The NCAA proves every year that you don’t have to be good at something to succeed. Admittedly, they are good at making money. But when it comes to honouring the sports they claim guardianship over, they are embarrassingly inept.
Not that you need me to remind you of the litany of proofs, but I need to get this off my chest.
Firstly, the BCS. Really, this is like shooting fish in barrel, but here goes anyway. It starts with the refusal to have a playoff for the national championship, instead the BCS would rather have a group of figure skating judges and computers determine the 2 best teams in the country and then wait five weeks to play the game. One of my favourite arguments against having a playoff that they use is that ‘we don’t want to interfere with exams in December’. So let me get this straight. There is no time for a playoff because the students study for five weeks for their exams? I think not. If that where the case, then why do they start playing Bowl games on the 19th of December? The solution isn’t rocket science; just start a playoff on the same day the bowl games begin. Start with eight teams and play two playoff weeks and then a championship game. Now how hard was that?
It’s bad enough they don’t have a playoff, but just as bad is their stubborn refusal to give us the games we want. For instance, TCU vs. Boise. What a joke; the cowardly BCS instead of giving the two mid-major powers a chance to go toe to toe with some BCS teams, they get them to play again for the second year in a row. Why? It’s to ensure that next year when both teams are great again the BCS can again talk about them not playing anybody and thus have a lousy preseason ranking which basically precludes them from having a legit chance at a national title. How much better would a TCU/Florida match-up be and Boise/Cincinnati game? Oh, what could have been!
This leads me to another complaint I have: the outright stupidity of the pre-season rankings. Without even playing a game, teams are ranked and these rankings later become part of the equation when determining rankings later in the season and ultimately may be a determining factor in playing for the National Championship. How fair is that? NCAA is on par with those bastions of fairness boxing and figure skating. Again, how difficult would it be to just not start ranking the teams until week 4, or even later. Last year a mediocre Georgia team was the consensus preseason number one. Too, did you realize in the 2006 season Notre Dame was ranked second and third in the respective pre-season coaches and AP polls? That fact alone should bring the system down. The BCS likes this system though, why? Because it ensures that the championship game will be played between a couple of BCS schools. What does the guardian of all that is fair the NCAA do about all this manipulation by the BCS? Yup, you guessed it, sweet tweet!
According to the NCAA their job is as follows: “The NCAA serves as the governance and administrative infrastructure through which representatives of colleges and universities enact legislation and set policy to establish recruiting standards and competitive equity among members, protect the integrity of intercollegiate athletics, ensure the enforcement of its rules and provide public advocacy of college sports…The NCAA also has the responsibility in Division I-A football to protect the integrity of the game and the sanctity of the subdivision itself. While there are 117 institutions in Division I-A, the BCS represents an agreement among 64 of those institutions to participate in the series with guaranteed participation for the champions in the six conferences, plus two additional at-large berths. Any team from a non-BCS Division I-A conference (Conference USA, Mountain West, Western Athletic, Sun Belt and Mid-American Conferences), or an independent can qualify if it is ranked in the top six in the BCS standings.” Who is their watchdog so that they live up to these lofty standards? Again you guessed it, themselves!
While we are talking about fairness, what is it about hiring coaches from bowl teams before the bowl games? This week Brian Kelly of Cincinnati wouldn’t even commit to coaching his team in the Sugar Bowl because of considering an offer from Notre Dame – which he has since accepte. Is that fair? There is so much made of the fairness to kids, and the NCAA claims to be the guardian of these student athletes. While a kid who wants to transfer to another school to play has to sit out a year first, a coach who is under contract can walk away before the year is even finished, leaving the kids that he recruited hanging. In spite of this he’ll usually even get his school and the NCAA’s blessing. What kind of a system is that?
My last beef is the policy on student athletes and holding down a job. Under NCAA rules, the maximum an athlete can earn at a job is $2000 for the year, including a summer job. How ridiculous is that? That’s an average of $170 a month. They may say they are trying to prevent boosters from giving kids bogus jobs for big bucks, which is understandable. Yet how fair is it that when they sign television deals worth billions of dollars, you can’t tell me there isn’t enough cash to offer student athletes a modest stipend. It is true that these kids are getting a free educational ride, but come on. These are kids often from very humble means and can’t rely on relatives for spending money. By refusing to offer a modest stipend, the NCAA is actually encouraging these kids to explore temptation.
The NCAA is run like a cell-phone provider or cable company. They basically blackmail and hold us hostage because we can’t live without what they provide. The NCAA has one of the greatest sports products available and, like a big bully, make stupid contrary decisions to remind us that they hold the cards. It sucks to be us!
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