GP1

That's an interesting perspective. Only because he is such a boring personality. Without him saying what he said, the 2010-2011 Miami Heat march off much faster into obscurity. Give me Charles Barkley over a guy like LBJ any day of the week.

There is a difference between breaking NCAA rules and breaking the law. Laws make actions illegal because OTHERS are harmed by the actions of the criminal. NCAA rules are made in order to enforce an fantasy many have created for themselves about the nature and purpose of college athletics. Who is harmed by Pryor breaking ncaa rules? I would say that almost nobody is harmed by him breaking ncaa rules. Why?....Well, when everyone is already breaking the most moronic rules in the world, nobody can be harmed by the actions. "But GP1, schools like Akron are hurt by Pryor breaking the rules. It gives them an unfair advantage." This line of thinking is nonsense. We are our own worst enemy and the harm we do to ourselves is far worse than anything tosu or the other bcs schools could do to us.

Let me be clear. LBJ is a jackass. I just find it refreshing to have a player say exactly what he thinks even when he is being a jerk. His words made them losing even more interesting. In terms of missing the fourth period, I didn't see more than five minutes of the finals. Dallas is/was a great story. I'll read about it in the paper.

I find it refreshing when an athlete says what they all think but will not say. The losing was worse for his brand than what he said. The NBA will sell a ton of LBJ merchandise next season.

Real good turnout....maybe. If we had 525 people turn out for something at the Big Dialer, it would be right around 2% of the seating capacity of the stadium. It's all how you look at the numbers. Then again, if the Zips are as bad next year as last year, they'll be lucky to get 525 to show up for a game. I'm more impressed WMU has five guys in the NFL willing to come back to do it. They mention "tradition" in an article. That's how tradition is built...not a former star QB working camps at Ashland University. Again, real good event...maybe. The question is whether or not it will turn into additional ticket sales, or was this just something to do in a town with little to offer in terms of entertainment?

Here is what I would like to know. How many people attended the WMU event and how many ladies attended the Football 101 event? On the surface, they both seem like really good ideas. One event a year is not enough though. At the end of the day, marketing requires results.... meaning, selling tickets or other forms of revenue generation. The best way to generate money from the WMU event is to get some out of the players they had at the event. They are flush with cash right now, my as well get some of it before they blow it all buying a sports bar. Miami has a decent idea. However, waiting for someone else to do your job for you is the lazy way to do your job. My experience in life is the lazy way usually results in failure. The "silent sales force" will only take you so far when the task is difficult. An article on a local TV station or local paper doesn't generate much interest as not many people read those mediums. Few even watch the local news. The article has one comment and two reactions to it. Yaaaaaaaaawn says the folks from western Michigan. Please, someone find out how many people were at the WMU event, not including the countless Athletic Department paper pushers who show up to every event for free food?

I think you might be surprised.

All you have done is define the current state of affairs that isn't working. 1. The life is not fair argument so swallow the crap you are fed because the rules are such you can't change them is not working and hasn't worked for decades...if ever. 2. The rules are being broken every day. We now have a system where a kid has to understand a 400+ page compliance manual from the ncaa in order to keep from breaking the rules. More rules aren't the answer. More bureaucracy isn't the answer. More compliance officers are not the answer. More ncaa enforcement officers is not the answer. 3. I think the public is coming around to the fact the ncaa needs massive change to reform itself. If it doesn't, others are going to step in and do so. When a kid goes to college, aren't we asking that person to expand their mind by asking questions? If I was poor kid playing college football, the following questions would enter my mind: 1. How much money does the school make off of my likeness? 2. How much money does the school make off of the tickets sold to watch me play? 3. How much are they making in alumni donations because of me? 4. Is the value of my scholarship in proportion to the amount of money they are making off of me? 5. Why can't I just have a job? These are just a few of the questions. The problem with the ncaa is the rules applied to the student athletes are not there to lift that person up. They are there to keep that person down. Let's have rules that lift a person up in lieu of keeping them down.

What if your family needs the money to pay for rent and food?

Wow, that $16,000 is almost to the poverty level!!! A guy can live it up on that. This mentality is completely void of any understanding of where a lot of the kids come from and is really the 1950s mentality I like to make fun of. Most people in this country have zero idea how poor many of the families the kids playing college football really are. Many players would have to take that $16,000 and give a lot of it to maybe his single mother on welfare so she can take care of her other children. Any kid who loved his mother and fellow siblings would do everything he could to help her. To pretend otherwise is silly. Again, the answer isn't to pay the kid. The answer is to allow him to make a legal income as long as he keeps up with the most important thing in his life....football, and second....school work. As long as he is fulfilling those obligations in that order, he should be allowed to have a job.

