The NCAA Only Cares About Money. . . . . . . . .

. . . . . And the concerns of the players always come last.


I am sure the NCAA would like to disagree with me. However, actions speak louder than words. If you look at all the major violations the NCAA Committee on Infractions deals with you will see they all involve the same thing. That players are getting money the NCAA thinks they should not be getting. SMU had their football program suspended for a year because they were paying players. Alabama was given a stiff penalty because a booster payed a high school coach to pressure his star player into attending Alabama. USC was given an extremely stiff penalty because a sports marketers, who has nothing to do with the University, gave a house to the parents of one of their star players and the school did not know about it. North Carolina is looking at punishment because several of their players attended a big party thrown by a sports marketer and player agent.

When was the last time though a school got in trouble for fixing grades, or giving special academic preference to football players. Recently a school in Canada suspended their football program for a year when it was found several players were using performance enhancing drugs. When was the last time NCAA players, coaches or teams got in trouble for PEDs? Are we to expect that no NCAA football players ever use PEDs?


The greatest example which shows how little the NCAA regards players is the issue of over-signing. You see, football teams at the highest level of the NCAA can only have 85 players on the roster who are on scholarship. They also cannot sign more than 25 players to a football scholarship each year. Yet some schools regularly sign way more than they are allowed. The excuse given is that not all players signed qualify academically to get into the school. Still, most do. And what it means is that every year there are high school kids who are denied football scholarships which were promised to them.

There is a website devoted to exposing over signing: http://oversigning.com/testing/

The issue of over signing came to a head a few years back when the University of Mississippi football team signed a startling 37 players. 12 players over the yearly limit of 25. It was so bad that the Southeastern Conference (Which Mississippi plays in) set a signing limit at 28 each year. They named the rule after Houston Nutt, head coach of the Mississippi football team.

And what has the NCAA done about the over signing issue. Well, they do not see it as an issue. They have absolutely no problem with it. While there are tons of rules about players taking money, families taking money, players talking to agents, there are no rules against over signing.

To their credit, several schools refuse to over sign and have spoken out against over signing. Amongst those schools are national powers like Florida, Ohio State and Nebraska. This off season the SEC is looking to strengthen their over signing rule.

And the NCAA? Well, they are busy trying to make sure their players do not get any money for what they do.