Having lived the life of a University of Texas student the last few years, I've noticed that even a school perceived as "squeaky clean" by the general public outside of the fun arrest run the past year for football has plenty that put Texas within the realm of every other major college. It seems the main problem is that nobody really cares who provides "benefits" as long as they don't get caught. Those you get caught like Rhett Bomar at Oklahoma is really one of many who do it, I'm sure there's some at Texas who get paid well for crap jobs where they do little, but other items like Adrian Peterson's $30,000 Lexus he drove throughout college raised some eyebrows, though was never reported.
OJ Mayo had a very similar run, and it seems as long as they are not coming within the college and by "random" outsiders, then no one really cares. When in high school, athletes are scouted essentially by people involved in the sneaker wars as much as agents. Kevin Durant spent his entire college gear decked in Jordan Brand clothing, always matched, and always something different. I'd be surprised if they didn't come from his brand-laden AAU team that handed out tons of free outfits with the (assumption) idea he'd sign with the Jordan Brand and Nike when he turned pro, which he did. This concept has not been questioned, and was done in high school, thus not dealing with the NCAA at all. Who turns down free clothes anyway?
Guys like Tim Floyd and Bill Duffy (the coach and agent, respectively, for the Mayo issue) make it a point not to be aware of what happens in a spoken fashion, so when they are asked, though I'm sure they are aware what probably is going on, but can say "I have no knowledge of it" since no one actually told them. Floyd (and probably Pete Carroll with the Bush situation) could easily tell players not to tell them about anything they may receive, so they don't have to be responsible for it. This is undoubtedly the same for most major schools. At Texas, though I have no experience with players getting paid by coaches and agents, I know that boosters has their typical influence in big-money handshakes and random deposits to bank accounts. That happens everywhere. If no one "knows" about it within the organization, then they'll do nothing about it. With Duffy, he can easily give a guy like Guillory $200,000 and say "do whatever, but I want you to help with Mayo," and that can be phrased so that he's not involved with the money issuing, and the one that is like Guillory than he can get a job elsewhere and Duffy's not affected.
0 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete