Blame to Go Around for the Tressels and Newtons of NCAA

Greed will not be downfall of college athletics.  Self-interest will be. And it will be everyone’s fault.

While student-athletes take improper benefits and coaches cover up NCAA violations, Fiesta Bowl officials exercise extravagant and inappropriate spending habits.

From the NCAA to the SEC to the Southwestern Athletic Conference, college athletics, namely football, is swamped in a cesspool of selfishness.

Selfishness is a gateway drug to harder, more potent drugs like corruption.  Your alma mater wins the best recruiting class and the next thing you know your son's athletic director is operating a meth lab from the basement.

Why didn’t Ohio State football coach and part-time clergyman Jim Tressel inform the school of NCAA violations involving his players?

Why did Cecil Newton attempt to barter his Heisman Trophy-winning son, Cam Newton, to the highest bidder?

Why did former Texas Southern head football coach Johnnie Cole allegedly assist student-athletes in garnering credit for courses they did not take?

Why did Nevin Shapiro, a former Miami booster who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for masterminding a $930 million Ponzi scheme, give illegal benefits to more than 70 of the university's football players and other athletes between 2002 and 2010?

To keep the star players eligible? To get secure funds for personal gain? To turn around a personal favorite downtrodden football outfit? 

All of the above.

These men were all looking out for their own interests. Classic acts of selfishness.  They didn't care about the student-athletes, rules or even getting caught. 

The fans, alums and media fit into this category as well. In fact, we have set the standard.  We have created the environment that manifested these misdeeds.

We willingly pay $300 for a single ticket to a regular season college football game. We call into sports talk radio shows and cry and moan about the outcome of contests.  We get so jealous of our rivals that we deface and destroy their campus landmarks.

Schools pay coaches and assistants millions of dollars to keep up with the Joneses of college athletics. 

Networks and other media outlets dedicate hours covering National Signing Day. And we wonder why young athletes feel entitled. We give them the license to.

ESPN trades in its journalistic integrity for hook 'em horns and broadcasting rights to lucrative BCS bowl games.

We even demand that college football create some sort of playoff system, and that the NCAA basketball tournament expand so that deserving teams can have the opportunity to win a national championship.

Really?

Meanwhile, some student-athletes ditch class while others blow out their knees in their sophomore year.  The name on the front of the jersey matters more than the name on the back.  GPAs are a mere afterthought.

We continually use 18, 19 and 21-year-old young men and women for our own personal gain, whether it be for a column, bragging rights on message boards or in the workplace.

As long as we are entertained nothing else matters.

With the fervor surrounding college athletics, it is understandable why coaches or boosters would nickel and dime their way to success.  It's not easy to please our egos, athletic directors, trustees and rabid fanatics who foolishly live vicariously through the successes and failures of youngsters who don‘t get paid for their labor.

But this is nothing new.  It defines the history of our culture and our world.  We function, at least in the United States, in a capitalist society.  Random acts of selflessness or charity are treated as discoveries of ancient artifacts in this dog-eat-dog-survival-of-the-fittest-win-at-all-costs existence.

That's why greed and corruption have ruled amateur athletics since the suits that run the NCAA realized tons of money could be made on the backs of impressionable athletes and their easily manipulated fans.

We are all guilty until proven innocent. Too many Monday morning quarterbacks who work as professional analysts or just random sideline pontificators with blogs demand these kids grow up and be accountable when they don’t even heed their own advice.

Everyone got what they deserved.  We reaped what we sowed.

So the next time a coach, athlete or booster is implicated by the NCAA for involvement in shady activities remember what caused it and to whom to point the finger.