Bryant Gumbel's Closing Commentary tonight on Real Sports

[SoCalTrjn]

This will be on tonight.

“Finally tonight, a few words about crime and punishment. I’m no legal expert, not by a long shot, but I do believe that driving drunk, robbing a convenience store, and hitting your girlfriend are all worse offenses than dealing with an agent. Most people would agree with that I think except, it seems, the folks in charge of college football.

How else to explain the fact that the USC Trojans are currently on NCAA probation while the Florida Gators are not, even though Florida’s program has seen 27 different players arrested during the short tenure of Coach Urban Meyer. That’s right, by NCAA standards, 27 arrests merit not so much as an official reprimand. But dealing with a prospective agent prematurely, as former Trojan Reggie Bush did, gets your program punished for four years.

It’s not just about USC. NCAA investigations are ongoing at the Universities of Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina for the same kind of premature conversation with agents that Bush had. And it’s not just about Florida. Players at Pittsburgh, Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma State, Southern Mississippi, UCLA and elsewhere have also been arrested this year. But all of those programs are, by NCAA standards, in full compliance.

Look, no one’s naïve enough to think football’s ever going to be played by a bunch of choirboys. It’s not. But you’d think that NCAA officials could, at the very least, give coaches and athletic directors a reason to be as diligent about illegality as they are about eligibility – and right now they don’t. Until and unless they do, the NCAA’s idea of institutional control is anything but.”

[The Seer]

The old justifying bad behavior by pointing out other bad behavior routine....

[Killian]

Hitting women, driving drunk or robbing a conveinence store don't call in to question a player's status as an amature athlete. You, and that dumb dick Gumble, seem to have a hard time realizing this point.

[Carson]

How come my boy Reggie got to give up his Heisman?

[Mikey]

The old justifying bad behavior by pointing out other bad behavior routine....

So, if the playahs need a little extra cayshe, then it's OK to rob a 7-11 but not talk to an agent.

OK, then some Trojan booster should set up a convenience store around the corner from the Coliseum with a sign on it that says "rob me". The guys might spend a couple of nights in jail but at least their eligibility wouldn't be compromised.

[Mikey]

amature athlete

You're actually serious, aren't you?

[Killian]

Go back to the NFL forum. We've beaten this topic to death on multiple occasions, yet SlowCal can't get it through his head.

[Killian]

How come my boy Reggie got to give up his Heisman?

Are you kidding? Bryant Gumble is whiter than I am, and I'm a shanty Irish mick.

[King Crimson]

so, at age 105, Bryant Gumbel is going Malcom X....yeah, OK. If Spencer Tillman said it....maybe. Spence has long been outspoken about race, the law, the vast sea of money-grubbing contradictions that is the NCAA etc. and BTPCF. Gumbel, a catamite for corporate media power......no thanks.

obligatory Chappelle/Wayne Brady reset as well. but, here's the key phrase for board context methinks..

It’s not just about USC.

[Mikey]

I really don't see that as an ensorsement of USC, though I'm sure that's why ToeJam posted it (if not an endorsement then at least a rationalization).

More of a question of why don't they crack down on the criminals playing NCAA sports. These guys are supposed to be "student athletes", right? Any arrest should cause a suspension and any conviction should at least warrant a hearing and potential banning from competition for the individual. And multiple incidents should trigger some kind of action against the school.

[Killian]

I really don't see that as an ensorsement of USC, though I'm sure that's why ToeJam posted it (if not an endorsement then at least a rationalization).

More of a question of why don't they crack down on the criminals playing NCAA sports. These guys are supposed to be "student athletes", right? Any arrest should cause a suspension and any conviction should at least warrant a hearing and potential banning from competition for the individual. And multiple incidents should trigger some kind of action against the school.

Why? There is nothing in the NCAA by-laws that state you cannot play if you have been arrested. The NCAA doesn't have a conduct policy like the NFL. So Gumbal is using an apples and oranges comparison.

[Screw_Michigan]

So regular students can be suspended/expelled from school for beating up other students but "student athletes" should not be held to the same standard? Great call, nimrod.

[Killian]

Where, in either of my posts, did I use the word "should"? I didn't, that was you and Mikey.

Both of you need to eliminate that word from your vocabulary when talking about organizations who are out to make money.

I don't know why this is so hard for the three of you to understand. The NCAA clearly states one is against their rules, but not the other. Where is the confusion?

[Mikey]

You're full of shit Killian. There's no confusion here.

Just because you don't think "should" is relevant doesn't mean that it isn't. Is there a rule in this forum that discussion is limited to what rules actually exist, excluding rules that "should" exist? Don't you think that criminal behavior casts a negative image on the NCAA and all schools involved? Just because there isn't a rule written in the NCAA rule book doesn't mean that there "shouldn't" be. And how do you know that there isn't already?

Certainly individual schools have the authority to discipline their own students as they see fit. Do you know for certain that there aren't schools who have expelled some students for criminal behavior but looked the other way for star athletes? Would this be against NCAA rules? If it's not then "shouldn't" it be? Is bringing it up against the forum rules?

GFY

The NCAA clearly states one is against their rules, but not the other.

I'd like to see where the NCAA clearly states that committing a crime is not against their rules.

[Killian]

Find the NCAA bylaw that prohibits a student athlete from playing sports because he was covicted of a crime. It doesn't exsist.

Tell me where I'm full of shit. As long as these kids are eligible, 95%+ of teams will play the kid.

Go ahead and keep crying about the NCAA and what it "should" do and how hypocritical they are. These topics have been beaten to death. The facts are that with the rules the NCAA set forth, Florida is compliant and USC is not.

[SoCalTrjn]

If a standard student would be expelled from the school for committing a crime that an athlete can commit and not have to leave the school for, is that a violation? yes or no?

[War Wagon]

More of a question of why don't they crack down on the criminals playing NCAA sports. These guys are supposed to be "student athletes", right? Any arrest should cause a suspension and any conviction should at least warrant a hearing and potential banning from competition for the individual. And multiple incidents should trigger some kind of action against the school.

I think it's up to the school to discipline the players, not the NCAA.

Mizzou has recently had several players go afoul of the law. Senior RB Derrick Washington, who was primed to have a BIG season, got kicked off the team for domestic abuse.

A coupla' others got popped for DUI, were suspended for a few games, and then reinstated.

[Mikey]

More of a question of why don't they crack down on the criminals playing NCAA sports. These guys are supposed to be "student athletes", right? Any arrest should cause a suspension and any conviction should at least warrant a hearing and potential banning from competition for the individual. And multiple incidents should trigger some kind of action against the school.

I think it's up to the school to discipline the players, not the NCAA.

Agreed, but if a school is letting its players get away with shit on a regular basis it seems like it would be in the best interest of all parties who are trying to run legitimate programs for the conference or the NCAA to come down on them somehow.