NCAA is all about the money

So I have been pretty lazy lately with my blogs, but when I heard this morning the breaking news regarding Ohio State football, I had to blog about it.

In case you haven't heard the news, five players for the Ohio State football team have been suspended for receiving improper benefits. These five players sold awards that were given to them by OSU, mainly their Big Ten Championship rings as well as some gold pants that the team gets when they beat rival Michigan.

Players cannot sell things that are given to them by the school while they are playing for them, a pretty obvious rule right?

But the strange thing is, these players are not suspended for the upcoming Sugar Bowl. They are suspended for the first five games of next season.

Pryor may leap for the NFL draft

Wanna know what makes this even more interesting? The players that have been 'suspended' are star players, mainly QB Terrell Pryor and RB Daniel Herron. Pryor was a preseason favorite to win the Heisman trophy and is the best player on the team. Herron is the teams leading rusher and another player that has been suspended is the teams second best receiver.

So why are these players able to play in the Sugar Bowl? They broke NCAA rules, they clearly did, and they should be forced to sit out this game. But the NCAA doesn't want to suspended elite players in a big money making bowl game. If Pryor is out of the Sugar Bowl, not nearly as many people will watch, thus less money will be made.

Wanna know something else that makes me mad about this? Pryor could not face any kind of suspension from the NCAA. He could simply skip his senior season and go into the NFL draft in April. He broke rules, and potentially, could get away with even as much as a slap on the wrist. The NCAA needs to grow a set.

The NCAA is so against players not getting paid, but they are so afraid to suspend its money making players in big games. Cam Newton, in my opinion, is guilty of trying to solicit his skills to schools, but the NCAA said he is clear to play. Reggie Bush clearly received improper benefits, and I think the NCAA knew about it, but decided to keep quiet so he could make the NCAA tons of money.

I'm so upset with the NCAA right now, they are just a bunch of greedy old men who would rather get a big paycheck than worry about the integrity of the game.

These players, the five from OSU and Cam Newton, have broken NCAA rules, they should not be allowed to play. It is that simple.

But to the NCAA, if Pryor and Newton don't play, people don't watch the games, not as much money is made.

It is much easier to clear them to play, and then after the players are gone, finish the investigation and state that they were not eligible to play. The NCAA wants to get all the money they can out of these players, and then come out with the full report, making it obvious that they cheated.

I am so irritated right now, the NCAA is just a bunch of cowards. Ohio State players cheated, yet they get to play in a big BCS game, while other teams such as LSU, Boise State and Michigan State, teams that didn't cheat, get in less prestigious bowls.

Right now the NCAA needs to fix itself. They need to realize that if they don't deal with this major issue that it could destroy the sport in the future.

Don't believe me? Just look at baseball.

Baseball was nearly a dead sport after the strike in 1994. However steroids became rampant after the strike and with all the extra home runs and big hits baseball made a strong comeback. People say that the 1998 home run race between Sosa and McGwire saved baseball. And it did bring a lot of new viewers to the sport.

But all those numbers are tainted.

Baseball almost self destructed itself by not doing anything about the steroid problem, they figured it was saving the sport and that the whole issue could be hidden.

Clearly it wasn't, and their is over two decades worth of numbers that are in question, is it a clean record, or a tainted one?

We don't want college football to go that, we don't want it to get to the point were the NCAA has to do the 'death penalty' like they did to SMU back in the 80's. It has taken about 25 years for SMU to recover from that.

The NCAA can fix this, they can crack down on what boosters are doing. Help coaches be more aware of when a player is potentially getting improper benefits. And also give big penalties for major infractions.

The NCAA can easily fix this, just like baseball could have easily fixed steroids. Lets just hope they make the right decision.

Baseball Hot Stove

So I figured that with Cliff Lee stunning the sports world and choosing to sign back with the Phillies that I should talk about some baseball.

Who would have thought that the Yankee's, of all teams, would be losing in the free agent war so far? They have yet to sign a key free agent, or make a trade for a key player, when tons of players are changing teams. Heading into the offseason it seemed like it would be obvious that the Yankee's would pursue at least two of the top free agents. Former Tampa Bay Rays OF Carl Crawford, as well as former Rangers pitcher Cliff Lee. Both Crawford and Lee were highly sought out for by several teams, and they should be, they are two of the elite players in the league. The Yankee's didn't seem to go really high into the bidding war for Crawford, at least that I could tell, and he signed with the Boston Red Sox. Yankee fans started to get a little worried, but seemed confident that Lee would join the Yankee's. I thought that Lee would go to New York as well, I mean the offer the most money and are always going to spend top dollar to surround him with top talent. The Yankee's are willing to spend dubious amounts of money to contend for a World Series each year. You add the fact that current Yankee's Ace CC Sabathia is great friends with Lee(and their wives are great friends as well) it seemed like a perfect fit for Lee. He'd get the most money and be contending for a championship each year.

