College Football Nightmare: Multiple Scandals Rock the Sport, What's Next?

Breaking News: There’s apparently illegal activity plaguing big-time college athletics.

I know that’s a shocker, so I’ll give you a minute to let it soak in.

Deep breath, alright.

Yes, it’s certainly been a scandal-filled few months for college football recently and it doesn’t look as if there’s any relief or respite in sight.

The sport took a couple major blows to the chin this past week on a few different fronts.

First, an article by Katie Thomas in the New York Times shed some light on an internal report that detailed the disgraceful actions of Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker and other high-ranking Fiesta Bowl officials.

Junker, who was promptly terminated once the investigation was completed, reportedly encouraged bowl employees to funnel campaign contributions to specific candidates.

And as if that weren’t enough, there were also lurid details about the spending of Junker and other bowl executives, which included money for lavish parties, hotels and strip clubs.

It was a tough pill for the NCAA to swallow considering the Fiesta Bowl, which is played in Glendale, Arizona, is one of college football’s five crown-jewel bowl games and one of the sport’s biggest annual money makers.

Still, although the charges were damning, any good PR staff could have spun them in such a way to defuse the situation. 

The facts may ultimately end up hurting the Fiesta Bowl’s image, but rest assured, a few careless rogue executives aren't going to bring down the mighty machine of college football.

Then of course, seemingly on cue, Bryant Gumbel and the folks at Real Sports decided to do some digging, and what Gumbel and the gang uncovered was much more harmful than just another greedy CEO in a blazer.

The HBO program aired two damaging pieces during their most recent episode devoted entirely to the topic of big time college athletics that put the integrity of the so-called amateur sport of college football firmly into question.

The first segment examined the profits of big time athletic programs such as Alabama football and Duke Basketball, and theorized what it would be like if the players got a fair share of the cut.

The numbers were staggering.

Hypothetically speaking, if one Alabama football player got the same percentage of the incoming revenue as their NFL counterparts (57 %), the player would earn upwards of 500,000 dollars in one single year.

Now this is nothing new. The “Should we pay college football players?” argument has been debated for years, especially over the last decade as the sport has metamorphosized into an annual multi-billion dollar industry.

The piece that really caught everyone’s attention was the following segment titled Dirty Money.

Former Auburn DE Stanley McClover, the main focus of segment, pulled no punches during his interview with Andrea Kremer.

McClover described in full detail the types of illegal payments he received from his days as a high school recruit up until his collegiate career finally ended.

McClover talked about under-the-table payments in the form of money handshakes from boosters during trips to schools such as Ohio State, Michigan State and LSU.

McClover, who originally committed to Ohio State after a raunchy recruiting visit that included sexual favors from female partygoers of his choosing (Gary Barnett would be proud), said that he was lured to Auburn by a knapsack full of cold, hard cash.

Three other former Auburn players, Troy Reddick, Chaz Ramsey and Raven Gray, also disclosed that they were payed in a similar fashion to McClover.

After all this, one ultimately has to be left wondering, why now? What’s the motive for all of this?
 
The players have no definitive proof that any of their accusations are true, so why have they now chosen to come forward?

Auburn supporters will tell you that it’s all just sour grapes, that the players have no credibility and that they're just using this spotlight to rain on the Tigers' recent championship parade. However, it’s not as if we haven’t heard similar rumblings like this in the past.

We're all well aware that shady boosters at these big time schools are lurking around every corner.

They’ve dirtied a sport that’s in need of a clean up, a reevaluation and maybe even a complete overhaul.

It might be time to put the system on trial, or else things will only get worse and the damage might even get to the point of no return at some point in the near future.

There’s no question that college football looks bad right now. Every week there’s a new scandal and the headline always seems to involve the word "payment" in some way or another.

These transactions are becoming more prevalent, whether it be Cam Newton’s father asking for money, the Ohio State five selling their memorabilia to a tattoo parlor, or A.J. Green being punished for selling a game worn jersey to an agent.

