The mighty have fallen (due to cheating), if there was ever ANY doubt about NCAA sports being about money (there is NONE now) and not the athletes/student athletes, and there is NO shred of actual allegiance to anything, in college athletics anymore (for players, coaches, athletic directors, or teams). There isn't anyone, unless not a sports fan, or they were living under a rock for the last week that hasn't heard about the disintegration of the NCAA's Big XII Conference, bulking of up the first "Super Conference" (what should be known as the PAC-16), and the fact USC received the death penalty, due to Reggie Bush (with family) and O. J. Mayo's taking money, housing and "extras" (to come and play at the University of Southern California). However, the biggest shot, for the American public to take a look at "the real side" of college sports, it's corruption, lack of integrity, and overall money bound principled staffing is the fiasco in the Big 12 and Pac-10 conferences. The fact Colorado has already signed with the Pac-10, Nebraska is all but in the Big 10, and all the southern schools (except Baylor, in the Big 12) are leaving the way of West Coast football, the land of the Pete Carroll's, countless allegations, felonies, thugs of players, and cheating (see Reggie Bush, OJ Mayo/O.J. Mayo, and Oregon's football team).First things first, there was supposed to be a Nebraska and Missouri situation, both leaving for the Big X. However, MU was not the draw, which Nebraska was (at least money, television rights, and outright sales, merchandise and otherwise), so the University of Missouri is a college without a conference, right now. Yet, Nebraska is basically in, with the Big X, all top athletic people and dean's saying, "All that needs to be done, is for them to sign on the dotted line." Next is the University of Colorado, the first to make the exodus to the "Pac-10," on paper. Colorado is not the bastion of sports, but they have the third biggest television market (for NCAA sports) in the West Coast area, bring a huge basket of cash with them, and is the sixteenth team (in the future "Pac-16").
The wild cards in all of this are the Texas A&M Aggie's, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Oklahoma State Cowboys, and the two big time draws, the Oklahoma Sooner's and Texas Longhorns. These teams, with Colorado, will be the "Super Conference" (as it is being called on talk sports radio, ESPN and other sporting outlets), the "Pac-16." There are two HUGE problems lurking and showing a big light on the underbelly of college sports. Missouri getting the shaft, from the Big 10, as they were not good enough, couldn't draw away from KU, KSU, and Nebraska for the west half of Missouri (state), and they are just not good in any one sport, much less with any big tradition (in any one sport, like Texas Football, KU basketball, etc..etc..). They will either end in a weaker and less money conference, such as, the WAC (Western Athletic Conference), the Missouri Valley (which is probably to small), but likely they will (with no loss of irony, having UMKC being in this situation) an independent team. As the Notre Dame Fighting Irish would be FOOLS not to take the offer, that is definitely coming their way, via the Big 10 (imagine, UND, with the likes of Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa, etc... just in football alone.
The second big problem is the Kansas Jayhawks and the Baylor Bears are left fending for themselves. This is where KU will show, if the mass journey of Texas Teams, to the Pac-10 wasn't enough proof, the whole NCAA sports program, across the nation is corrupt, greedy and is full of holes in their systems. Of course, there will still be other teams without a conference, come the near future (Iowa State, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, and Baylor), but KU (especially) has been a household name brand, nationwide, thru their men's basketball alone for years, but they have also had big seasons in baseball, bowl games in football, and much success with lesser known sports. They will land on their feet, due to money and the television rights they can bring alone, and they will go to a BIG TIME conference, at the most premium price. The biggest loser and what shows/proves this theory of the ugly side of college sports and Baylor Bears, who has exploded onto the sports scene in men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, and big bowl games in football, not counting the lesser known sports, like track where they have excelled. Out of all the schools, Baylor packs the biggest punch for their GPA's. Baylor, as a school (not just athletes, yet counting them) is the 51st highest ranked GPA undergrad program in the country (highest in the Big 12), and it has over 6 other specialty fields (education, science, and others). Yet, this counts little, if any, in the eyes of the boosters, television sponsors, and all standing to make a buck in this monstrosity of a shift, in the college landscape.
There is only one thing, which has been true for a long time, the dollar is king in NCAA Sports and schooling, period. From before the times of the "Nike Air" shoe and Michael Jordan (though it was NEVER this bad and blatant), it has been the same. The difference now is the coaches (Lane Kiffin, blazing Tennessee after one year, to USC), to athletic directors treating the athletes as cattle (instead of student athletes, where they HAVE TO go to class and make those grades, for longer than a year), to the top of the NCAA System and Chairpersons are not teaching our young people how to be ethical, break the rules as long as you get something out of it, at that time (taking barrels of cash, homes for their parents, Reggie Bush and O. J. Mayo, just to name the last two. As the "Rush Brothers" thru KU, came with a price tag and Roy Williams blazed for Tar Heels, of North Carolina), and they are not teaching them the fundamentals of being men and women, of strong minds, bodies and souls. Instead, they soak every cent off of their sweaty, salt laden bodies, and leave them to wolves. Most of these student/athletes, leave school without degrees, some not able to read and write properly, and the least of the crimes against our college youth is nothing is expected of them, as the example before them has been laid.
copyright. DMAN At "The Thought Spigot"
http://thethoughtspigot.com/
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