The big schools already have an unfair advantage in recruiting. You don't think $100 handshakes are discussed with recruits and their player/host during their recruiting visit? You don't think that tosu is better able to line up more attractive girls for guys on visits than Akron? You don't think they are all being offered more money to go to tosu than say Akron? You don't think that a recruit walking into a 100,000 seat stadium in Ann Arbor is more impressed than one walking into InfoCision? Please, please, please stop creating illusions for yourself. They get the tatoos because they are forced into a type of black market that forces them to break antiquated ncaa rules in order to get what they need or want. When they break the ncaa rules by taking money under the table, they are also breaking real tax laws. How is that good for college football and the players playing. If people really wanted to protect the players, they would allow them to make money in the open in a legal manner.

Necessary? haha, do you see what you did there? He doesn't or he wouldn't keep making those types of statements. The ncaa is a complete racket. Anyone who thinks bcs level college football is about being a student first is kidding himself. It is about the money and has always been about the money.

Article Great article on why the BCS and NCAA is a monopoly. This gets back to one of the points I always make. The ncaa needs to reform itself before the government does. It would not be out of bounds for the government to regulate the ncaa as interstate commerce. When the government determines there is a monopoly, they frequently make the monopoly break up. I'd love for the ncaa to be broken up. It would be the best thing for college athletics. Multiple leagues and organizations could be more creative in how they go to market. It would be much more interesting than the single minded ncaa. The ncaa needs to reform itself by adding levels within college football that allow the BCS schools to basically enter the sunshine and come out as the professional organizations they all are. If not, every off season is going to be filled with talk of one school who badly broke the rules. This year it is tosu. Last year it was usc. Next year it will be another school. How is that good for college football? I realize it has been entertaining making fun of tosu the past few months, but it isn't a good story for college football.

Since when has college football been about student athletes? College football isn't about professional organizations and the employees who play for them? Wait a minute. They are completely professional organizations making money off of a labor force that doesn't get paid. Professional football has a higher moral standing because the player actually get paid for making millions for their organization. The players in college football are forced into illegal, under the table incomes that force them into criminal actions while in college. Your argument comes back to schools paying players. I don't think the schools should pay the players. The players should be able to have any form of legal income they wish. I really don't see the problem with a human being earning a legal income.

What if the rules are unjust to the point of being immoral?

Because there is a demand for their services. If a non athlete could make $1,250/hour, why shouldn't they be allowed to? It's called a free country. It would be terrible for college football to have a viable minor league football system. There would be a huge decline in the quality of play across the board. The talent makes the game entertaining, not the game itself. If you think the MAC is bad now.....yikes. The reason players don't do the arena league or whatever league is out there is they aren't realistic methods of showing off their talents.

Here is an example. Jock sniffing car dealer in Columbus pays a player $5,000 to sign autographs for four hours on one Saturday, or however often he wants to sign. Player would have to work 500 hours at $10/hr to make that kind of money. They would have jobs unlike most students, but it is a free country after all.

This is the reason why student athletes should be able to hold a job while in school. Allowinig it to happens brings all of the money into the open and requiring laws to be followed. As it stands now, schools are taking 18-23 year old people and turning them into criminals before most ever get into the working world. The ncaa is run by despicable people and even more despicable people (the universities themselves) pay their salaries. They are allowed to hold a job. What makes you think they can't? It is against NCAA rules for a player to hold a job during the spring and fall semesters. They should be allowed to hold a job year around. They should be allowed to legally make money.

I got a good laugh out of that as well. Last January, one would have thought tosu won the national championship when they beat a fifth place, middling SEC program in a meaningless bowl game.

This is the reason why student athletes should be able to hold a job while in school. Allowinig it to happens brings all of the money into the open and requiring laws to be followed. As it stands now, schools are taking 18-23 year old people and turning them into criminals before most ever get into the working world. The ncaa is run by despicable people and even more despicable people (the universities themselves) pay their salaries.

Are you saying people say it is one way, but it's the other way? I'm personally shocked that would be the case.....NOT.

I agree. I'm not sure where we have more exposure other than in football. That exposure comes at the expense of playing on Tuesday nights in front of 95% empty stadiums in late Oct and Nov. That's exactly the kind of exposure we don't need. Maybe nobody else wants the job.

My prediction is the ncaa will never hand out the death penalty again after what happened to smu after they received it. Wow.. great prediction. That would be impressive had it been BEFORE the NCAA said it would never again hand out a death penalty. We're both wrong. Two schools received the death penalty since smu in lower divisions. Actually Doug, I was only wrong once. You were wrong twice. Congrats, you win.

My prediction is the ncaa will never hand out the death penalty again after what happened to smu after they received it.

This is going to be the other shoe and lots of people in Columbus know it. The corruption at tosu goes far beyond the football program it is only getting started. The car dealership is going to be much bigger than Tatgate.