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1. The General said:

   April 9th, 2009 at 2:02 pm

   Problems:

   1) The NCAA lacks subpoena power and the will to seriously investigate wrongdoing that is mildly even mildy concealed.

   2) The NCAA hurts itself by pressing investigation against certain member schools.

   Solution:

   A governmental policing organization with the power of subpoena and .

   It is a really bad idea to involve the government in anything that you enjoy.

   The real problem is that there is no good solution. We can cry the NCAA sucks as much as we want, but there hands are tied.

2. Trips Right said:

   April 9th, 2009 at 2:05 pm

   UCONN has to be thrilled with the time table.

3. Bob in Houston said:

   April 9th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

   If the NCAA didn’t impose unworkable rules on the membership because the membership is paranoid about what everyone else is doing, this wouldn’t be an issue.

4. Facebook User said:

   April 9th, 2009 at 2:30 pm

   I guess the question is, does UCONN even need to be worried. I guess not.

5. srr50 said:

   April 9th, 2009 at 2:49 pm

   UCONN probably doesn’t need to be worried, but maybe USC should.

   The Trojans are not a sacred cow in basketball, and by combining the two investigations, maybe the NCAA thinks it can get at the football program through the back door by just slamming the entire program with the “lack of institutional control” bit.

   Maybe.

6. BiggUggly said:

   April 9th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

   ) The NCAA lacks subpoena power and the will to seriously investigate wrongdoing that is mildly even mildy concealed.

   That is the most overstated and incorrect statement on the internet. The NCAA has all the subpoena power it needs, it just doesn’t want it.

   Anytime the NCAA is truly convinced that a violation has occurred, the NCAA can levy any penalty it wishes even without hard evidence. The school and/or the coach being penalized then has the option of filing suit against the NCAA. At that point, the NCAA has all the subpoena power it needs.

   Name a single school that can stand for the NCAA to actually shine a searchlight up their ass.

   Problem is, as others have said, the NCAA is truly without balls.

7. Kafka said:

   April 9th, 2009 at 3:01 pm

   Plan I:
   Permit the rivals of schools to conduct the investigations. They can self fund. For example, Texas investigates OU and OU investigates UT. Both schools would put their back into it. The problem with this approach is that sooner or later some schools may collude with each other. Another problem is conflict of interest.

   Plan II:
   Permit people like us to conduct the investigations. It would probably be great fun and we would probably do a better job than is currently done.

   Plan III:
   Split the NCAA enforcement organization away from the main NCAA organization. They get a bonus whenever they uncover violations of NCAA rules.

   Plan IV:
   Take an open source approach to solving this problem. Haven’t really thought this one through but it will at least require a standard sets of tools freely available to the investigators and that the athletic departments will have to be very transparent in their operations.

8. Kafka said:

   April 9th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

   Plan V:
   Pay the players what they are worth on the open market, highest bidder wins.

9. glenn said:

   April 9th, 2009 at 3:13 pm

   i vote for plan v.

10. srr50 said:

    April 9th, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    Plan I:
    Permit the rivals of schools to conduct the investigations. They can self fund. For example, Texas investigates OU and OU investigates UT. Both schools would put their back into it. The problem with this approach is that sooner or later some schools may collude with each other. Another problem is conflict of interest.

    Plan II:
    Permit people like us to conduct the investigations. It would probably be great fun and we would probably do a better job than is currently done.

    We’ve already seen how those plans work — just ask SMU and the rest of the SWC.

11. NateHeupel said:

    April 9th, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    The NCAA has an approach to the enforcement of amateur athletics that is nearly identical to the enforcement of illegal immigration laws by the U.S. government. The objective of both is to maximize revenue and minimize cost while preserving public belief in a general fairytale (amateurism and enforcement of illegal immigration).

