Tag Archives: NCAA

You Are Not ‘All That’; Your Attitude Does Count

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I’ve been to many high school games and have observed the behavior of high school student athletes.  Many of the student athletes believe because they have incredible athletic ability that somehow they are on top of the world and can do no wrong.

Players sometimes have poor attitudes towards everyone and everything because of their athletic skills.  Just because they are a star athletes they feel like they can slouch in their chairs in the classroom or walk around school with the ‘I don’t care, I’m better than you’ attitudes.

Because they have a gigantic ego many of these student athletes feel that they are entitled to certain things and should be given special treatment.

I can understand where the confusion in the minds of many of these exceptionally talented ballplayers can come from.  No one is buying a ticket to watch some kid take a math test or hear a student give a speech in history class.  We do buy tickets to see student athletes perform and this is where the confusion begins.

Most people pay attention to what student athletes are doing.  Because of all the attention athletes receive, it can sometimes play a positive or negative role.

Academics and athletic ego plays big a role in whether a student athlete ends up at a major college program, a small college program or no college program at all.  Having a 1.9 GPA and you’re a 6’6 basketball player who has the talent to play at a big time college program does not guarantee that college program will overlook your horrible grades just because you can play ball.

The NCAA will begin to penalize college programs who bring in student athletes that cannot meet the academic requirements once they’re in college.  Too many times student athletes who have poor grades coming out of high school are accepted into college and many of them haven’t even graduated.  Academic reform is about to take place.

It use to be that if you did not meet the academic requirements coming out of high school, you can still go to a junior college and then transfer to a university after two years.  Now things are changing; in order to transfer, you still have to meet academic requirements even at the junior college level in order to move up to a four year institution.

Many student athletes are not graduating from college and these changes are necessary if you’re in college to get an education, not just to be an athlete.  Far too many players, regardless of the sport, believe that one day they can turn pro and earn millions of dollars.  We all know the odds of reaching the professional level in any sport are slim to none and I do believe sometimes the ‘I can do no wrong’ attitude can prohibit a student athlete from becoming a success outside of sports.

How many times have we seen these piss-poor student athletes who think they’ve got it all going on but end up not getting recruited to play college ball and eventually become a forgotten name in their community?

I think attitude plays a large role in student athletes’ academics because it shows how good they will be athletically and whether or not they end up with a scholarship.

Student athletes, no matter where they are talent wise, should always be humble but should always be working on all aspects of their lives.

Is The NCAA In The Way Of High School And College Sports?

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Are there too many rules and regulations set by the NCAA that slows down the college recruiting process?

Are there too many ridiculous NCAA rules that hurt college sports?

We all know that the NCAA is the governing body of all of college athletics. The NCAA has their hand in high school athletics as well.  I think the NCAA is a little bit slow and outdated when it comes to the modern world of athletics.

I understand there has to be rules to protect the student athletes and I’m really OK with that part of the NCAA.

A college coach making too many phone calls to a student athlete that they are trying to recruit to another college program, I don’t see why that would be considered wrong.  The NCAA has penalized college programs for excess phone calls to recruits; they’ve also penalize college programs for having barbecues where potential recruits were in attendance and again, what’s wrong with that?

There’re restrictions on phone calls, there’re restrictions on texting student athletes, there’s close scrutiny with Facebook and Twitter and I say what is the big deal?

All of these things mentioned are very harmless. I know you can’t give money to high school recruits or gifts to persuade a student athlete to your college program; we all know that’s illegal and wrong.

This generation of high school athletes is totally different from players 30 years ago.  These young players today expect something in return, other than a full athletic scholarship, for their athletic ability that generates millions of dollars to that university.  The players are not blind; they see the amounts of money being made because of what they do on the football field, the basketball court or anywhere else money is being made.

Just about every day when I watch ESPN there’s always a story about the NCAA opening an investigation about a college athletic program.  Sometimes the infractions, like with the OhioStatefootball program, are major and other times the infractions are so small that it makes no sense to even mention them at all. Getting a tattoo in exchange for an autographed football helmet is enough to destroy an entire football program and get the coach to resign.  Why?? How is this a crime? Who, in this entire scenario, is being victimized?

When the NCAA does decide to punish an athletic program it’s only hurting the student athletes who are still there and who’ve done nothing wrong to receive such punish. That is totally unfair to them.  What the NCAA should do is fine these college programs millions of dollars and the coach must be fired or banned from coaching for a particular period of time.  In the situation atOhioState, the university should be fined millions of dollars and the coach must lose his job for a certain amount of years.

John Calipari, the head men’s basketball coach at Kentucky, is the coach who had major NCAA violations at the University of Memphis and at the University of Mass.  But the entire school was punished. It had to give up victories and was put on probation but the coach received no punishment at all.  Coach Calipari was free to leave those programs and get another coaching job without any problems. John Calipari can break the rules, leave the school and the players he’s leaving behind have to serve his punishment.  That is totally wrong and unfair to college athletics overall.

There’s going to come a time where big-time major college programs are going to get sick and tired of the NCAA and form their own league and create their own governing body.  Any time major college football programs can switch to new conferences or even think about switching to another conference makes it a possibility that the top 30 college programs in this country can form a new league.

The University of Texas has a television network called the Longhorn Network. This will create millions of dollars for the University of Texas.  Many other major programs might end up starting their own TV networks so they can have more control of their money which will give them more power to do what they want to do.

