Does it make any difference?

[SoonerNomad]

I asked this in the middle of another thread and it got buried (or nobody cared), but I was wondering if any of you had an opinion on whether the results of the cheating at Ohio State and USC make any difference in stopping the cheating going on in college football?

Will it stop the next person from making the same decisions that Reggie Bush and his family, that Terrelle Pryor and his teammates and that Jim Tressel made?

Is Reggie losing his Heisman enough?
USC losing its title?
Jim Tressel losing his job and his dignity?
Terrelle Pryor heading for ignominity instead of the NFL?

Does any of this mean there is a player out there that will decide not to follow that same path when opportunity knocks?

I don't know if there is an answer, just wondering what you all think.

[silverwheels]

Absolutely not. "Cheating" goes on at every school. The NCAA is just selective on who it investigates and punishes. It's never going to stop. Programs (coaches, administrators, boosters, etc.) are always going to try and get a leg up on everyone else. The NCAA has become a completely useless entity as far as rule-making and enforcing goes.

[olevetonahill]

As long as there are kids out there with the "ME first" attitude this crap will continue.

Thats why the coach's need to look really hard at a Kids history and try to discern his character . If the Players Only think of themselves they aint gonna give a **** what happens to the School after they are gone

[meoveryouxinfinity]

For every Reggie Bush there is a Cam Newton.

[MeMyself&Me]

I asked this in the middle of another thread and it got buried (or nobody cared), but I was wondering if any of you had an opinion on whether the results of the cheating at Ohio State and USC make any difference in stopping the cheating going on in college football?

Will it stop cheating? Of course not. Will always go on.

Will it make a difference as you put it? Well, ask it this way. How would people act if the NCAA didn't punish schools when cheating occurs?

[SoonerDan74012]

The only way it will stop is if the NCAA has the balls to hand out the death penalty imo.

[pweitkem]

The only way it will stop is if the NCAA has the balls to hand out the death penalty imo.

Death penalty = killing a gnat with a sledgehammer.

All I keep thinking when watching the endless cycle of Ohio State updates is, 'who really cares?' The big deal yesterday was that Pryor got $24K or so in autographs.... which equates to about $8K a year or a part time job at McDonald's.

Lying about not knowing anything is an issue I guess... sort of.

It's a big deal because it's Ohio State and they're really good. If it were OU it would be big news. If it were Baylor, well it's really not news worthy so let's give 'em a pass.

[silverwheels]

The only way it will stop is if the NCAA has the balls to hand out the death penalty imo.

That wouldn't stop it either.

[BoulderSooner79]

There will always be players that will take illegal benefits and there will always be people around CFB willing to offer them. I'll bet there are even HS seniors out there just now getting scholarship offers who are paying no attention to what's going on. Certainly, players a couple of years younger will have forgotten both USC and tOSU problems by the time they are seniors.

But it will change both USC and tOSU and their respective compliance systems, so it will make the difference there. I would think any University president and football HC would at least stop and think if they are vulnerable, but I don't know. The Bomar case changed OU.

[nativesooner]

I think the only way it might stop is if they penalize the kids that do it. They can't however, but that's probably the only thing that will discourage kids from doing that. I can see this conversation happening...

Booster/Agent: Hey kid, I can help you get a car and your folks a house right now, but you gotta remember me when you make it to the pros.

Kid: Sounds good, but what if someone finds out?

Booster/Agent: By the time they do, you'll be long gone and it won't affect you at all, just a few headlines and it'll all go away.

Kid: So if they did find out, I wouldn't get in trouble?

Booster/Agent: Nahh, they'll go after the school, they can't do jack to you!

Kid: Hell ok then, hook me up!!

[King Barry's Back]

I asked this in the middle of another thread and it got buried (or nobody cared), but I was wondering if any of you had an opinion on whether the results of the cheating at Ohio State and USC make any difference in stopping the cheating going on in college football?

Will it stop the next person from making the same decisions that Reggie Bush and his family, that Terrelle Pryor and his teammates and that Jim Tressel made?

Is Reggie losing his Heisman enough?
USC losing its title?
Jim Tressel losing his job and his dignity?
Terrelle Pryor heading for ignominity instead of the NFL?

Does any of this mean there is a player out there that will decide not to follow that same path when opportunity knocks?

I don't know if there is an answer, just wondering what you all think.

Yes. Abso-friggin-lutely. If the NCAA weren't out there bringing these investigations down, then the locker rooms would be lined with jock sniffers and rich alums handing out $100 bills.

I'll tell you a story. A very close confidant of mine played football at NEO in Miami, OK back in the 50s. A JUCO in Miami seems like a pretty small time program, right? He told me that before big games, they'd come in the locker room to find $50 bills in each shoe. (In fact, this guy was kind of a farm boy, and when he found the money he took it to the coach worried that someone had lost it.)

Another, documented, story involves Jim Tatum's only season at OU, the year before Bud Wilkinson took over. (This is in President's Can't Punt, or one of the other histories of OU football.) Tatum took the Sooners to the Gator Bowl, and got our first bowl win. To celebrate, he wanted to buy the players a set of golf clubs, or maybe a shot gun. (Can you imagine anyone passing out shot guns to a team nowadays?)

Well, the team voted to take straight case, and so they passed money out to the team as a whole.

I can't help but think that would all be going on today if not for the NCAA and its oft-maligned enforcement body.

[ouwasp]

Why are the prisons packed? I would imagine a good number of inmates never thought they'd get caught...

Maybe it's apples and oranges, but I do see a parallel. There must be a mechanism in place to bring justice to those that knowingly violate standards, whether it is our society at large or the NCAA.

Twenty yrs from now there will still be prisons. And there will still be those in college athletics that think they can skirt the rules.

But, yeah, imo the penalties do have a deterrent effect. But I cannot think of a way the deterrence could be measured.

[MsProudSooner]

It may make some schools be more inclined to self-report infractions and cooperate with the NCAA.

It make make some schools try harder to determine the true character of the players and their families.

I doubt that it makse much of an impression on kids who are inclined to cheat or boosters who cultivate them.

[BoulderSooner79]

It may make some schools be more inclined to self-report infractions and cooperate with the NCAA.

It make make some schools try harder to determine the true character of the players and their families.

I doubt that it makse much of an impression on kids who are inclined to cheat or boosters who cultivate them.

This, this and this. The Bomar thing certainly changed OU (for the better) by beefing up compliance. That big red auto thing was a mistake by Stoops early in his HC career that I doubt he would repeat. The only time I've questioned Stoops on an individual player was that Jarboe kid. I couldn't understand why Stoops didn't pull his scholly offer immediately after he was caught with a gun on his HS campus. Fortunately, he never made it to OU.

[yermom]

For every Reggie Bush there is a Cam Newton.

heh