Once again, the
NCAA shows their true colors and complete favoritism toward certain
schools. Let’s take a quick look at some
of their recent rulings.
Derrick Rose
Accused of
cheating on the SAT by having someone else take the test for him. NOTHING was EVER proved. There was only speculation during the entire
investigation. The NCAA cleared Rose,
TWICE! Then decided without any evidence
to strip Memphis of their Final Four run and vacate the wins from Rose’s one
season at Memphis after the season had concluded.
Enes Kanter
Took money from a professional
team in Turkey. This much is fact. He also asked to pay the money back in order
to play college basketball in the US.
The NCAA denied his request of repayment and ruled him ineligible for
the 2011-2012 college basketball season.
(This is the same year Josh Selby, a United States citizen who has been
here his whole life, and knew the amateur rules as a high profile high school
player, took money from an agent. He ‘repaid’
the money to the NCAA and was allowed to play with a small suspension at the beginning
of the season. Where did he get the
money if he didn’t have it the first time around?)
Penn State
Everything has
been said about this that can be said. I
completely agree that Penn State deserved the punishment they received. However…Where did the NCAA get the authority
to basically hand out the death penalty when it comes to criminal
proceedings? The NCAA set a precedent in
this case that they will bow to the media pressure and hand out rulings as they
see fit.
UNC
The whole reason
for this post is based on the ruling that the NCAA released today in regards to
the UNC academic scandal. Let’s look at
the facts. UNC made classes up for
football and basketball players to ‘attend’ in order to keep their APR on the
good side of things. UNC handed out
grades to these players as well to keep them eligible. This went on for…wait for it…OVER A
DECADE! The NCAA ruling? Nothing…
These are facts people. These aren’t
speculation. It is proven that the
violations mentioned above took place.
My view? UNC is a highly regarded
academic institution with far reaching and deep pocketed alumni. Why even wait for ALL the facts to come out
before making a ruling? Let’s just go
ahead and say everything is ok to us (the NCAA).
In conclusion, the
NCAA can be equated to our current government (oh God, he mentioned politics!). Do what the people that have the most money
say. I’ll save the political rant for
later when my fellow writers have time to respond. But back to college sports. Memphis?
Smaller D-1 school, hammer them.
UK? Always cheated throughout
history and we hate Calipari. Investigate
everything after the fact so we can vacate wins. Penn State?
This is all over the news and internet.
We have to do something here in order to set a precedent that we will
hammer schools even though, in this case, we have no jurisdiction
honestly. UNC? Nah, let’s let academic fraud slide. Another funny thing to think of; the NCAA
took the time and man power to send a letter to Calipari condemning UK’s
celebration of his 500th win….
Now you tell me there isn’t a need to get rid of the NCAA and try to
start over with a credible group of people that aren’t making 7 figures while
the people they sanction make nothing.
Disclaimer: I am a UK fan, obviously. I just don’t have the time or drive to look
into all the other shortcomings of the NCAA.
PICK TIME!
Last year I didn’t fair too great in the game of picking winners and
losers (for fun of course! No actual
betting!) Hope you didn’t listen to me,
and if you did my apologies. Send all
grievance emails to C’monMan@thisyearwillbedifferent.com. But I’m back with a year under my belt, and
new fervor for making good decisions. So
here we go.
NC State vs. Tennessee (-3.5)
Take NC State on the ML(+145)
Tennessee is awful. I’m not
buying this Tyler Bray hype wagon I’ve seen in the past couple of days. Not to discredit UK’s win against them last
year, but if you can only find the end zone once against the awful UK defense
from last year, no one should be talking about your team (Except possibly that
puke orange homer Clay Travis).
Boise St vs. Michigan St (-7)
Take Boise St at +7.5
Boise has lost a lot since last year…A LOT. But they are still Boise St. They find ways to win. Look for Boise to get down early by 10-14,
then make a Fiesta like comeback to win by 3 or lose by 3. Michigan St. is another overhyped Big Ten
media machine.
Auburn vs. Clemson (-3)
Take Auburn on the ML(+130)
Ditto from what my fellow football enthusiast stated earlier. SEC vs. ACC?
SEC all day.
Michigan vs. Alabama (-14)
Take Alabama at -14
A top ten matchup with this kind of spread? What is Vegas smoking? Oh, nothing you say? That’s right, they are sober because Michigan
is about like Arkansas. When everyone
saw the preseason poll there was a collective “WTF?” heard around the country.
So there you have
week one in a nutshell. Good luck in
your endeavors and may you be blessed with extra ‘credits’ for the games at
Dave and Buster’s.
NCAA Record (0-0)
NFL Record (0-0)
Disclaimer: See below in previous post
