The Death of the NCAA?

NCAA athletics have spiraled out of control. In just the past few days, the biggest problems in the association have shown themselves. Over the past year many have marveled at the resurgence of Baylor University's athletic program; once an afterthought in one of the nation's strongest conferences, suddenly the Bears boasted an impressive football team complete with Heisman winner Robert Griffin III, a National Championship Women's Basketball team with the most dominant female player ever in Britney Griner, and a top 10 men's basketball team with a roster packed with talent. Less than a week after the Women's team hoisted the trophy after completing a perfect 40-0 season, news came out that major infractions had been committed. Suddenly, three years of probation loomed ahead of the athletic department, the mood went from celebratory to sullen.

Baylor's infractions are just the most recent in a long line of violations by many of the nation's most prominent universities. Schools currently on NCAA probation for major infractions, those which lead to an extensive recruiting or competitive advantage, include: Baylor, Boise State, Cincinnati, LSU, UNC, Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Florida St., Michigan, and Texas Tech. A number of other universities just finished up their probationary periods. This list includes Alabama, Arizona St., Illinois, Kansas, Ohio St., Oklahoma, Oregon(which is under investigation again and may be placed back on probation), South Carolina, and USC.

But Baylor wasn't the only university making headlines for all the wrong reasons this year. Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino go himself fired for a lying about a joyride he took with his 25 year old mistress. Arkansas knew they were getting a coach with plenty of character issues when they hired Patrino, but the lure of a championship caliber team outweighed the potential embarrassment that eventually was brought upon the university. Arkansas isn't the only school that has recently fired coaches who were misbehaving, we're only a few months removed from the disaster at Penn State. In that case a coach abusing young boys was protected because of his skill as a linebackers coach, and sometimes hidden in the shadow of the Nittany Lions embarrassment is a similar scandal at Syracuse University involving an assistant basketball coach.

These issues have come up because the NCAA has turned into a collection of schools who will stop at nothing for success on the court or field. In the entire history of NCAA football, only 2 schools have won National Championships while avoiding official sanctions. One of those schools is Penn St., which obviously has worse issues; the other school is the 1984 champ, BYU. Schools across the nation have sold their reputation so that their ill-gotten teams can bring in more money through on field success. The problem here is that the NCAA states that one of it's main goals is to uphold the highest level of integrity and sportsmanship. One of it's main goals is being undermined by some of it's most well known institutions, and these are only those who have been caught in their dishonesty.

What then can be done to fix this problem present in so many colleges across the nation? It seems that the problems has completely sewn itself into the fabric of the schools. The only way to fix this problem is for a complete divorce between our institutions of higher learning, and the athletic programs their names are attached to. Will it ever happen? Probably not, it's a very drastic step. But maybe when these schools remember their purpose is not to fill ever growing stadiums in order to make ever growing amounts of money, but to provide an opportunity for all of their students (not just the ones wearing jerseys) to grow their opportunities in life, something will be done to curb their appetite for athletic money at any and all costs.

A Lockout Shortened Season....Every Season?

The 2011-2012 NBA season almost didn't happen. The combined greed of millionaire players and billionaire owners almost kept arenas across the country closed to the fans of the league, but at the last minute the sides cooperated just enough to squeeze in a shortened season so they wouldn't lose more money for the benefit of the fans. The result has been at times extremely sloppy due to the fact that rookies missed out on their usual summer leagues to get them up to professional speed, and training camps and the preseason were both truncated; but, it has also provided some great advantages that we haven't seen in past seasons. No I'm not suggesting that there be a yearly scare that we won't get to watch our favorite ball players for a year, but there are a few things the league can learn from this lockout shortened year.

Christmas Day Opening Day:

As negotiations between the leagues owners and the players association wore on to late fall, the general consensus was made that if a deal couldn't be reached in time for games to tip-off on Christmas Day, the entire season would be scrapped and all we would see of the best basketball players in the world would be limited to shaky videos on outdoor courts. Greed took over when both sides realized how much money would be lost with a cancelled season, and a deal was struck just in time.

Christmas Day tipped-off the new season with 5 highly anticipated games. Those games provided the league with some of the most watched regular season games in league history. TV ratings are a great boost for the league, but the holiday opening is a great boost for fans. The usual November start for the NBA regular season gets lost in both the NFL and College Football season. And when basketball competes with football, football wins in a blowout. By late December, College Football is playing meaningless bowl games, and in the NFL playoff positions have mostly been determined. In normal years, most people don't start paying attention to the NBA before Christmas anyway. Why not wait and start the season when people will actually take notice, instead of playing two months largely being ignored?

Less games = Each game means more.

As we come down the home stretch of this NBA season, players are playing games with more hard nosed defense and even harder fouls. This was on display in a recent Heat-Thunder game, a possible preview of an Finals match-up. These highlights show just a portion of the intensity of the game.

Generally, there are so many games in an NBA regular season that players coast through a significant part of the season. With this years shortened schedule, each game matters more(66 games are being played as opposed to the usual 82). This has made for a more exciting season as essentially 16 games which would have been played halfheartedly were thrown out and we were able to get to the games that mattered more quickly. Fans don't want to watch games where the players aren't putting forth their best effort, we want to watch ones like the video above, where all ten players are putting forth maximum effort all game long. Less games means more meaning in each game, a concept which our beloved football has perfected.

Although the greed of the lockout nearly left us without an NBA season, in the end it showed some ways that the league could improve their product. In the end the same thing that caused the lockout and brought about it's eventual end, the greed of those making millions of dollars every year, will likely prevent these changes from being made. With less games and a shorter season: less tickets will be sold, television revenue will be down, the league will be in the limelight during a smaller portion of the year, and owners won't make as much money. So although the pursuit of the all important dollar will probably prevent us from enjoying a more streamlined NBA season anytime soon, at least we got to enjoy it for one year; and maybe in ten years when the Collective Bargaining Agreement is up for negotiation again we'll enjoy another one of the NBA's most exciting seasons.