    Actually, there’s a great example of why removing the NCAA may not be a bad idea. Has anyone here followed the ongoing lawsuit involving Oklahoma State pitcher Andy Oliver? If you haven’t, there are several good articles out there. The short version is that Oliver, OSU’s #1 starting pitcher, had his eligibility suspended with OSU a game or two away from the CWS. Why? For having an attorney present during pre-draft contract negotiations with a major league team. This “violation” was broken to the NCAA by former attorneys of Oliver’s who have since paid a decent settlement and were reprimanded for their unethical violation of attorney-client privilege. The NCAA planned to suspend Oliver for 80% of this season as well until the trial court entered an injunction stopping the NCAA’s enforcement. The NCAA’s actions at every turn would be best described as ethically reprehensible. The trial is ongoing, and the NCAA is appealing the injunction.

12. dedfischer said:

    April 10th, 2009 at 4:17 am

    If college sports weren’t a little bit sleazy, I wouldn’t be interested.

13. The Wood Shed said:

    April 10th, 2009 at 4:42 am

    The problem with the NCAA is they do not want to have the serious legal fight over paying players. If they do, they will be forced to reveal how much money they actually make and then they could not logically get around the fact that college athletes should probably receive some sort of stipend. They don’t want to give up that cash.

14. TaylorTRoom said:

    April 10th, 2009 at 4:59 am

    The NCAA didn’t start regulating recruiting and eligibility until he ’50s. Prior to that, the conferences regulated it. Actually, regulating the sport was the primary reason the conferences were formed. As recently as the late ’70s, the PAC-10 was still active in regulating the sport, putting several schools on stricter probations than the NCAA would.

    In the ’80s, the NCAA assumed full control of regulating the sport. The conferences were willing to let them, probably because it helped the conferences avoid conflict, and allowed them to focus on marketing their teams. The problem is that the NCAA, having assumed this responsibility, lost interest in enforcing it. Perhaps the huge increase in revenue encouraged the NCAA to adopt a lighter hand when dealing with this golden egg-laying goose.

    So, what to do? I think the answer is for conferences and programs that are truly interested in cleaning up recruiting to form new alliances and self-monitor and regulate within those alliances. All programs have compliance staffs, for example. Would it really be bad to have, say, a Big 12 compliance committee monitoring the schools’ job pograms? Or to require schools to submit the annual income reports of scholarship athetes’ families to a Big 12 office?

    I think schools interested in cleaning up the sport will have to take this task on, because I doubt the NCAA is interested anymore.

15. Pitchin Paul said:

    April 10th, 2009 at 5:07 am

    The NCAA is a continuing crminal conspiracy itself. When the NCAA investigated the Fab 5 at Michigan in the 90s it came up with an illegal birthday cake and rides to Ann Arbor from Detroit (30 miles) for players families. Years later when the IRS/FBI got involved they found $700,000 in cash going to the players including over $500,000 to Chris Webber alone. You tell me if they are serious in investigating corruption

16. justaguy said:

    April 10th, 2009 at 1:32 pm

    Taylor, The Pac 10 was still active with this as they were the ones that were far harder on Don James’ Washington teams than the NCAA. I knew the NCAA had no balls when they gave SMU the death penalty, hammered a TCU program that literally gave them everything and own their own suspended players and alums who were involved in the actions of the prior staff, and yet they passed on the chance to drop the bomb so to speak on Switzer’s OU program and the University of Miami.

17. Sky King said:

    April 10th, 2009 at 2:27 pm

    “I think the answer is for conferences and programs that are truly interested in cleaning up recruiting….”

    Then the answer does not exist in the real world. Can anyone name a significant school or conference that is TRULY interested in this? – and if you answer Texas, I think you are being a bit naive on this matter. Texas is the epitome of big business in college football. It has around 40 million reasons to look the other way and not rock the boat.

18. Houstonearler said:

    April 10th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    Read the transcript of Rufus Alexander being questioned for the Big Red deal. They refused to ask the questions that mattered and it was obvious others there were getting paid. NCAA did nothing.