Lee will put on a Phillies uniform again

But Cliff Lee wasn't in it just for the money, reports are that he turned down about 30 million dollars to play in Philly. 30 million is a lot of money to pass up, however Lee is not going to be a poor man by any means, his deal is 5 years worth around 120 million or so. But he did what so many fans should appreciate, everything was not about the money. He did the unthinkable, he did what most superstars don't do. He chose happiness over money.

Lee mentioned that the two happiest times for him in baseball was when he was with Texas and with his prior stay in Philly. He said that the closeness he felt with the fans and teammates made it incredibly enjoyable, so it makes sense for him to return to Philly. He loved his stay there, the Phillies loved him, and Lee even said that he would like to return in the future if the situation arose.

Now Philly has the best starting pitching in the league, no question. And that is something to be feared, especially when you consider that last year was dubbed the 'year of the pitcher' by most baseball experts. Last year we saw a huge influx of quality starts by pitchers, lots of low ERA's and things like that.

The Phillies have this years NL Cy Young award winner, Roy Halladay, who won it unanimously. Right now Halladay is one of the top three starting pitchers in all of baseball, who are the other two? CC Sabathia of the Yankee's and Cliff Lee, now playing for the Phillies.

Take a look at the Phillies 3rd and 4th starters in their rotation, they have Roy Oswalt and Cole Hammels. Both are great pitchers, Oswalt was the Ace on the Astro's rotation for years and Hammels what their ace before Halladay and Lee.

Going up against a rotation that has four ace's is nearly impossible to beat. There will be questions about how well the Phillies bullpen can hold up as well as if their batting lineup can produce enough runs to get wins, but right now the Phillies have got to be considered the team to beat in the NL and possibly all of baseball.

So now I'm wondering about the Yankees. Where do they go from here? They didn't get Carl Crawford, they let the Boston Red Sox pick up one of the best young outfielders in the game. They lose out on the Cliff Lee sweepstakes, and it seemed like they put all their eggs in one basket and assumed that they could buy Cliff Lee. The Yankee's have always been able to buy their players and they assumed they would be able to buy Lee, and you know what happens when you assume right?

Its almost like the Yankee's didn't have a plan B. Rumors are that they are targeting the Royal's ace Zack Greinke, but he quit baseball for tiny bit because of depression, anxiety and other things like that. How can a guy that has anxiety in Kansas City, playing for one of the worst teams out there, handle NY? The press, the fans, the city, the expectations would simply kill him.

Right now the Yankee's rotation is this, CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes, AJ Burnett, Ivan Nova, and a question mark for the 5th, possibly Joba Chamberlain. The Yankee's are hoping that Andy Pettite will come back to their rotation. And they need Pettitte to come back. Right now they Yankee's don't have a solid #2 starter. CC Sabathia is one of the best pitchers in the league, so he is way good. Hughes is a solid pitcher, he's not really a #2, he's not bad, I mean he did win 18 games, but he is more of 3rd or 4th starter. Burnett had a complete meltdown last season, and the Yankee's are going to have him for a long time.

The Yankee's need to sign a marque pitcher, they are getting older and they need help in their rotation. The Yankee's simply didn't get it done and they are the biggest loser in the Lee sweepstakes. The Rangers are in a very weak division and have a lot of good tools, the were leading the AL west before Lee got there in July. The Yankee's  have gotten worse by age, and have let the Red Sox get better.

Speaking of the Yankee's, I am really turned off with Derek Jeter and how the Yankee's went about negotiating. Jeter just came off his 10 year 189 million dollar contract. Jeter is now 36 years old, he will turn 37 before the all star game, and had his worst statistical year this past season. The Yankee's want to keep Jeter, and make him a Yankee for life, as they should. Derek Jeter is one of the greatest Yankee's of all time. He has been the leader for years and has played a huge role on all 5 of the Yankee's World Series championships that they have won since 1995.

Jeter wants as much money as he can

However, when the Yankee's offer him a three year deal worth about 15 million a year, and he declines? That gets me upset, he wants more years and more money. This is coming from the guy that just made nearly 19 million dollars a year the past ten seasons and who knows how much from endorsements.

The Yankee's basically told Jeter to test the market, go ahead and see if any team offers anything remotely close to what the Yankee's offered.

Jeter and the Yanks agreed on a deal, 3 years 56 million total.

