Alabama's Marcel Darius Case, Who's Behind It All?

This weeks flurry of NCAA investigations involving agent contact with a number of suspected future first round NFL draft picks is becoming all too common.

It's not so much the facts of the case,  but the timing and the players involved.  Nobody ever invites our third string nose tackle or the backup punter to South Beach.

Around this time last year, Alabama was waiting to hear about the eligibility of star players, Mark Ingram and Julio Jones. That wait would continue into fall practices and would not be cleared up until just before the critical Virginia Tech contest.

Virginia Tech held a lead into the second half of that game, so there is no question missing two of Alabama 's best players could have derailed a National Championship season before it even started.

One year later we have the same sort of issue, a player is invited somewhere only to find he was being baited for another purpose.

Now with fall practices two weeks away, the NCAA has a massive case load to handle, as this time, players all over the SEC were targeted. 

Each case makes it that much more possible, as even if the player is cleared, he may not be eligible in time for the start of the season.

Alabama's Marcel Darius is only one of the players who are in trouble and the university has declared him ineligible pending an NCAA review of the case.

The South Beach party could be a case of simple stupidity, corrupt agents, or something much more sinister.

The corrupt agent angle is a little hard to swallow. What player is going to sign with an agent who was sloppy enough to cost him his college career?   

Agents were certainly involved in the party at South Beach, but to what extent? What were they up to? Who was paying for it all?

We already know fans and powerful alumni of college institutions are not above cheating.  History is littered with examples.

As the NCAA has tightened controls to prevent payoffs to recruits, some have turned away from recruiting and toward sabotage.

The best chance of cheating (and getting away with it) today would be to purposefully set up players or programs to be in violation of NCAA rules.

Even if the scheme is exposed, the perpetrators favored institution would not be punished. For that matter, using third parties to execute the scheme would eliminate any chance of it ever being unraveled.

The sudden increase in NCAA violation investigations that pop up just weeks before the season could indicate methods of attempted sabotage may be on the rise.

The South Beach party incident wreaks of possible corruption. With players from multiple school involved, it further muddies the water to determine what was really going on.

The NCAA needs to take a long look at the timing and circumstances of these now annual incidents. They should not allow themselves to get played, to become an instrument of the very cheating they work to prevent.