NCAA Investigations May Hinder UNC, Kentucky, Alabama, and Others

The world of college sports is an ever-turning carousel of news and excitement. Regardless of the sport or season, groundbreaking news happens every year that affects the sport.

To that point, we are in September, and the news that has been a dominating fixture in the sports world is eligibility in collegiate athletics.

The recent news of possible improper contact between an agent and student-athletes from the University of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and defending BCS national champions Alabama football programs is information that, for the foreseeable future, may devastate the programs—especially UNC.

Twelve impact players were held out of the season opener, and at this point only two players have the potential to return to the team this year.

But NCAA issues have not been limited to football. The basketball world, namely in Lexington, Kentucky, may be warped as well. Several reports claim that coach John Calipari may have again stepped over a line laid down by the NCAA. This time the violation concerns academic questions of Eric Bledsoe, an ex-Wildcat and first-round selection of the OKC Thunder.

This next year Bledsoe figures to positively help the LA Clippers, whom he was traded to on draft night, but will his time at UK end up being negative in the long run? Only time can tell.

In college football, the future of several big-time programs has been put at stake because of the immaturity and greedy nature of players as well as agents. Are we in a time where agents are not confident in their own abilities to attract prospective players when they are allowed to make contact? Do the agents really feel it is necessary to give improper benefits and win clients that way?

The agents are aware that while they think they are helping themselves and their business, they play with the collegiate future of young men. Many athletes that attend big name Division I schools go to a school solely with the intent of doing the minimum amount of work and performing at a level where they can reach the pros. That is no secret.

If these men lose their collegiate athletic eligibility, nothing is stopping them from stopping their education on the spot. What kind of message does that send today's youth? It tells today's kids, "Hey, what I'm doing isn't right, but it beats going to school for four years."

Collegiate athletes on every level are revered as role models. As immature as they may be, even they should accept the challenge to grow up before others around them.

And the agents? What happens to them? Nothing. They go unpenalized for ruining a portion of people's lives. They hurt universities with the NCAA, potentially put a coach on the hot seat, as Butch Davis of UNC is right now, AND stop STUDENT-athletes from being educated on the highest level.

These men are allowed to just take advantage of the naive nature of these kids. That is not right—even a child knows that. Some action should be taken against the agents, and steps to taking that action should be made soon. We can hope.

On another side of the college athletics world is basketball. Right now, the attention of that world is being pointed to a school in Kentucky, with a coach who has a scandalous history, has made ultimately disappointing attempts at coaching in the NBA, and is great at what he does.

We are not talking about Rick Pitino and making stabs at his job security or his court cases against a woman who is believed to have attempted to extort millions of dollars from him. No, we are talking of someone who fits the same description as Pitino, but for different reasons. We are talking about John Calipari, the coach of Pitino's in-state rival, the University of Kentucky.

UK is being examined by the NCAA because of possible academic violations committed by Eric Bledsoe that failed to be reviewed by Calipari. Several sources allege that Calipari ruled Bledsoe academically eligible to join the Wildcats when in high school his GPA was 1.9, which is below the NCAA mandatory GPA of 2.5 to be able to play basketball at the Division I level.

The Calipari camp alleges that if there was any error in the judgment of Bledsoe's eligibility, it in fact is not the athletic department's fault, but the NCAA for clearing him.

While this news is rare at Kentucky, Calipari is not new to being in hot water with the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Coach Cal, in fact, seems to leave a string of violations and penalties wherever he is hired. For instance, Final Four trips at UMass and Memphis were wiped from the record books after failures to report violations were committed by the basketball department.

John Calipari wins games and gets great players. He is a great college basketball coach and is very well respected. Does he win the "right" way? That is not really known, and it's up to you to decide for yourself.

In the last two months really, the amount of controversy in the sporting universe has been tremendous. Nearly every day, reports from various sources come out, although nobody can say that they know what really happened.

Did multiple players from Southern powerhouses accept improper benefits from agents? Did the agents give these gifts because of their own insecurity about their abilities to execute their jobs right? I don't know the thinking from either side, but the NCAA is going to find out—and some serious penalties will undoubtedly be handed down.

In basketball, is the perennial powerhouse UK going to go down in the dumps? How serious will the penalties be? Severe enough to alter its immediate future? Will this mean Calipari will bolt from his third head coaching stint and take another go-round in the NBA?

Nobody really knows the answers to any of these questions. Only time can tell, and only the NCAA will decide.