Open Mic: Stiffer Penalties for Mayo, Bush, USC and All Who Violate

We’ve all been there. 

You’re driving down a long stretch of desolate highway with no cars in sight for miles. You open the engine up a bit. After a few miles at high speeds, you suddenly can’t believe why the speed limit would only be 70 as the 90 you’re driving is far more efficient and nobody is getting hurt. As soon as you see an approaching car pop up on the horizon, however, you’re mad dash is curtailed and you realize 75 is a stealthier clip.

Excessive speed is something nearly everyone is guilty of. We know we’re technically breaking the law when we do it, but we floor that beast anyway.

It makes me wonder if superstar amateur athletes aren’t thinking similarly when seeking the quickest route to the height of their profession.

It’s nothing new. 

Boosters, prominent alumni, agents, bookies, and even the mob have been getting to young promising athletes for decades, coaxing them with high dollar luxuries that boost their social status even though they aren’t receiving a steady paycheck. It’s something you knew was going on, but you just didn’t talk about it.

The problem today is that the stakes are far higher.

These young phenoms are viewed as commodities—walking gold mines. If you’re the first one there to stake your claim then turning thousands into millions is as inevitable as Travis Henry planting more of his seed.

If the latest allegations surrounding USC’s O.J. Mayo are true, then someone, in this case BDA Sports, is about to flip $30,000 well into seven figures.  

Is this genius or criminal? After all, this only violates NCAA rules and is not a breach of state or federal law.

So who is the victim here? The athlete? The school? The sport? The fans?

At this point the violations are utterly victimless. The athlete still gets his payday in the big show. The school profits from having the student athlete, even if only for one year. The sport has another must see athlete and fans get to watch said athlete.

The gifts are sometimes as extravagant as houses and as modest as a pair of sneakers. However, just seeing these college students with no source of income sporting plasma televisions or a closet full of designer clothes has to raise questions within the governing body of the school, doesn’t it?

Take former Kansas State forward Michael Beasley for example, a self proclaimed cell phone junkie. He has at any given time four cell phones in his possession.

That’s right, four.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say I earned more income than Beasley did in 2007, but there’s no way I could legitimately afford such excess. I’d wager a month’s salary that Beasley’s mailbox was never adorned with bills from wireless companies. 

So if Beasley (purely speculative) was doing five over the speed limit, Mayo was doing twenty over, and Reggie Bush was doing fifty over, how come not one of these speeders will see any negative consequences for their excessiveness?

Should schools be forced to use their resources to inspect dorm rooms, closets, parking lots, and monitor bank accounts? After all, this is an institute of higher learning we’re talking about not the Third Reich. 

How can we fix something seemingly so widespread when ultimately, what we really want these schools to do, is to graduate kids rather than pump out future all-stars with 12^th grade educations?

The Plan

As hard as it may be, professional sports organizations must take an active interest in this. The collegiate and professional ranks have to collaborate in order to levy punishment for violators—both the school and the athlete.

In the case of the University of Southern California, they must be made an example of—as should O.J. Mayo and Reggie Bush. Each should have been suspended from their respective sport for a year as well as banning USC from post season play (the ultimate punishment) in basketball and football for at least a year. 

It’s a perfect opportunity to take a high profile program on everyone’s radar and make the statement that showering these impressionable young men with gifts will not be tolerated. In the end, however, this responsibility is shared because (and wouldn’t the Reagan administration be so proud?) the kid can always just say “no”.

In the case of college basketball’s one and done phase it’s going through, that needs to be changed.

Often times, these sorts of allegations of accepting gifts aren’t discovered until the athletes are gearing up for the draft. If required to stay for two years, violations would be far more obvious and can be investigated while the athlete is still a student.

To the athlete, the prospect of being forced to sit out a year, either collegiately or professionally, could be enough to stifle the gift-giving.

Would that be enough?

Ask yourself if you would speed if you knew the penalty was suspended driving privileges for a year.