The hypocrisy of college athletics. You know it's true

     We are hypocrites when it comes to college athletics.
     We love the entertainment, the excitement. We especially love when our teams win. We don't love the other teams, the officials, replays/reviews, TV timeouts.
     But we know there is cheating in college athletics. Lots of it, especially in bigtime football and basketball. And we can easily excuse it.
     Of course, it happens. Always has, and -- unfortunately -- always will because ... people are people, and people are greedy. Human nature, and all that.
     Not even the mighty NCAA has enough clout to keep big money out of college athletics. In fact, it welcomes the millions the TV networks and the athletic wear/shoe companies pour into the college coffers.
     So what those of us who love college athletics, and have for a long, long time must recognize: It is a world of hypocrites. A big, often dirty business.
     You know darned well that many of these college "student-athletes" are not there for the "student" part, at all.
     There are there because it is a necessary stop to "the next level." You can book that, although "book" is a mostly foreign word to many of these kids.      
     You know that there is money flowing to athletes, all underneath the surface, of course. You know that this is particularly true of the "major" powers -- football and basketball -- and that they have their ways of getting this done (so that the NCAA can't touch them).
     You know there are payments -- money, clothes, food ... whatever -- far above the NCAA-approved stipends, and it has been that way forever.  
     (Ask me, and I can give you the name of a dozen athletes -- football and basketball -- from Louisiana tied to the above-the-norm scholarships and involved -- in their time -- to recruiting bidding wars. And that's dating to the 1950s to the present. We'll get to the present soon.)
     One more aside, though: We were told -- no basis of fact -- that a prominent LSU running back of recent vintage, now in the NFL, where he was a very high draft pick, was worth a $200,000 payment to his family. You can guess his name and hometown (it is a big, easy answer), but I suspect you know. I trust the source of that rumor.
     OK, other "cheating" methods: Impermissible phone calls or recruiting visits by coaches; changing entrance-exam test scores, or having someone take tests for the athletes; athletes taking "crip" courses, and not even having to show up for classes; athletes being given favorable grades for work done poorly or not done at all. (Hello, North Carolina.)
     We could go and on, but you have the idea.
     Hypocrisy in so many ways.
     It is too broad a subject -- we have not even touched on the idea that athletes should be paid for the use of their images in advertising or for promotion. 
     About paying athletes above they are receiving now: My opinion -- where do you draw the line? How many sports and scholarship athletes does this include? Yes, the "major" schools can afford it, but what about the mid-majors (yes, I am thinking of Louisiana Tech). 
     Isn't a free scholarship for one to five years enough? Yes, I am old-school about this.
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      Let's narrow the focus of this piece: college basketball.
      Specifically the investigation, the rumors/reports, and the  subsequent corruption trial concluded a little more than a week ago.
      To be more narrowly focused: LSU's coach and program. And a strange interloper named Christian Dawkins.

How many of these players (and the coach) will be in the picture
for LSU basketball next season? (photo by (Photo: Jonathan Mailhes)