19. hot wire said:

    April 10th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

    “The NCAA has an approach to the enforcement of amateur athletics that is nearly identical to the enforcement of illegal immigration laws by the U.S. government”

    “The NCAA’s actions at every turn would be best described as ethically reprehensible”

    You’ve got to be shitting me….Bwahahahaha. A Gooner complaining about lax enforcement by the NCAA. That’s alot like the O.J. complaining about his getting away with murder and not ending up in the chair. Have those 5 straight BCS meltdowns caused you okies to loose all your sensiblities and short term memories on this matter. Must a Horn remind you guys that the only reason why you Gooners even still have a program is because of that very lax enforcement you speak so negatively about. Take my advice Gooner, don’t be hatin’ on the lax enforcement…instead embrace it and thank your lucky Gooner stars for it. And what is “ethically reprehensible” – truly reprensible – is that you Sooners still have a program to speak of, given your past and current history. Your history makes the SMU Mustangs look like a bunch of choir boys in this respect.

    Also, if I was an illegal, I would take a bus up to Norman and slap you upside your cheatin’ Gooner head with a loaded burrito. Good Lord, how can a group of inbreds, otherwise known as land thieves, complain about illegal immigration. You guys should be the last ones bitchin’ about this issue also – and if you don’t agree with me, just go and ask Tonto and Geronimo for their two cents on this matter.

20. TaylorTRoom said:

    April 10th, 2009 at 3:52 pm

    “Can anyone name a significant school or conference that is TRULY interested in this?”

    Yes. Texas. Michigan. Penn State. Notre Dame. Possibly Florida. In other words- the schools that would still dominate if all of the rules were strictly enforced.

21. Bob in Houston said:

    April 10th, 2009 at 6:44 pm

    “Years later when the IRS/FBI got involved they found $700,000 in cash going to the players including over $500,000 to Chris Webber alone. You tell me if they are serious in investigating corruption”

    The Michigan players stonewalled the NCAA. They knew the NCAA couldn’t touch them if they didn’t talk. The NCAA got them for what they could back up.

    The feds got involved because Ed Martin was laundering gambling money by giving it to the Michigan recruits. They put those guys in front of a grand jury. All of them rolled except the remarkably arrogant Chris Webber, who was quite fortunate not to go to prison. He probably would have, had Ed Martin not died before trial.

22. Sky King said:

    April 10th, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    I admit, that scenario is hypothetically plausible, but who really knows for sure how things would pan out and who would benefit if everyone played it straight up. Such a scenario is so far from the truth that such talk and conclusions don’t amount to not much more than speculation.

    To give you an example: for one, where would you stop the legitimating of college football. Are you just going to stop at financial payments? – and why just stop there? What about the performance enhancement issue? Not trying to dog anybody, but anyone who has ever heard ‘Rak talk knows that he ain’t completely straight – the big boom, bass tone says it all. A frog has more high pitch tones in his voice than ‘Rak does. You gonna tell me the coaching staff has never heard him speak or did they just conveniently happen to look the other way. Or how about academics and requiring players to take legitimate classes rather than the cardboard cut out, designed for football player classes which in no way prepares them for the real world. You see, once you enter on the dangerous slippery slope of legitimizing college sports who knows where it will all end and how it will all turn out. At present we are so far from that ideal state – and I am not sure that it can be reformed truly in a piecemeal fashion, as you were implying.

    College football is what is it and it will stay as it is. Let’s enjoy it for what it is, warts and all – cause it ain’t gonna change. There is just no true incentive out there for anyone to want to rock the boat and a whole bunch of them to avoid doing so.

23. justaguy said:

    April 11th, 2009 at 6:07 am

    Two other things on this topic.

    First, wasn’t OU the first school to retain the lawfirm from Chicago an stonewall the NCAA in any attempts to discovery of information? Could be wrong on this, but I remember a law firm from Chicago being retained by more than one school being investigated by the NCAA and the schools basically skating compared to what was done to SMU and TCU.