I'm upset because leaders don't do this. Leaders don't act selfishly, they don't think about me, they think about the team. That is what made Jeter so good, he was a team player he always has been. Until now, now he is like every other superstar. He wanted to be the highest paid player in team history, even though he is 36 years old, plays sub par defense(I know he won the gold glove but he didn't deserve it) and has shown a rapid decline in his batting.

I've never been a big fan of the Yankees. I do like four of their players, Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariono Rivera, and Andy Pettitte. These are the original 4, they have been with the team forever and have a team first mentality. Well my respect for Jeter took a nose dive. He needs to realize that he is not that great anymore, that 15 million dollars a year is way too much for him.

I was expecting him to make a classy move and take a reasonable offer, but he did not. He showed everyone his true colors and sadly they are not that great.

Fools Gold?

So here is a blog not about football, even though there is tons to talk about in the world of football, lets focus on the NBA right now.

What is going on with the Miami Heat? I mean, no one expected them to go 82-0, or to mesh together from the first game...but they are 9-8 right now. That's a pedestrian record, that's for a team that is just average, not a team that is getting tons of media coverage, has its own section on ESPN.com and has been expected to win multiple championships. For the record, those expectations aren't the medias fault, the Heat's big three(I'll call them Miami Thrice) started throwing parties and mini championship parades during the offseason when Bosh and James came to town. It was a big party in south beach, everyone was talking about how high this team could go, the Miami Thrice were guaranteeing not just a championship in Miami, but multiple championships.

Now I know its early, they have only played 17 games together this season, but when do we start to worry? When do the excuses of injuries and giving this team time to gel together stop working? How long before this team starts to fall apart from the uber excessive media coverage that they get? When will head coach Spoelstra get fired and Pat Riley come in and coach the team?

Perhaps the biggest question of the year is this. When will they start looking like a championship contending team?

Its time for the Heat to show up

In their defense the Heat are pretty banged up. Udonis Haslem is out, likely for the year, and he was their big rebounder, their big post presence. Mike Miller has yet to play, and that;s hurt them as well. He is a good three point shooter and can play descent defense.

But no team in the NBA is going to go through a season without some big injuries, its part of the game.

Also an argument the Heat have is how little time the team has had to mesh together. Wade, Bosh and James have never played in a team like this, three huge superstars and a weak bench. To make things even harder, Wade was hurt for pretty much all of the offseason, letting Miami Vice play a whole one quarter together before the regular season topped off.

But at the same time, these three have been talking about playing together since before the 2008 Olympics. You'd think they would have some sense of how to play with each other...right?

To me the problem is this, they don't have a good point guard or center. Those are the two most important positions in the game. You have to have a good point guard to win, the PG is the general on the court, he is an extension of the head coach. You need a good center to win too, and if you don't have a good center, you at least need a good post player to win. The Heat have neither. They have three top players at the 2, 3 and 4 positions, but nothing solid at the 1 or 5. Their bench is pretty weak as well.

Now I'm not saying that the Heat are doomed because they don't have a good point guard, I'm just saying that is one reason why they are struggling. They have amazing talent and have amazing potential, its just a matter if they can do the things necessary to get there. They need to play like a team, play with tempo and play with heart.

Bosh is a great power forward, but he doesn't seem to be a great post player, he doesn't seem to play well with lots of contact in the post, he needs to toughen up and play some rough basketball.

Wade and Jame need to work in sync with each other, not letting one person handle the ball and lead the team. They can work some good screens and pick and rolls with each other and really confuse opposing teams.

Wade and Jame are both highly talented, highly athletic and are amazing playmakers. They can drive to the hoop and make things happen better than any other players in the league. So why not make opposing defenses worry about both Wade and James acting like playmakers? Let them play like the are capable of together, not taking turns.

All the smiles are gone in South Beach

So is that the head coaches fault? Partially yes. Coach Spoelstra needs to do a better job, reports are flying out of south beach that the Heat players are not happy with their head coach. Apparently he has been too hard on his big name players, calling them out in practice. James got called out by his coach, I guess the coach can't tell when he is serious and the coach wants him to be serious. Now James is known for being a care free, joking kind of guy. But I guess there are times were a leader needs to act serious and lead his team.

My opinion on that? Lebron James needs to stop complaining about his coach. I don't care how good of a player you are, you do not have more authority than the coach, you can't undermine the coach. When that happens, disaster follows. Look at Brett Favre in Minnesota, it ended in disaster because Favre had more pull than his coach.

