Anyone who thinks Mayo is doing the right thing by cheating is no better than Bonds, Clemens, gambleing basketball officials, greedy potiticians, skimming cops etc. Basically, the worst kind of human beings.
I don't find your logic. And I definitely do not agree. Bonds and Clemens robbed society as a whole, by breaking records, and telling everyone they didn't cheat. Now they continue to lie to our faces, like petulent children who don't want to get grounded. Even after federal indictments and investigations, these two continue to lie to our faces. Roger Clemens has thrown every single person of his inner circle under the bus, trying to get away from these allegations.
OJ Mayo is not from a wealthy backrground. He didn't "cheat". He took money from an agent. If you dug deeper I'm sure this happens to players at almost every single NCAA school, that has NBA talent players. AND he was not 18 when he first met this guillroy. He was 14-15 years old. Let me ask you, since you seem to be so high and mighty...
Did you ever screw up when you were 14-18 yrs old??
The real person to blame, would be his guardians. How did they let BDA get so close to their son. But there's an understandable answer for that, their son was away at a basketball camp when guillroy got his hooks into him.
So, the only person who really should be punished, Guillroy, isn't. People can throw a fit about USC all they want, but they're not getting punished. Their isn't any evidence that links USC to the agency. If anything, USC is gonna get more penalized than thy should.
Ever since middle school, reporters, high schools, news outlets, scouts, agents, and colleges have been interfering with Mayo's life, all of them pressuring him to do this and that, telling him which school to attend, and basically taking away his privacy. Someone comes to him and helps him out by basically giving him money. Then he gets blamed and shamed for cheating.
Don't you think Mayo deserves payment for what he had to endure as a kid? All he did was take a little money from a guy helping him navigate the difficult process of recruiting, and the stress was compounded by the amount of interest he was recieving. Guillory only helped Mayo get through many stressful days and decisions.
And if you were in that situation, would you really turn down the money?
I totally agree with the first post. But the thing everyone likes about college is that athletes arent officially receiving a check so it is less about money, so giving players money should not be the answer for schools.
Those comparing a sports scholarship at a university to slavery are just plain ignorant. Normally I'll give the benefit of opinion but not here, what your saying is just factually wrong. These kids are not forced to go or forced to stay, it's a choice.
The cost of one year tuition at USC with room & board, and books is between $50,000-$60,000. Not to mention the stipend for meals on the road.
Beyond that the revenues that come get to schools get split to other sports programs as well, which also provide scholarships While football and basketball may generate huge sums of revenue others such as golf, rugby, field hockey, etc do not..
On a side note, it's the schools not the students who are cheating if money is offered or paid.
I thought I would weigh in on this issue but Knuckledragger put it best on the previous page. If an 18 or 19 year old kid is smart enough to take advantage of the opportunities afforded to him by going to college, the payoff is immeasurable and certainly more valuable than the peanuts that were thrown his way by these bottom feeders that slither about preying on kids.
Selfrightous jacka$$e$, are you people serious? What you people are talking about is insane, of course the 18 year old took thousands of dollars, are you seriously telling me that you all were perfect at 18!? And the people that suggest that scholarships and room and board is an acceptable reward for making these schools millions, you people are idiots! Who in their right mind would take a $30 K education in exchange for millions instead of making millions for yourself and paying for your own education? And the issue is not whether or not it is fair compensation the issue is that THEY DON"T WANT IT!!! Right or wrong they don't want what the NCAA is offering, but the L and the NCAA have colluded and restricted these players realistic options to where they have to play for these schools in order to achieve their dream. I believe in a good education as much as the next guy, however I believe every...man...has the right to choose his own path. If they don't wanna go to college, then so be it. And yes I said ...man... people only refer to these guys as kids when they wanna take their rights away or deny them an oppotunity. If they were raping your daughters, robbing you on the streets or selling drugs, you would be calling them men. And before we get the "playing in the NBA is not a right" quotes. That is correct, but having to opportunity to compete for a job, is a right. I just pray for the day that these young black men realize the power that they hold. They are the product. I luv Duke, but I don't watch the games to see coach K prowl the sidelines. Why not go to a small school? a historically black institution? If you are good enough the reporters and the media will come to you. Sure Duke is on tv every week, but if Labron had gone to Howard or Morgan, I gotta believe the four letter network would have made it out to his games. 9 out of 10 of you fans are just as scummy as these agents, scouts, coaches, media and alumni, you want to use them too, for your own personal entertainment as a college bball fan or the greater glory of your chosen school. You all make me sick.
Cheating is not learned in Adulthood but as a young person who is not instilled with or guided by morals, ethics or civilized role models.
I assure you no one who cheats in adulthood didn't cut corners when they were young and got away with it. That's the reason why Mayo, and USC especially should be punished just like the Gators, FSU, or any other school that condones (or promotes) kids that cheating is OK.
I think it is interesting to see all these people just screaming that it's OK to cheat and then will bemoan the state of politics, pro sports and other places in American society where dishonesty is subject to a blind eye or even rewarded. Why do you think we had the EXXON debacle, Tyco, a sub-prime crisis, etc etc??
Comments liek those above that condone or even support a culture of CHEATING.
