NCAA: Wale Folarin Explores the Struggles of a Student Athlete in Varsity Blues

Wale Folarin’s song “Varsity Blues” addresses so many problems in athletics, at the collegiate level to be specific. As usual, he is in touch with an aspect of the NCAA that many analysts and avid watchers refuse to realize.

Student athletes are forced to behave like they are not above their peers while also being asked to bring in billions of dollars for their respectable, or not, football programs.

Take Cam Newton for instance. No matter how much of a one-hit wonder any Alabama fan would like to label him, he made strides for Auburn University in a single season that many great quarterbacks had not been able to do in four years with a major university. Newton won the program a BCS Championship trophy.

Was he the ultimate MVP of the game? Not at all. His early interception was careless and so were a few of his plays as he attempted to tuck and run.

However, who is going to doubt, with a stern face, that Newton was not the main fraction of the bigger picture that landed Auburn at the BCS Championship game with an undefeated record latched to their cleats?

Yet, he was on the brink of being stricken from the rest of the season because the NCAA was investigating his father’s pay-for-play scheme. Yes, $180,000 is a lot to pay for someone’s talents. But, how out of line is that figure when you estimate how much money Auburn made off of last season’s most talented and most publicized recruit?

The Tigers were not even preseason ranked in the top 20, but somehow Cameron Jerrell Newton managed to bring the team up by their boot straps.

Of course he had the help of defensive players like Nick Fairley, a receiver who could predict Newton’s last breath and a running back newbie, Michael Dyer.

Still, as we shake the finger at his father, who may very well have been doing what he thought was in his son’s best interest at the moment, turn in the opposite direction and glare at the NCAA who makes it virtually impossible for these young men to enjoy life’s simple pleasures without being scolded for it.

How often do you hear about a student athlete with a job? I understand wholeheartedly that these kids knew what they were signing up for well before they inked their names. Still, doesn’t it seem a little unfair that they must relinquish all rights as a young adult to play the game that they love?

Student athletes maintain an appropriate GPA, make it to practice on time and perform to their highest possible endurance on the field or court.

What are their rewards? A trophy that belongs to the program they played for and pat on the butt. Sometimes on the helmet.  What is that supposed to do for the player when they are sitting in their dorm room on a ‘Ramen Noodle Every Day’ budget? How is that going to comfort an athlete who has to walk through the trenches because he has no means of transportation?

Yes, regular students endure these struggles every day. So what do these regular students do in order to sculpt their poorly suited situations?

They get a job. Maybe even sometimes borrow money from a friend.

Unfortunately for the student athlete, even borrowing money from a friendly hand can bring about the glaring eye of an NCAA official. Why do the schools so candidly overlook these types of situations? Why are coaches twiddling their thumbs as if they do not see what is going on right under their noses?

Maybe because they understand that players like Newton bring in an extra $1.925 million when the team is playing in the National Title game. The average price of tickets resold online last season was about $345, up 6 percent from the previous year.

The intangibles from Newton’s quick strike of fame allowed Coach Gene Chizik to recruit more players easily. Yes, Cam Newton is no longer a part of the ‘Dream Team,’, but the dream can be sold in homes across the country a lot easier with last season’s BCS Championship Title under Auburn’s belt.

What about Terrelle Pryor? What about the NCAA violations he committed that eventually led to his and Jim Tressel’s exits? Not to mention the suspension of about five other men on the Ohio State football team. The five-game suspension for selling Ohio State memorabilia was a bit much in my eyes.

Call me old fashioned, but once you give someone something, it is theirs to do what they want with it. Pryor and his teammates wanted a few tattoos and probably a few other very simple things in the eyes of those on the outside looking in.

So, they did what they felt was necessary to get what they wanted. Their status means nothing if they are walking around without two nickels to rub together to make a dime. A dealership gave a few players a deal on a car.

This detail in a mix of other violations may or not be true. But, as soon as a slew of details came out about Pryor’s alleged wrongdoings as a member of the Ohio State football team, he became the black sheep of Ohio. 

No one wanted to speak of him, good or bad, and he became instantly untouchable in the worst way possible. Did everyone forget what he has helped accomplish as the Buckeyes quarterback?

Did it slip everyone’s mind that he played his heart out in the 2011 Sugar Bowl, where he was crowned MVP, even after injuring himself on one of the game’s last drives? Or what about the Rose Bowl MVP award he earned after 338 yards of offense and two touchdowns?

Ohio State had BCS struggles for about 13 years before Pryor assisted in a Bowl game win for the school.

If Pryor had not been a part of the Buckeyes football team, sure the buzz around the squad would have remained. Ohio is a football state and its inhabitants remain faithful even in the face of a drought. Still, Pryor’s athleticism and diehard mentality on the field gave Coach Tressel and Buckeye fans a hope at something far greater.

He was even in talks for the Heisman trophy at one point. Of course, fellow quarterback Newton came in on his white horse and carried the honor away, but even a mention in a league of grand ‘amateur’ talent means everything.

There are so many college athletes falling into the scope of elite, yet the schools they play for are the ones who benefit from their rankings. From recruits to a bigger paycheck, the men standing over their shoulders are allotted the freedoms of which a student athlete could only dream.

A great college career can lead to a great position in the NFL draft but what about now? The NCAA says that they are entirely too concerned with the extension of their education, but how does that make sense when athletes are deemed indefinitely ineligible and forced to enter the draft?

There is a solution to all of this. But, until then, the NCAA has structured the greatest business model ever seen by man.

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I’m talkin Reggie Bush/Matter fact ask Cameron Newton/Matter fact go ask they schools how many jerseys they was movin/Thank you for they tuition/Thank you for room and board/Most of them (expletive) got no pot to piss in during fall/(expletive stickin and movin/AJ flippin computers/Brandon Davis had relations what if Jimmer was screwin/They hate on Calipari, but I never seen a problem/They get one season and pop (expletive) at least he bein honest/They always in they class/They always at they practice/While they bumming for cash you made a grip off a bracket/Shout out to mid-majors who forget what they major/Just tryin to go somewhere and play somewhere with Europe players/Pardon me European/ (expletive) what your current team is/Cause every QB with my features is a Willie Beamon/We never gon be (expletive)/ Less we believe we the (expletive)/Penalty your leadership critiquing me from the bleachers

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