    Second, Bob Knight long, long ago in an interview with Playboy said that if the NCAA wanted to truly clean this up the way to get it done was by working with the IRA. Knight laid out in the interview how he would cheat if he was going to do it and openly stated that there would be no way for the NCAA to uncover it on there on. Interesting in that it was the model used by the Ags with Gilbert and Big Red.

    One last thing on Big Red. I am not a labor lawyer, but it would seem to me that DOL should have been involved with Big Red. You can’t find payroll records on your employees?

24. 8straight said:

    April 11th, 2009 at 8:55 am

    “not trying to dog anybody” So you couldn’t help yourself? No self control?

25. Sky King said:

    April 11th, 2009 at 10:43 am

    “So you couldn’t help yourself? No self control?”

    The meaning was that I had no ill intent…just trying to make a point, and, besides, I don’t think this is exactly a secret or cutting edge news to anyone on the boards.

    “Bob Knight long, long ago in an interview with Playboy said that if the NCAA wanted to truly clean this up the way to get it done was by working with the IRA (supposing you meant IRS here and not the terrorists from Ireland).”

    Either Bob is extremely naive for one who has been in the business for so long or he is just being a tool. The point I was trying to make above was that any form of true reform in any human endeavor can’t be done in a piecemeal fashion. Bob’s plan would either fail or end up being one more cover up job for the real problems which will remain effectively untouched.

    One of the myths of modern thought is the over optimistic notion that entrenched social problems can be solved in a piecemeal, surgical, or cut and paste fashion. The only thing those methods really accomplish is to just move the “unsightly garbage” from one location to another. Effectively, it is just moving garbage around – it does not actually get rid of it – and all that garbage eventually winds up resting somewhere and with someone.

    To be frank, this very belief that piecemeal solutions can work is what corruption uses to perpetuate itself and maintain the status quo. So ironically, the same people who vehemently and self-righteously advocate a crack down and an absolute clean up are, typically, the very same people – through their deluded sense of reality and insincere beliefs – who perpetuate the very corruption they like to denigrate so much.

    That folks is the general principle of why corruption never ends even though everyone seems to be bitchin’ about it all the time. Cut and paste solutions are the easy way out and it allows people to conveniently believe they are on the side of the moral without requiring them to actually bite the bullet and face the sacrifices that true morality demands. So, besides corruption, the belief in piece meal solutions allows people to conveniently believe that they are moral without the rquirement that they actually are so. What a deal….it seems to good to be true – and of course it is. And folks, it is in this moral vacuity of hypocrisy where corruption breeds and perpetuates itself – as it has since the beginning of time – just as stagnant water is a nesting ground for mosquitoes.

26. justaguy said:

    April 11th, 2009 at 11:07 am

    Sky King,

    I did mean the IRS even though I think a car bomb might have done a better job of cleaning things up in Norman in the 80’s.

    Knight’s point was that if you truly wanted to catch cheaters you have to follow the money. It isn’t a perfect means but it has far more teeth to it than the NCAA. The NCAA is nothing more than a marketing organization that pretends to be a governing body. It bullies the weaker schools and individual athletes who don’t have the resources to fight them in court, but as I pointed out before. There were a group of schools that retained a law firm from Chicago that in a large part stonewalled the NCAA’s investigations into their programs as well as Tarkanian’s challenging them in court.

27. Sky King said:

    April 11th, 2009 at 1:49 pm

    There was a time, around 60 years ago, when people believed the IRS was a panacea solution against organized crime. Last time I checked Vegas seems to be doing very well these days and has only grown and grown and prospered since that time.

    Moral of the story: Bob was either not being completely serious or he is surprisingly naive and stupid for an old fart.

28. justaguy said:

    April 11th, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    Sky King,

    What the fuck are you talking about? Knight’s point was that the NCAA has zero authority when it comes to questioning people and no real leverage. The point on the IRS was simply to find the money plain and simple.

    Oh, and your not being frank if it takes you 6 paragraphs to right a response.