BTW the general RANT expressed here is that big Universities PROFIT off their athletes That is utterly absurd. Likewise,the word "slavery" is thrown around in a glib and ridiculous manner that dilutes the meaning and demotes what REAL slaves went and go thru today.
Majors BCS football programs, indeed most every Univ Athletics program, are money losers on the balance sheets with staffs, expenses, and physical plant to maintain that often rival NFL budgets. Some majors like UF are able to be budget neutral but that is because of the TV deals, Nike contracts etc - the idea that some BIG BAD Capitalist is profiting is not only inaccurate but ludicrous. at UF the Athl. dept actually FUNDS academic scholarships every year with excess funds raised.
so let's stop the knee-jerk "teenager who signed up to get $25k plus a year in Univ. free-ride is really a College-Slave who needs to cheat before he makes millions in NBA"
rubbish OK?
"BTW the general RANT expressed here is that big Universities PROFIT off their athletes That is utterly absurd. " You are absolutely wrong, unless you think the definition of the word "absurd" is: completely and totally accurate. "Nearly all of the top 60 football and top 75 basketball programs are profitable." http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2337810 This is an artcle that states the forementioned quote as well as some statistics on how much money is brought in by the top programs. These are the programs in question, not the Middle Tennessee Southern's of the athlethic world. Now the athletic dept. as a whole may break even, but that is because the football and basketball programs' profits are used to carry the other sports. This does not even take in to account the gifts and donations from alumni, boosters and the added revenue generated by students who wish to attend a school with a major sports team.
This conversation has a lot of variables, but it's really about some simple and basic principles. The NCAA and the member institutions have agreed to a set of standards and rules. Accordingly, the following truths apply, and are non-negotiable:
1. If an athlete chooses to attend an NCAA member institution, he is agreeing to "play" by the rules. He is morally culpable if he chooses to "get whatever he can." If he wants to "get whatever he can," it shouldn't be at a university funded by either public or private money. There ARE other options for these athletes, including as one poster said here, getting a JOB while they wait to join the ranks NBA or the NFL.
2. If the institutions in question (and their coaches and administrators) are willing to cheat, they need to be punished. That the NCAA chooses to punish violators in an arbitrary and unequal fashion is demeaning to all parties. In this case, USC and Tim Floyd are suspected of breaking rules. If this is proven, then what would excuse them from punishment? What has so far excused USC for the Reggie Bush matter? The size and prestige of the school shouldn't matter, but apparently, it does. If this was Creighton or Middle Tennessee State, we all know what would have already happened to them.
3. If the NCAA and its member institutions are willing to further compromise themselves to serve as farm systems for professional sports, then the rules need to be changed to reflect this change in philosophy. They also need to be made well aware that the general public might have something to say about having tax dollars used to subsidize millionaires and future millionaires when public education is barely scraping by in some parts of the country.
I love college sports, and one of the reasons I love them is because the athletes are (supposedly) amateurs. If that is no longer true, then I don't want to watch. I'll watch high school athletes when I want to see amateurs, and NBA or NFL players when I want to watch professionals. That makes college athletics redundant. If the NCAA and the colleges are as smart as they want us to think, then they'll figure out that professionalizing their athletes makes no sense at all.
For people to say Mayo "cheated" for taking money, that it showed a flaw in his character I want you to think about this. If Mayo really wanted to cash in, to make a boatload of money he could have done much worse than take a few thousand from an agent. He could have taken money from any of the numerous gamblers who approach college athletes, looking to get them to shave points, and really cashed in. He didn't he just took some cash to pay for some things while he was busting his tail for the USA basketball program...a program that made plenty of money off of him. And for everyone who is throwing out the "he got a free education" excuse, stating it costs 50K for a year at USC, do you seriously think he went to USC because he liked their communications program? Maybe he was a fan of the business school there. Give me a break. OJ Mayo went to USC to play basketball, plain and simple. The educational opportunities at the University of Southern California had nothing to do with why he was on campus. The NBA made a rule that a high school senior could not go straight to the NBA from high school so a number of players, Mayo, Beasley, Derrick Rose, Kyle Singler, etc. went to a school based on the basketball program. If these "student athletes" were worried about an education, choosing a school primarily on its academic merits, the Ivy League would be loaded with NCAA powerhouses. Stanford would be stacked year after year. Vanderbilt, Rice, etc. would be churning out NBA-caliber players year after year. Hate to say it, folks, but school has nothing to do with it. USC made plenty of money on OJ Mayo, why should he, who comes from poverty, not also benefit from his talents? Not with a free year of school, room and books, but cash he can use to help his family and himself? Why not just pay these kids the money that would be spent on their tuition, room, books, etc. and let some other student...one who actually wants to go to college but can't afford it...to come take the classes and be an actual student? As it stands we will have an endless array of basketball players choosing schools based on how they think it will help their draft status, not taking classes seriously and not working towards a degree. The sham will continue, but the money for the schools and conferences will keep rolling in.
Big12...aare you saying Mayo wouldn't have been a lottery pick if he didn't go to college? By all accounts he would have been taken in the top three right out of high school if he didn't have to go to college. If anything going to USC for a year hurt his stock because everyone thought he was better than Rose and Beasley, now he will probably be picked behind them. He had a four year audition for the NBA in high school...just like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Al Jefferson, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, etc. To say USC provided him this invaluable stage to audition for the NBA is laughable.
