Players, Agents and College Football's Double Standards

The airwaves have been abuzz with stories about college football players allegedly meeting with agents and breaking NCAA rules.

The Reggie Bush case has been settled and the NCAA has hit USC harder than most expected, but four other schools have just been notified that the NCAA is in the process of investigating them.

Articles have been circulating the Internet claiming ESPN got word that NCAA investigators were looking into North Carolina's defensive end Marvin Austin and South Carolina's tight end Wesley Sanders about attending a party in Miami Beach hosted by a player agent.

Alabama is said to be looking at whether defensive lineman Marcel Dareus was at the same party.

But it's the case of Florida's center Maurkice Pouncey that brings out the hypocrisy and double standards college football becomes linked with more and more.

Florida's athletic director, Jeremy Foley, notified reporters that they became aware in June that Pouncey had possibly accepted a cash payment from an agent last December.

If Pouncey is ruled guilty, Florida might have to give up their Sugar Bowl win over Cincinnati, and any agent convicted of making payments to a student athlete in the state of Florida could face second degree felony charges.

Pouncey, through his attorney, has issued a statement flatly denying all charges.

It's been rumored that Pouncy accepted $100,000 sometime between last year's SEC Championship game and the Sugar Bowl game between Florida and Cincinnati.

Pouncey declared for the NFL draft in January and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 16th overall pick.

Here's a player who knew he was going to be a star in the NFL and make a huge sum of money—it was just a matter of time.

The NCAA jumps in and claims it's wrong for Pouncey to accept anything from an agent before he declared.  If they can prove he's guilty, the University of Florida will probably get hit with other sanctions in addition to giving up the Sugar Bowl win.

First of all, can anyone explain why taking money, in the way in which Pouncey has been alleged to have done, is wrong.  He didn't break a law!

What is the reasoning behind the NCAA telling a football player such action is a violation?

Nobody seems to get too steamed when students at a college or university line up jobs with corporations before they graduate.

Secondly, wasn't there someone else associated with the Sugar Bowl, that prior to its playing dealt with agents and walked away Scot free?

Didn't Cincinnati Bearcats coach Brian Kelly sign a contract with Notre Dame before his team went to the Sugar Bowl?

Isn't this a double standard?  Isn't this similar to the same double standard that allows coaches to change jobs without any down time, while players have to sit out a year?

Pouncey's situation highlights the farcical side of college football:  The only reason the schools care about him taking money is because if he gets caught, they get put on probation.

The NFL claims they care about such activity but haven't clamped down on it, or it wouldn't be so prevalent.

And though the fans have a real disdain for Reggie Bush, I don't think they care about what Maurkice Pouncey is rumored to have done.

Bush is looked upon as an outright liar, although he might be protecting the agent who supplied his parents with a $750,000 house.  If he admitted to taking gifts, a lot of criticism directed his way might die down.

And what about the coaches?  Does Urban Meyer care about Pouncey taking money from an agent?  Did he expect him to stay in school once he knew the NFL wanted him in the first round?

Do Coaches like Urban Meyer know ahead of time that some players are not going to honor their commitment, and possibly sign on with an agent before the NCAA says they can?  They might lean that way!

Since Meyer got to Florida, the football team has set some kind of record for players getting arrested. Would anyone expect that all these players would abide by a rule regarding agents, that the NCAA expects to be followed?

And don't forget the coaches that don't try to stop it.  They claim it's impossible to know everything about every player, and they get jobs with the Seattle Seahawks.

They get jobs with the Seahawks while the freshman and sophomores they recruited are penalized for something they had nothing to do with.

So how do we solve this situation?

How do we avoid turning college football into some kind of witch hunt—some kind of a scene resembling the 1920s and Prohibition where the government tried to regulate morality, and ultimately failed?

Maybe it's time to pay the players.

Maybe it's time to get our legislators to insist college football be properly acknowledged as the business it is...