29. Sky King said:

    April 11th, 2009 at 7:34 pm

    Okay, you win. I admit, if the NCAA unites with the IRS, then their enforcement will be more effective and have more teeth.

    Just pointing out that past precedence on a related subject matter has shown that, even with the new gestapo enforcement tactics, the problem will not go away. It may force it to express itself in a different and novel way, but the essence of the corruption will not go away.

    To be short, the essence of this problem is rooted in the very fabric of modern society and that is why any piece meal tatics will be ineffective in the long run. A culture that is founded upon “winning” must also necessarily believe that it can have it both ways, that it can have its cake and eat it too – the impossible idea that one can win while still remaining moral. However that scenario may seem plausible in our imaginations and on the theoretical level, in the real world, it is just not possible to be a consistent winner, to dominate over others, and to be superior to others while, at the same time, remaining within authentic moral boundaries. This truth is one of the meanings of the saying: “What does it profit a man to gain….(you get the picture)”. The legitimacy of all social values, status, hierarchy, and identity is founded upon this unrealistic and unnatural union of winning and morality – hell, the very act of socialization is founded upon this delusion. And this would be the root of the corruption in college athletics – not one lending itself to a simple solution, I would say. Look, everyone wants to win and winning is great and all, but, afterwards, few people want to talk about the nitty gritty, dirty details it takes to win. Hell, most people can’t even admit these details exists to themselves – to do so takes away from that very joy of winning and renders it meaningless.

30. justaguy said:

    April 11th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    What the fuck Sky King?

    I never said that as well. Merely pointed out that in the late 70’s that Knight made a comment that the NCAA was ineffective and powerless in regards to truly unearthing anything anyone didn’t want them to find. His point on the IRS was someone that would have such authority.

    Didn’t you forget to include some comment about needing you on that wall in your closing paragraph?

31. dick said:

    April 12th, 2009 at 6:16 am

    The awesome BC series on cheating last summer said it best. One theory: The reason cheating in college sports exists in modern days is the inequity of the scholarship. If another school that has less value in their scholarship offer, then they gotta do something to fill the gaps. Throw in a culture of loose morals and whatever it takes to win attitude, then those teams will always find a way to cheat in order to compete. That’s why some people are concerned about aggy one day rising to prominence again.

32. Bob in Houston said:

    April 12th, 2009 at 12:19 pm

    The schools always have dealt to players with the cheapest commodities they have, which are all in kind — seats in a class, books, board, a bed.

    They do this not to level the playing field, but to keep player costs as low as possible.

    There’s nothing wrong with paying cash for players, or paying cash to players. The schools just don’t want to do it.

    The NCAA has done a marvelous job of making it seem like paying for players is unethical, but everyone else on campus from whom a school wants a service gets paid. I can’t figure out why athletes should have to settle for a chance at an education, or a possibility of successfully training for a pro career.

33. Sky King said:

    April 12th, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    There is an equity in favor of paying players – I admit that – but paying players stipends will do very little to alleviate any of the above discussed problems. It could possibily ease the consciences of a few and scattered, over sensitive fans who are guilt ridden over the exploitation of athletes in college sports – but that is all.

    The reason being: for one, most of the athletes at the larger schools are probably already getting paid. Also, paying players a uniform stipend will not stop the bidding and the under the table money going to those in demand who the programs need to push them over the top.

    The NCAA is wise to draw the line at paying the players. And if you think that the solution is to pay the players their market value in an upfront manner, then, I say, you have been taking too many economics classes and are mutton head foolish. That would ruin college sports – and if it does not ruin it, it will alter its characteristics to the point where many die hard fans will be turned off.

    In our sceptical modern society, idealism doesn’t garner much respect or serious consideration, but yet, it is one of the essential ingredients that makes college sports what it is and what makes it so special. To give an example: would fans be as excited about recruiting if we knew that the said recruit only wanted to join the team cause we were the highest bidder? – of course not. Would the fanbase in college football be as rabid and diehard as they are now if they knew first hand that their teams were composed mainly of these kind of highest bidder type players? – that is questionable and even doubtful.

