{"id":893,"date":"2010-08-05T08:05:54","date_gmt":"2010-08-05T14:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/\/?p=893"},"modified":"2010-08-05T08:05:54","modified_gmt":"2010-08-05T14:05:54","slug":"ncaa-should-step-forward-with-stiffer-guidelines-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/ncaa-should-step-forward-with-stiffer-guidelines-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Should Step Forward with Stiffer Guidelines, Consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cheating Student-athletes, Agents and Coaches\u00a0Need to Face\u00a0Tougher Sanctions\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Say what you will about the sometimes heavy hand of the NCAA<\/a>, but communicating the rules to student-athletes is not one of its faults.\u00a0\u00a0 Reminders on any number of wide-ranging topics are frequently distributed to student-athletes in all three divisions.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mayo walked onto the USC campus knowing the rules.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, when news surfaces about former high school recruits like, say, basketball’s \u00a0O.J. Mayo<\/a> from USC<\/a>, who was found to have received extraordinary benefits from then quasi-agent, Rodney Guillory<\/a>, while still enrolled at the\u00a0PAC-10<\/a> school, you can be sure that Mayo had full knowledge\u00a0that his actions were wrong and would eventually cause the Trojan basketball program to suffer penalties.\u00a0 He, of course, would be long gone when the hammer fell.\u00a0 He knew that, too.\u00a0 If he felt any pain, Mayo\u2019s four million dollar rookie contract with the Memphis Grizzlies <\/a>surely put the agony to ease.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As you might expect, eligibility has been a major focal point of\u00a0late in NCAA memos to member school student-athletes, particularly following\u00a0the Mayo fiasco and revelations that former USC football player and Heisman Trophy<\/a> winner Reggie Bush<\/a><\/strong> had also benefitted from gifts\u00a0by another wanna-be agent, Lloyd Lake.\u00a0 A room full of overseers at the NCAA central office in Indianapolis must be wondering when youngsters and parents, not to mention college athletic programs and coaches, will ever learn.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Behind any NCAA brouhaha, there is this reliable fact:\u00a0the organization does an excellent job in educating and protecting those student-athletes who want to listen and be protected.\u00a0 Still, those who\u00a0apparently believe circumventing the rules for\u00a0short-term gain is an inconvenience for them, like Mayo and Bush, also know that they are\u00a0not the ones who will ultimately\u00a0face the consequences.\u00a0 All that will fall on the team and athletic department.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, Bush is the rare exception.\u00a0 While\u00a0the full extent of the fallout to\u00a0the\u00a0now\u00a0New Orleans Saints<\/a> running back\u00a0pertaining to the status of his Heisman Trophy Award (the Trojans have marked his name from their list of all-time Heisman winners in their press guide and returned their replica of the trophy to\u00a0him)\u00a0or USC’s 2005 BCS<\/a> National Championship, Bush\u2019s character has taken a severe hit in the public eye.\u00a0 On the other hand, Mayo will most likely skate through the melee\u00a0virtually unscathed, save his reputation which\u00a0didn’t have\u00a0far to slip\u00a0in any case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even though Mayo and Bush are easy objects to ridicule because of their high-profile recruitments, any number of other loose cannons who have ignored the NCAA for personal gain would be appropriate targets.\u00a0 The list is long.\u00a0 But, here\u2019s the irony \u2013 few players or coaches avoid detection.\u00a0 They are inevitably found out because someone seems to always spill the beans.\u00a0 And yet, it goes on, year after year.\u00a0 Undaunted, the NCAA continues to ring the bell hoping that current and future student-athletes will heed their warnings and the rules.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
USC has returned Bush's Heisman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Changes are coming, though.\u00a0 At this\u00a0writing the NCAA is getting input from coaches, administrators and student-athletes in an\u00a0attempt to discover\u00a0then determine how their rules and consequences can be made clearer and the penalties have longer reach.\u00a0\u00a0The discontent brewing within the NCAA membership ranks is well-founded and we can expect some in-your-face\u00a0adjustments to the present guidelines which\u00a0many agents, some student-athletes, and the occasional coach,\u00a0have seen fit to thumb their noses at.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From here, we can only\u00a0wish that\u00a0the NCAA will\u00a0take extraordinary measures by\u00a0signing\u00a0long lasting\u00a0agreements with all the professional sports leagues in America to revamp the rules, make them consistent and fair, and hold everyone involved, including agents, accountable.\u00a0 It\u2019s about time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cheating Student-athletes, Agents and Coaches\u00a0Need to Face\u00a0Tougher Sanctions\u00a0 Say what you will about the sometimes heavy hand of the NCAA, but communicating the rules to student-athletes is not one of its faults.\u00a0\u00a0 Reminders on any number of wide-ranging topics are frequently distributed to student-athletes in all three divisions.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So, when news surfaces about former high … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}