Frankly, it’s getting hard to keep up at this point.

So how do we solve this ever-increasing problem?

Well, let’s break it down into Charlie Sheen terms: Who is winning from the situation we have in place right now?

In the case of college football, it’s pretty much everybody but the players.

Athletic Directors who gladly collect their annual five-figure bowl bonuses are winning.

Head Coaches who are making millions upon millions every year from the profits of their programs:Winning.

Bowl CEOs, who get to spend a few months carousing around the country, enjoying the finest hotels, bars and strip clubs. Yup, they’re winning too.

And as for the players, you know, the sport’s main attraction?

Not a dime.

All those millions from Nike merchandising contracts, TV deals with ESPN and other various sponsorship deals all get funneled to everybody else.

Everyone’s got their hand in the cookie jar while the players are simply left to shake the slimy hand of a booster and hopefully peel off a sticky hundred or two.

So is it that time? Have we finally reached the point that we’re going to have do what so many have been screaming about for so long?

Are we finally going to have to pay the players?

It seems so.

They’re just has to be some type of compensation for these young men or else this is only going to keep spiraling out of control.

We have to face the facts that college football is no longer an amateur sport. It’s a business that has to stop freeloading off its main employees.

Please stop using the “well we’re giving these kids a free education" farce.

Most of these players could care less about an education. They care about staying eligible so they can reach their dream of playing in the NFL.

That’s why a recruiter’s first main pitch to a four- or five-star recruit isn’t hey, we’ve got a killer chemistry department.

Instead, it’s come play for us, we know how to get guys to the pros. The education shtick only emerges once the parents are around.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule like a Myron Rolle or a Greg McElroy, who excel both on the field and in the classroom. But if you went through the rosters of most of these big time football teams and took a look at the transcripts and graduation rates of players, it’s definitely not a pretty picture.

Even the ones that do graduate, exactly how far are they going to go in life with a General Studies degree?

What would I do to fix things?

I say take the money you’re spending on these player’s so called education and finances, which can range anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 dollars per year, and just use it to pay them as employees of the school.

The term student athlete may exist at Muhlenberg College, but it doesn’t exist at USC. There’s a clear difference between these big-time, money-making schools and the ones in the lower division II and division III ranks.

These players aren't students, they're stars.

They're national stars, whose likeness is being used to bring in boat loads of cash, of which they'll never see a cent.

If the players want to take the money you're paying them and use it to put themselves through college while they’re playing for the school, then all the more power to them. That’s great. Let them get admitted on their actual academic standing and let them do the same type of school work as their peers.

I’m not saying you have to give the players a huge cut of the profits, just switch the system up a bit and change how the funds are dispersed.

Get rid of that term student athlete, because at the big schools, it’s already a dead brand anyways.

The sport of college football has grown and advanced so rapidly over the last 20 years, but the problem is that the system has stayed the same. At this point, it’s antiquated and it hasn’t evolved as it should have.

No one knows exactly how things will change from here on out, but it’s obvious that something has to happen and it has to happen soon.

The system is broken. That's clear.

If the NCAA wants to save itself from further embarrassment they’re going to need to suck it up and make the necessary repairs.

Present day college football and the sport we’re going to see in 2020 are two vastly different entities.

Sure, the sport is making money hand over fist right now. But the players are starting to realize just how low on the totem pole they really are and that’s a very scary and dangerous dilemma that the NCAA big wigs will eventually have to deal with.

A revolt isn't out of the realm of possibilities.

If I were a millionaire with a couple of powerful friends, a few extra dollars to burn and the proper resources, I’d be trying my hardest right now to figure out a blueprint for an alternative football minor league.

Set the age limit at 18, entice the players with salaries and the kids will come in droves.

As we’ve seen, a lot of these kids don’t have much true loyalty to their school. Sure, they love the perks like the parties, the girls and the celebrity status around campus. But their true loyalty is to their dream of getting paid to play football.

From what we’ve heard lately, they want to live that dream by any means necessary.