg]

I don't think you fix it by paying players openly.
The ONLY way to fix this is to allow for HS seniors to be drafted in all sports. And force NFL and other leagues to have a legit minor league\Dev league/farm system.
Yes, you would lose the top 300 or so football prospects per year, but let's not kid ourselves....a lot of those same kids view college as a means to HAVE to go through to go pro. They have no desire to be a college student.
The fact that college educational administrators continue to allow this charade to continue, the worse it becomes.

[JoseBrown]

There is no way to fix it. This has been going on since the beginning of collegiate athletics. The best way is allow the players to be paid but that won't happen because the NCAA wants to keep up this charade of college sports being amateur athletics. You're argument makes it seem like only a few schools are only paying kids when that's just not true. Everybody does it just varying degrees. You can't be upset when you're doing something shady & others decide to take it farther than you. That's just the game being the game. Either adapt or stop playing or quit whining. If you get caught well you knew the consequences going in.

It is also in the best interests of the Olympics for our college student-athletes to remain amateurs. If they are paid, then the track stars, volley ballers, soccer, swimming....won't be allowed to participate in the Olympics representing the USA. If only football players are paid I'm sure other countries would lobby for any college student athlete to be professional. And if you pay football players what's gonna stop every sport from being paid. I'm saying all this just to point out there are other interests in keeping college athletes considered amateurs.

[Tbonewannabe]

It is also in the best interests of the Olympics for our college student-athletes to remain amateurs. If they are paid, then the track stars, volley ballers, soccer, swimming....won't be allowed to participate in the Olympics representing the USA. If only football players are paid I'm sure other countries would lobby for any college student athlete to be professional. And if you pay football players what's gonna stop every sport from being paid. I'm saying all this just to point out there are other interests in keeping college athletes considered amateurs.

You do realize that most Olympic athletes are paid now? The ones who aren't paid are in a sport where they just don't get paid. The Dream Team in basketball isn't possible without paid athletes. This was a farce anyway since Russian and China have had basically professional athletes for a long time.

[Tbonewannabe]

But yet baseball ratings are the best when the Yankees or Red Sox or cubs are winning titles...

Yes, when there are high population areas that are big fans of those sports then they do get higher ratings. What I was saying is that you would see a drastic drop in ratings if the Yankees and Cubs played for the World Series every year. The ratings might be high for the first few years but by year 6 or 7, boredom would set in. It is the same way with TV shows. Eventually when plot of the show is repetitive then the ratings go down. Professional sports are kind of a different animal in that you have loyalty to your team. MSU fans are a lot more likely to watch a game involving MSU. Hell, we have people that think since Dan can't get over the hump of 7 - 8 wins then we need a new coach. That is kind of boredom of seeing the same wins against the same type of teams. People would risk going back to 4 - 6 wins just for a chance at beating Bama.

[Political Hack]

Quit paying teams $20 million to go to bowl games. Take football off TV.

[BrunswickDawg]

Rick Ray with comments. There is a real problem here folks & I agree with Rick

"You can't win if you don't cheat" - Rick Ray, 57-102 record as a HC

[confucius say]

how does an audit stop anything? hell ole miss got caught yes, but 90% of stuff they do never got caught and won't. Cash is hard to follow. They slipped up and made some mistakes but it didn't and won't stop what they have going on there. Sorry but cheating isn't going anywhere, audits or not.

A routine audit (phone records, text messages, bank records) would have revealed enough to give Mississippi the death penalty under my above referenced matrix. There were text messages about exchange of $ for crying out loud.

Also, FBS football generated billions of dollars yearly. A lack of $ is no issue. Simply make school pay for the audit. This would be easy.

[JoseBrown]

You do realize that most Olympic athletes are paid now? The ones who aren't paid are in a sport where they just don't get paid. The Dream Team in basketball isn't possible without paid athletes. This was a farce anyway since Russian and China have had basically professional athletes for a long time.

Why of course they are paid in ways that maintain their amateur status.... They are not paid until they turn pro. The Dream Team had to eventually happen, because every other countries basketball players were playing in professional leagues. We finally caught up to them. The extreme majority of Team USA athletes are not professional until they decide to give up their Olympic time.