State of the Game 2011 - Fixing The NCAA

Fixing the scandals, Cam Newton, the Longhorn Network, and more. Along with the CFNers, check out the opinions on key topics going into the season from Matt Hayes from the Sporting News and the Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein.

State of the Game

Fixing the NCAA Rules

2011 CFN State of the Game Topics  
- Should The Death Penalty Be On The Table? 
- What One Thing Can Stop The Cheating? | Bloggers Analysis
- How To Fix The NCAA | Bloggers Analysis
- Is There Institutional Control? | Bloggers Analysis
- The Cam Newton Situation | Bloggers Analysis
- Was Stanley McClover Telling The Truth? | Bloggers Analysis
- Should Players Get a Bigger Stipend? | Bloggers Analysis
- Should a one-loss SEC team play for it all? | Bloggers Analysis
- Why isn't there a playoff? | Bloggers Analysis
- The Programs About To Blow Up | Bloggers Analysis
- Does The Longhorn Network Matter? | Bloggers Analysis
- What'll Happen In Ten Years? | Bloggers Analysis
- When Should Players Turn Pro? | Bloggers Analysis
- What's Your Beef? The Biggest Complaints | Bloggers Analysis

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Question No. 2. With all the problems going on in college football and with all the scandals, what can be done to fix the sport under the current NCAA rules and laws? 

E-mail Pete Fiutak

Besides my mantra of demanding that players be allowed to have agents and be able to get money from anyone who wants to give it do them - which I've gone over ad nauseum - the one thing the NCAA can do to eliminate cheating and fix the sport is to ... you could ... maybe there's a way to ...

There's no way to fix this.

Thinking that vacating wins does anything is laughable. Firing the coach for violations, banning bowl games, taking away scholarships, or threatening the death penalty hasn't been getting the job done, because only the extremely stupid and the comically lazy are getting caught.

If a booster wants to give a kid $100, no one can stop it and no one can prove it. If a player gets set up with a hot chick, magically finds a duffel bag of cash sitting outside his door, or somehow has a car with all the paperwork taken care of, the NCAA won't find out until the player is off doing Subway ads and hanging with a Kardashian. Forget about trying to slow down the agent issue; that train left the station a long time ago and it's not coming back.

The faster the NCAA realizes that there's absolutely nothing it can do to properly and fairly police everyone, the better. The faster the NCAA finally, finally gets it that the problem is actually the solution, and players should be allowed to have agents, money, and perks, the faster the hypocrisy will finally be gone and the better the game will be. Almost no one cares what's happening behind the scenes once the ball is kicked off, and that's because the violations teams are getting hit with really aren't that big a deal.

NCAA, you want to eliminate cheating? Change your antiquated way of doing business.

By Matt Hayes
Sporting News

More teeth from the NCAA committee on infractions. USC was a start. Ohio State could be the defining moment for the organization — or the green flag that starts unabashed cheating.

By Teddy Greenstein
Chicago Tribune

Give agents the death penalty – SMU’s version – if they’re caught giving money to a player. Or even if their runner is caught giving to the parents. And hit Ohio State hard on sanctions. Maybe that would scare teams and players for, oh, one season.

By Richard Cirminiello

Revamp those rules and laws. At some point, the NCAA needs to recognize that its sports are so rife with problems because its governing body is so rife in red tape and bureaucracy. The two are bound to clash. Think tax code. The NCAA needs to spend an entire offseason making over its bylaws in an effort to get up to speed with the current century. Suggestions? How about providing a little more latitude and freedom of mobility for the athletes it claims to be protecting?

By Matt Zemek

Under current rules and laws? Precious little. The past few years offer more than enough evidence to support an entirely pessimistic view of this particular question.

By Barrett Sallee
Follow me on Twitter: @BarrettSallee

Make the rule book smaller. It seems counter-intuitive, but the rules need to be all-encompassing to a point where there isn’t room for interpretation. The rules are purposefully vague now in order to give the NCAA more discretion. If the NCAA has proven anything, it has proven that it doesn’t deserve more discretion.

By Russ Mitchell
Follow me on Twitter @russmitchellcfb

Fixing the NCAA? Remember, it's more than just football. Much more than just football, actually. Unless all the schools are going to join a single conference - impossible - then we'll always need a bureaucratic agency to oversee them.

The question on improving the NCAA as it stands today, vis-a-vis college football, is easier than most folks make it out to be. First, simplify the rules. As with most things in American life, the NCAA struggles from a death of common sense. Cut the rulebook by 90%.

Second, and this is the part that is truly necessary for any meaningful reform, fund the Committee on Infractions appropriately and shift the power from where it resides today (at the edges with the member schools) to the NCAA.

Wake me when that happens.


2011 CFN State of the Game Topics  
- Should The Death Penalty Be On The Table? 
- What One Thing Can Stop The Cheating? | Bloggers Analysis
- How To Fix The NCAA | Bloggers Analysis
- Is There Institutional Control? | Bloggers Analysis
- The Cam Newton Situation | Bloggers Analysis
- Was Stanley McClover Telling The Truth? | Bloggers Analysis
- Should Players Get a Bigger Stipend? | Bloggers Analysis
- Should a one-loss SEC team play for it all? | Bloggers Analysis
- Why isn't there a playoff? | Bloggers Analysis
- The Programs About To Blow Up | Bloggers Analysis
- Does The Longhorn Network Matter? | Bloggers Analysis
- What'll Happen In Ten Years? | Bloggers Analysis
- When Should Players Turn Pro? | Bloggers Analysis
- What's Your Beef? The Biggest Complaints | Bloggers Analysis

LIMITED TIME ONLY: CLICK HERE for a Free Week of Top-Rated Selections

- Suggestions or something we missed? Let us know
- Follow us ... http://twitter.com/ColFootballNews