Almost Persuaded

I don’t like to follow a “This Week’s Picks” with a blog about college football. It ought to be pretty clear by now that I’m no expert and most of the things I say about this (and most other subjects) are said with tongue in cheek. But last week something happened that made me almost mad.

The NCAA suspended UGA wide receiver A. J. Green for selling his Independence Bowl jersey. The Independence Bowl is played in Shreveport, Louisiana (city motto: “Keep driving, you’re almost in Texas”). It is considered a “minor” bowl game. It used to be called “The Poulan Weed Eater Independence Bowl”. Green sold his jersey for $1,000.00 to an agent. He was suspended for four games.

UGA has twelve scheduled games. This means Green was suspended for a third of this season for selling his laundry.

To give you how out of whack this punishment is, the NFL suspended Ben Roethlisberger originally for six games for a sexual assault on a co-ed. However, they have reconsidered and Roethlisberger is now suspended for four games. It is not clear if he has ever sold his jersey.

I’m not one of those jock sniffing nerds who think everything an athlete does is golden and they ought to be treated differently from the rest because they has play football or whatever. I have resisted the argument about paying athletes while they are enrolled in school.

Look, college education is expensive and getting your tuition/room and board paid for is nothing to sneeze at. A full ride at some schools is equivalent to a middle class salary.

I found the cries for “pizza money” insincere and disingenuous. My gosh, in the South, football players are treated (if first string) like royalty. They get things that the average student could only dream of (cars, money, help in school, etc). It has been that way for years. My cousin was student at a large university fifty years ago and saw the star quarterback (who came from humble beginnings) tooling down the avenue in a convertible.

But, the schools and the NCAA make millions off of these athletes. Let’s face it, the football team is a running, catching, blocking advertisement for the school. When UGA does well, enrollment and applications go up (on a related note, why is the application fee un-refundable?). When they have a poor year, the reverse happens.

The player gets no compensation for “their jersey” being sold at the college bookstores or for their likeness being plastered on the game day program.

Instead, the player is suspended for selling his own personal property. You don’t have to go to college to know that this does not make any sense. It is harsh, arbitrary and capricious.

What about the rules? There are laws (The Ten Commandments) and there are rules (the player playing college football should be an amateur) and then there are rules that are pulled out of the blue clear sky by some bureaucrat who wants to be consistent and/or gets off on their power.

I’m almost persuaded that college football players should receive some sort of payment or salary. I just don’t know how and how much.