I can see a time where there will be separate college conferences away from the NCAA where the players will receive some type of compensation and there will be more modern and updated rules to accommodate this generation of student athletes.

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The NCAA Has Too Many Stupid Rules; Just Ask Mike Krzyzewski!

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I was reading a story about Duke’s basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, stating that he may have violated a sacred NCAA rule.  Coach Krzyzewski was at an AAU basketball tournament in Orlando, Floridarecruiting top prospect Alex Poythress of the Georgia Stars AAU basketball club.  The violation may have happened when coach Krzyzewski offered a scholarship to Alex Poythress before the tournament was over.  According to the rules, you cannot offer a scholarship until the tournament is completed.

Now, the problem I have with the NCAA is that there’re so many rules and regulations that it’s almost impossible to keep up with each and every one and it’s impossible to not ever break any. 

College coaches almost have to walk around with a compliance officer glued to their side making sure they’re not violating the many ridiculous rules by the NCAA.  It’s almost like before you can talk to a player or recruit a player at a tournament you have to consult with a compliance officer before you can do anything.  It’s very ridiculous and it slows down the recruiting process.

I understand there has to be rules and regulations to protect the players from coaches who may not have their best interests in mind.

The NCAA is a joke; they have rules that are 50 years outdated.  This is not the 1950s or 1960s where college sports was totally different; the players were different and the world was different.  This is the more modern world now where the players are extremely different and the world is extremely different but the NCAA is stuck on old and stupid.

The NCAA should focus their attention on the real criminals out there; those coaches who clearly violate major rules.  Like paying players money or paying some fake recruiting service thousands of dollars to persuade players to their program.  There are a lot of college coaches who only care about winning games, making a lot of money and nothing else.

There are a lot of college coaches who would do whatever it takes to recruit players, even if that means breaking the rules which is exactly what they’ll do.  The NCAA will catch these rule-breaking coaches long after they’ve made their millions, won a lot of ballgames or maybe a championship before any kind of punishment is handed down.

Big-time college athletics has changed and the players should be paid because the coaches are getting paid. The fans are buying tickets and jerseys at these games and the players see none of that money.  I can understand why players leave college basketball or football after one year when their eligibility after three years is up; because it does not pay to be a college athlete for four years when everyone else is getting paid and not them!!

Coach K, is one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time. The fact that some kind of rule violation may or may not have taken place is the issue.  A coach with an incredible reputation for winning is now being accused of rule violations and this just tells me how ridiculous the NCAA really is.

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Could the NCAA Place Restrictions on College Recruiting Services?

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The NCAA is a dictatorship but more importantly the governing body for all of college sports.  Is it possible that the NCAA could place restrictions on college recruiting services that help student athletes gain exposure to college programs?

The NCAA just recently placed serious restrictions on college recruiting websites where college programs have to pay a subscription price to view videos of the student athletes.

I think because the NCAA is not profiting from what recruiting services are doing or what some recruiting websites are doing, it is possible that they could try to eliminate the use of recruiting services all together.

I believe how the elimination of recruiting services would be done is first the NCAA could say that any high school student athlete associated with a college recruiting service would be deemed ineligible.  It could happen because of the total control the NCAA wants to have over all sports.  The high school state associations would also have to agree with the NCAA on restrictions with college recruiting services.

College recruiting services do offer value to high school student athletes and parents and there are many different opinions about using recruiting services. Regardless of what your opinion is, my opinion is that without a good college recruiting service many high school student athletes will slip through the cracks of the college recruiting process.  Without a college recruiting service many high school student athletes may not ever get a chance to go to college.

The entire world of high school and college athletics is changing all the time; there are new rules and restrictions and there’s also corrupt individuals who ruin it for the good people who try to make a difference in the lives of high school student athletes.

Who really controls college sports? Is it the NCAA or the college presidents?  I believe a situation could occur one day where the top 50 major college programs could form their own league separate from the NCAA.  It is highly probable a new league could be formed with new rules and regulations to better serve the high school athletes and parents who are ready for college sports and who are looking to get a college education while playing their sport.

College recruiting services exist for a reason and I think it would be a step backwards if the NCAA were to place restrictions on college recruiting services.  Maybe the NCAA should sanction college recruiting services just like they do with AAU events or football camps or baseball showcases.  If the NCAA recognizes college recruiting services, then this would eliminate all of the bad recruiting services that exists and the good ones could better serve high school student athletes and parents.

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Dick Vitale Curbstomps NCAA Prez Into Response

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In an interview with SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’s Seth Davis this week, new NCAA President Mark Emmert couldn’t have been more forceful in supporting his organization’s decision to rule Kentucky basketball recruit Enes Kanter permanently ineligible to play basketball at UK.

Emmert to Davis:
“The vast majority of people in collegiate basketball knew that this was an issue with [...]
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‘Multiple Schools’ Told NCAA Of Saban Violation?

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On Feb. 15, 2009, Ron Higgins of the MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL accused Alabama football coach Nick Saban of committing an “apparent recruiting violation” after the coach showed up at the Memphis high school of junior football player Keiwone Malone just days before the Feb. 4, 2009, national signing day for high school seniors – which [...]
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The NCAA Investigation of Cam Newton Continues

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Roll ‘Bama Roll