S.I.com Exclusive On Okla St..."The Dirty Game"

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Yes, but DeForest is no longer coaching at OSU. Really bummed about this....had always felt OSU ran a clean program and turned the corner to a "big time" Big XII contender within the rules and with a bunch of Boone's money!

Nobody at that level has a clean program. Why do people insist that they do? Most below that level don't have a clean program. The bigger to program, the more hangers on pathetically trying to have access to 18 and 19 year old kids...for what? So that they can brag to their business buddies about their alma mater's football exploits.

They're all the same.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

There are two very different ways some of this can be viewed that provide a slippery slope. On one hand, if the kid doesn't come from money and all of their clothes are tattered or they don't have anything to eat on weekends, you kind of want there to be a way to provide them with some jeans, t-shirts and a couple of sweaters or a couple of bags of groceries. If they really need to get home for some reason and don't have a car, you can't loan them yours.

Then on the other hand you have people teaching them to be spoiled little shits that never earn anything off the football field or get to "borrow" new cars from boosters who own dealerships, which could be another contributing factor to the woes of those who never go pro. The stipend thing is, to me, its own side-discussion. But though you don't want to train them to be idiots that expect never to work for what they're paid, the possibility of missing too many meals or never having decent clothes to wear to class is bothersome.

I may be thinking way too optimistically here, but it would be interesting to see if the NCAA would be open to setting up a system that allows the coaches or AD to identify "hardship players" who may be in need of food or clothes during the season (it's important to have REAL jobs in the offseason so you can pay for it yourself). Then have a donation log/drop-off system where "donations" can be written down before being picked up by the player. "August 30th, Bobby Smith received 2 pairs of 32/38 jeans and a bag of groceries from booster, Mr. Rustbucket." Then you erase the possibility of worrying about the players that need to be worried about. Of course this won't stop the attempts to hand out cash or the desire to take it.

But you have to wonder if sometimes the possibility of an investigation comes up and somebody tugs on someone else's heartstrings about how some of the kids come from families of little means and really need essential items. That possibility would be removed from the equation if there was a legitimate way to help out those who really need it. You'd still have to deal with the BS jobs and such, but with some sort of system in place for those who need help, you could be almost completely certain that everything else taking place isn't an attempt to "lend a helping hand" so much as it is the real reason the rules are in place - the bribery to play for the boosters' alma mater.

I wonder how many who benefitted from the "pay for no work" scams told their parents about it. If any of my boys earned a spot on a college team but then tried to take money they didn't earn, I don't care how old they are, I'd take them over my knee just like they were a bratty toddler. If you're lucky enough to find a great job that you like and pays well but isn't very hard, that's one thing. But if you accept a thinly veiled attempt at bribery, that's completely different.

That's why I think the stipend issue is so different. If you want to pursue that for periods where the kids can't have jobs because practice and competition and studies take up all their time, I'm open to the possibility. Depending upon the cost of living in the area, $1,000 - 2,000 per semester isn't unreasonably high. Yes, it may be harder for the non-power-conference "also rans" to come up with in their budget, and that bothers me a bit, but that's less than a hundred bucks a week for meals that may not be covered by their cafeteria meal plan, clothes, transportation, and God forbid maybe a couple of movie tickets or visits to Olive Garden.

That's entirely different from having money slipped into your locker or, during times when you're actually allowed to work and have the time to do so, getting paid for nothing. Even beyond the issue of violating regulations is the fact that this teaches a terrible set of lessons to those who you're supposed to be preparing for life after college. In that sense, these "educational institutions" are anything but.

Yes, in theory. But, you do realize that this type of thing happens in the world of business and politics all the time as well, right? So, in a sense, they are being prepared for life after college.