      We have seen Will Wade's case discussed, cussed (and praised) ad nauseum the past couple of months. Who knows where the program stands?
       We know, after Wade's postseason suspension and subsequent reinstatement, that four or five frontline players (heck, we lost count) from LSU's regular-season SEC championship team -- Wade's crowning achievement in just two seasons with the program -- want to go pro. Maybe they'll make the NBA, maybe not, and maybe some will come back to LSU after all.
       We know, too, from social-media reaction, that many of the LSU faithful don't believe Wade did much wrong, or at least it is not proven that he did.
       Their view is that he did nothing more than what the "sainted" coaches at Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, UNLV and dozens of other basketball powers over six-seven decades have done (and hidden well enough that they are in the NCAA's "untouchable" range). 
      Nevertheless, there's a lot of smoke there ... or maybe just hot air.
     Which brings us to Dawkins, who was among the 10 men charged with wrongdoing in this "scandal." Four of those were assistant basketball coaches -- you probably know one, Chuck Person (Auburn); they all took plea deals.
      The recent trial ended with guilty verdicts for two men. Dawkins is one.
     Here is how Sports Illustrated writer Andy Staples described him in an article on college basketball's "black market" last week: 
     One low-level hustler: Christian Dawkins, truly the man at the center of the investigation, was a runner for agent Andy Miller. Dawkins was convicted Wednesday [May 8] of bribery for paying assistant coaches to influence players with regard to their agent selection. Dawkins also was convicted of fraud following an October trial.
    As anyone following LSU's travails knows, Dawkins is the voice on the other end of the phone tied to the Tigers.
     Again, from Staples' story (and many earlier similar reports): "Somewhere, there's audio of LSU coach Will Wade talking about a "strong-ass offer" to a middleman representing Javonte Smart, who was the Tigers' sixth man this past season.
     (That, of course, led to Wade's suspension when he refused to meet with LSU officials about the rumor.)
     Another audio played in court: Ex-Arizona assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson (another guilty-plea case) claiming that Wade had a $300,000 deal for forward Naz Reid. 
     (Not confirmed, folks, but a helluva claim. Naz pointedly denies it happened.)
     Let me interject a thought: Seems that Javonte Smart, from Scotlandville (right outside Baton Rouge), a three-time Louisiana "Player of the Year," would have been a natural recruit for LSU, one who would not/should not have required a payment. But the word was that Smart, already the father of a baby, and his family needed the money.
     Reid was the 6-11 center from Asbury Park, N.J., a force inside with long-range shooting ability, too; raw and often unpolished, but a big talent.
     Makes more sense that LSU would need extra incentive to sign the big kid from up north rather than the 6-4 guard from closeby.
      As a friend pointed out, maybe some other school would have been willing to spend, say, $300,000 for Naz Reid -- or Javonte Smart. It happens, or so we keep hearing.
      Not saying that's what happened at LSU. I don't know, and neither do you. 
      LSU faithful are writing that Dawkins and Richardson -- guilty already -- are talking to save their butts. Maybe. But that smoke surrounding Will Wade and LSU smells a bit.
     Another opinion (shared by many), and thinking of Naz Reid (and many other potential pros): One-and-done is a bad deal for college basketball.
    True, we get to see some great talent -- for one season. But it just ramps up the recruiting bidding wars for these kids who obviously appear ready for the NBA out of high school. 
     Hard to judge the kids' maturity and how they would fit into the NBA at age 18. Plus, how they would handle the big money -- even bigger than the colleges pay -- at that young age. 
      Good news: The NBA and its players' union, which forced the one-and-done plan (it wasn't the NCAA's idea), are showing signs of doing away with it soon. That will work.
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     Interesting to see the reactions of some of my friends to the article by SI's Staples we posted last week that basically said little or nothing will come of this college basketball "scandal." (See my friends' comments below.)
     Here is how Staples summed it up: "Today, we know what the millions of our tax dollars they [FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office] spent on the investigation netted: A fart in a stiff wind."
     Going to post some of my friends' reactions below, and will tell you that it sparked an exchange between two ex-Louisiana head basketball coaches (and friends), LSU's Dale Brown and Centenary's Tommy Canterbury.
     And if you know much about Dale Brown, you know that he has been critical of the NCAA for four-plus decades -- and has offered many suggested for improving the NCAA oversight and, with it, college athletics.
    (If you want the full copy of Dale's "messages" for the NCAA -- ones he has mailed out and made public repeatedly
over the years -- let me know, and I will send them to you.)
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      So maybe it passes, and Wade continues at LSU, with or without Naz Reid, Tremont Waters, Skylar Mays, Javonte Smart, Emmitt Williams. Or the new LSU athletic director Scott Woodward and other LSU officials decide they need a new start, a new coach.
     If you think nothing happened, and basketball players with Louisiana ties, haven't been "bought" or "rewarded," here are some names for you to consider: Jackie Moreland, Cotton Nash, Barrie Haynie, Elvin Hayes, Marvin Winkler, Elvin Ivory, Charlie Bishop, Mike Green, Andy Knowles, Jim Jenkins, Dwight Lamar, Roy Ebron, Louis Dunbar, Robert Parish, Poo Welch, Edmond Lawrence, Joe Dumars, Mike Sanders, Benny Anders, and who knows how many others.
    That's just basketball, people. Football? Just think about it.    
     And, look, I do not want to be "holier than thou," but it is not how I want college athletics to be. Yet it is part of the hypocrisy. What is true -- money aside -- is we enjoy watching these players and these teams.  
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Staples' SI story: https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/05/09/ncaa-trial-fbi-bribery-corruption-mark-emmert?utm_campaign=si-extra&utm_source=si.com&utm_medium=email&utm_term=SI%20Extra%20-%20USE%20THIS%20-%20List