Lebron James did the same thing in Cleveland. After the Cavs lost to the Celtics in the playoffs he really questioned his coach. The Cavs fired Mike Brown after back to back 60 win seasons. They fired him, hoping that by doing so it would keep Lebron in Cleveland. Lebron got his coach fired, because he quit against the Celtics. He really did quit, he had no heart or effort in the final games last year. Coach Brown can't go up to James and accuse him of quitting, why you ask? Because Lebron had more authority than his Coach. Now Cleveland fired the best coach they have ever had and lost Lebron, its a surprise they are as good as they are this year.

So, Lebron please stop complaining if a coach is hard on you. The mark of a good coach is if he can be hard on his best players, it shows he isn't afraid to question his players. And usually when a coach is hard on his player, the player gets better, its called good coaching.


The Heat can turn things around, its not hard. They play in the weak eastern conference, so they play a lot of weak teams. They have the talent to make a deep playoff run. It's just a matter if they can work together as a team.

Miami Thrice said it was all about teamwork, they made that known in the offseason. They knew that their stats would go down and they were ok with that. They tried to look like the 2008 Celtics that added Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. There is one big difference between these two teams, the players on the Celtics learned to play well and they learned quickly too. The Heat are still trying to find out how to play well with each other. Once they figure it out(and they eventually will) they will be a threat to win it all. But until they do so, expect them to get criticized, over covered and play .500 basketball.

Can College Football Get Anything Right?

So I realized today that I only have two posts this month and decided to change that, I enjoy blogging and will do other sports other than football, but this is topic is just too big to pass up right now.

College football seems to be hurting right now, and hurting really bad. Three football players for Southern Mississippi were shot in a bar fight over the weekend, leaving one paralyzed. A Notre Dame student who filmed the football teams practices died after filming on a scissor lift that fell over when weather got really bad.

But the biggest black eye right now is Cam Newton. Newton is the starting QB for second ranked Auburn. He is the leading candidate for the Heisman trophy and if he keeps winning, he will be playing for a national championship.
However there have been a slew of reports coming out that Newton and his father were soliciting money to schools that wanted to sign him.

For a background, Newton played for Florida in 2007, backing up my most hated athlete Tim Tebow. When Tebow announced he would come back his senior year, Newton and his dad agreed he should transfer, and he did to a small junior college in Texas. During the 2009 season he was amazing, leading his school to the junior college championship. He was ranked the #1 QB coming out of high school or junior college. Newton has highly recruited by both Mississippi State and Auburn. He chose Auburn. Lets also not forget that while we has at Florida he got in trouble there. He was arrested for stealing a laptop(charges were dropped after he went to some classes of some sort) and he was also caught cheating in class on multiple occasions. This isn't the kind of cheating were you look at your neighbors paper, its were you put your name on a paper that you didn't write AND paying for a paper online. So his character isn't exactly perfect by any means

Reports now are saying that Newton and his dad asked Mississippi State for $180,000 to get him to commit. Now Newton didn't sign with Mississippi State, but that still doesn't mean he is a clean player. Auburn is saying that Newton is eligible to play, but they could just be saying that. Who knows if Newton and his dad got money from Auburn.

So if Newton did take money then its Reggie Bush all over again. Reggie took money(about $300,000) in the 2005 season, we won the Heisman and then went to the NFL. Reggie had to give up his Heisman trophy, and USC got hit with tons of probations for playing Reggie when he was not eligible. USC also had to vacate wins from that season too.
So what if Newton is guilty, but we don't find out for sure until after the season is over, after he wins the Heisman, and can take Auburn to the BCS national championship game. Leaving Boise State and TCU out, even though they obeyed all the laws.

But then again Newton could be eligible and could be worth of all the praise he is getting.

The problem is we most likely won't find out until after the Heisman trophy ceremony and when all the bowl bids are given out.

So what should college football do?

Punish Newton and give either Boise State or TCU a chance at the title game, but then what if Newton is clean? Do we just say sorry Auburn for ruining your chance to win a title game, even though Auburn got burned by the BCS in 2004 when they went undefeated but didn't play in the BCS title game. Even though Reggie Bush played for USC who won the title that year and he was not eligible. Is it fair to burn Auburn twice in 6 years?

Or does college football let Newton play? And if he is not eligible do we just say sorry to Boise State and TCU for costing them a once in a lifetime opportunity to play for the championship?

College football is gonna be damned if they do and damned if they don't. They cannot make the right decision because there isn't a clear one. If there was a playoff system then it could work out better, but you and I both know that ain't gonna happen.

Lets also look at the fact that Tennessee, USC and North Carolina are all under heavy punishments from the NCAA for recruiting violations.

Is it safe to say that college football is just not a clean sport anymore? Not with steroids, but with schools buying players and paying them money to stay?

If its true then college football should just come out with it, much like baseball needs to come out with steroids. So everyone can know and we can work better at fixing the problem rather than trying to cover it up.