    The wall we are hitting with respect to this issue is the contradictions inherent in a human society that measures and defines itself by money. In this respect, you could say that money is the root of contradiction (aside from the evil part). Hey, every human being wants to be liked for their innate qualities – because of what they feel makes them unique and special – and not because of how we can be used by someone who is nothing more than a money grubbing buttkisser. But all this comes to a head in a society which has evolved to the point of mainly defining special as having alot of money.

    To give you an example: notice how many desperate foreign dorks walking around who toil their youth away in their efforts to become M.D.’s – which is becoming successful in their minds. Now that profession also has the added benefit of being considered a noble profession (probably undeserved, as are most professions), but suppose that profession no longer accords a high salary (what is known as alot of money). Does anyone believe, under such conditions, that those foreign dorks would be nearly as attractive. Sure some females might buy into all that noble profession routine, but probably not too many of the hot ones – who are the ones everyone wants and who are probably too shrewd and selfish for such lines. None of these foreign dorks want to admit that females only seek their company for their ability provide financial security (which is a fancy term to say “just for their money”, and this maybe just be why divorce rates are so high for those in professions which pay out alot). And these contradictions play out on the fields of college sports in America and not just in the beds of dorky professionals – that’s all that I’m saying.

34. Kafka said:

    April 12th, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    Skyking:

    Let’s assume that if we pay the kids their market value, that some percentage of the fans are turned off college football. I’m OK with turning off some of the fans if the the players get paid what they are worth and it cleans up a bunch of corruption in college football.

    For example, if paying kinds their market value meant that half the fans are turned off, I would still love college football. I’m normally on the side of the player and always glad to see corruption (in any area) cleaned up.

    I admit that UT being rich and located in the middle of an ocean of talent makes it easy for me to accept that tradeoff.

35. NateHeupel said:

    April 12th, 2009 at 8:38 pm

    hot wire:

    You are some kind of moron. Please sterilize yourself before you spawn and pee in the genepool.

    For your sake, I’m going to educate you. Read carefully and slowly as you clearly did not attend UT. Or OU. Or any university of higher learning for that matter.

    “A Gooner complaining about lax enforcement by the NCAA”
    Since you clearly have no idea what the Andy Oliver story is, you have no business whatsoever making this statement. I’ll at least point you in the right direction. The complaint is actually about the NCAA being overzealous without legal justification. If you’re going to say anything this stupid in the future, do so having read up on the subject. Dumb ass.

36. NateHeupel said:

    April 12th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

    And again, more stupidity from hot wire:
    “Also, if I was an illegal, I would take a bus up to Norman and slap you upside your cheatin’ Gooner head with a loaded burrito. Good Lord, how can a group of inbreds, otherwise known as land thieves, complain about illegal immigration.”

    Based on your level of writing skill and your atrocious attempts at humor, I have every reason to believe you ARE an illegal. Thus, your IP address has been forwarded to Customs and Border Protection.

    The complaint was about uneven enforcement of the rules in both fields, not about illegal immigration or NCAA regulations.

    And who said I live in Norman?

37. Sky King said:

    April 13th, 2009 at 1:09 pm

    “For example, if paying kinds their market value meant that half the fans are turned off, I would still love college football”

    Well, you may not have problem with half the fans going by the wayside, but I guarantee you that the NCAA and the businessmen that run CFB do have a problem with this and so it is a mute point. This result will simply not be risked no matter what – the continuing existence of corruption be damned. And don’t be so sure that you will view college sports the same (not trying to speak for you personally, but just trying to make a point).

    The common misunderstanding which Bob in Houston expressed was the misconception that a society which defines itself by money is also one which is bottomline orientated and one which can handle the brutal truth. As my illustration of the social life of the dorky M.D. attempted to point out, this is simply not the case.

    The business community, with massive amounts of expenditures, attempts paints itself in this favorable light – the idea that it is at least on the side of reason and realistic, even though it is, admittedly, inherently corrupt – but all that is simply a marketing ploy, and I would suggest not falling for it. Such a society – one defined by money – can only be bottom line and brutally honest with regard to their own self interests, efficiency to an extent, and the exploitation of the weak and the disadvantaged. Outside of those areas, it has an insatiable thirst for and thrives on dishonest illusions. And this is the irony inherent in such a society: the idea that in a society where money is the bottomline, ill founded illusions necessarily become the most sought after and the most valuable commodities – what that money most fervently seeks out.

    To put it bluntly, money is essentially meaningless (after necessities have been taking care for) without the required illusions to legitmate it. Once again, take the case of the dorky M.D.: if such a person was brutally honest to himself about the true nature and origins of his relationships, would they survive such an inquiry? – I doubt it and even if they did, they certainly would end up being less satisfying to him. To further illustrate: if you can admit to yourself that your gold digging wife is just sucking your gnarly ass dick cause of your money or your social status, well, such a realization would be enough cause anyone’s dick to go limp – and even for the more perverted types among us, such considerations will eventually end in being a turned off, even for them. In just the same way, if college fans knew, in an upfront manner, the brutal truth underlying college sports, well, that in an analogous manner will cause those hands which reach into their wallets to pull out the money to eventually grow limp also.

    To summarize: my point is simply the basic truth that money and illusion always go together. It is simply a theoretical law of nature and no one is immune from this relation – not even you, Kafka, although everyone has a differing degree of tolerance on this matter. And if you are not yet convinced by my arguments about the essential symbiotic relationship between money and illusion, then just look around you. Notice how we no longer really live in an environment of trees, mountains, and streams. Rather, now we live in a monsoon of advertising slogans and marketing ploys – illusions you would have to say – which I think goes to prove my basic point.

    Money simply has no meaning without illusions and all that tough guy talk about being in line with the empirical, the bottom line, and the brutal truth which such a society loves to spout off – all of that is just that – it is nothing more than another illusion to hide from itself the fact that it is addicted to and dependent on false illusions. This would sum up the nature of the integrity inherent in a society, like ours, which defines itself my the almighty dollar.

38. Kafka said:

    April 13th, 2009 at 3:12 pm

    Skyking:

    I’m not convinced by your arguments so let me lend you a hand. Openly paying the players their market value is a big change and anytime you make a big change, you may break the law of unintended consequences. This could lead (for whatever reason) to a lot of fans being turned off.

    I’m OK with that. I hate corruption (in football or politics or wherever) and am willing to take reasonable chances to fight it. I also like the idea that the kids who are doing the heavy lifting (i.e. the players) and risking their health in a dangerous sport get a bigger piece of the pie.

    Side note: very few serious fans are not aware of the cheating that exists in college football.

39. Sky King said:

    April 14th, 2009 at 1:00 pm

    Let’s just stop beating a dead horse, Kafka. I okay with not being totally convincing.

    “Side note: very few serious fans are not aware of the cheating that exists in college football.”

    There is a pyschological difference between suspecting and almost knowing, with knowing for sure and having the practice become openly institutionalized. And this discrepancy is all the room an illusion needs to gain a foothold and thrive – whether it be knowingly or unknowingly. The attitude expressed in D&D: “You mean, there’s a chance”, that is all the breathing room an illusion needs to survive and that is probably an apt description of the thin thread which most of our illusions hang on by.

    As I said above: don’t underestimate the need for illusions to enjoy a product, even among the fans who give the impression of being too worldly and sophisticated. Money never merely chases after money for its own sake. It always requires an image or illusion to make itself meaningful – to cleanse itself, sort of speak. Money it seems instinctively senses its own filth and seeks the appropriate image to launder itself with. Don’t know about you Kafka, but that seems to be the nature of things to me.

40. Facebook User said:

    April 14th, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    NCAA vs Facebook

41. Bob in Houston said:

    April 14th, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    If the NCAA has to take on the First Amendment, I like the First Amendment.

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