A few blogs that caught my eye

http://legalpotincalifosho.blogspot.com/. 

This blog caught my eye from the very beginning when I saw that someone had the guts to write about the legalization of marijuana.  I figured this would be a joke blog but in fact it provided me with numerous facts showing both sides of the argument.  I got my reader high off this blog frequently throughout the week.

http://fightingfreshmenfifteen.blogspot.com/.

This blog first got my attention when it said that we should tax soda! I love soda! It helps me get through the day it helps me stay awake after pulling a all nighter and then waking up at 6 in the morning to go to workouts!  But in the end this blog showed me and persuaded me the positive effects of taxing such items and the perks of not drinking them so I have slowed down my income of that nice caffeinated substance but nothings better than that good ol Mt. Dew!

http://cholywar.blogspot.com/.

At first I said holy crap Jesus has came back and is fighting the devil again!  But I was sadly let down when I found it that it was only the Muslims and the Palestinians.  All jokes aside I found this blog to be very interesting I have a big load on my shoulders with practice and school and sometimes it is hard to keep up with the news and by checking on this blog simultaneously I got my news fix for the week.

A few theories on how we can fix this!

I have a few resolutions about how we can bring an end to this crisis involving agents and the players that take these extra benefits.  The simplest decision would be to make it legal!  It would cut out on people like the sports agents that are giving free gifts to players but some have come clean and tell the truth about what they did these articles.   http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Agent-Josh-Luchs-Comes-Clean-About-Two-Decades-Inside-the-Dirtiest-Business-in-SportsConfesses-to-Pulitzer-Prize-Win-92040656.  http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/football/articles/2010/10/13/report_former_agent_admits_paying_players/.  Another solution would be making it illegal for agents to talk to college athletes without proper permission in all states not in just 42 this article shows how Florida deals with this issue.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/17/laws-on-sports-agents-rar_n_685000.html. 

Self annalysis post

In the beginning I had the most biased look at the whole topic of the NCAA.  I believed that they were targeting players trying to bring them down and prevent them from making it to the top.  When in fact the NCAA is just trying to save these players from agents and people that are trying to have ties to players by giving them money or free trips, because all the people that are trying to be your friends and trying to give you free things are just trying to get a piece of you.  People in today’s world don’t want to see other people succeed unless they are going to succeed along with them.  By giving gifts and lending money they are just trying to grab a coat tail and hang on for that ride to the top.  In the beginning if someone would have told me this I would have said you’re wrong the NCAA is just trying to bring down these players but I now know that I had a very narrow minded view on the topic and I had done no research on the topic.  Instead of using words of slander and bringing down the NCAA we should be thanking them for helping to protect our student athletes.

A mental post

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQsDZ0FXqSI&feature=related

There is no way everyone does it!

Do some people get away with accepting free gifts and how long has this been going on.  Well obviously no player is going to come out and state that they have accepted free gifts from agents.  But there are retired agents that are coming out now telling how they gave players gifts and to whom they gave them to.  This just shows that yes indeed everyone does this and no the NCAA cannot catch everyone that accepts gifts from agents.  If you thought that then I guess you are WRONG but it’s okay.  This topic has been the focus of the majority of the NCAA’s focus has indeed been on this topic and they are cracking down on it tremendously.  But there are always people that slip through the cracks.  Someone always gets away with something that they aren’t supposed to and that’s why so many players accept these gifts.  They think if he did it and didn’t get caught then I can do it and get away with it to.  This is the case in any subject that you talk about that breaks the rules.  This has been going on since the beginning of pro sports.  NFL teams would offer college players contracts before they were eligible to which essentially is extra benefits.

3 players verdicts and one still waits in anticipation

When looking at the recent rulings in the NCAA investigation that took place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill we see that 2 players have been kicked off the team but allowed to keep their scholarships and one player kicked out of the school entirely along with one individual still waiting for a verdict.  Now is this wrong some say no they deserve what they got and then we have others that believe the punishments are too harsh.  Personally I think that the two players that were suspended may have gotten what they deserved they broke the rules of the NCAA and they had to pay a certain price but in the end they will receive a education and that’s what matters in this world not how nice of a person you are or how smart you can be this world is about if you have a degree or you don’t.  The player that was kicked out of school may go to the NFL and he may play for a number of years.  But football does not last forever and the University has taken that opportunity away for that individual which is worse than just taking football away.  Last but not least the player that is still under investigation, yes he is still in school and he will get his degree but he is being held back by the NCAA in his football career.  As I stated in a earlier post the NCAA investigations are conducted backwards you are guilty until proven innocent.  I think this is wrong and it is robbing this young man of potential increases in his draft status. 

Analysis post

Agents ruin player’s carriers by offering extra benefits to players this article shows the results of what happened to 3 players that accepted free benefits. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/UNC-Attrition-Watch-Draft-bound-trio-are-Tar-He;_ylt=AivbkG1_sYil6vRSniCo2hith9EF?urn=ncaaf-276107. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDnk-EbAC2I&feature=related  although this may not be the most credible source it does have some key points.  It talks about how the agents are using dirty ways to get players to sign with them.  This is affecting so many players it has even made a Heisman Trophy winner return his trophy, and that player is Reggie Bush he discusses how he feels about the situation in his post on http://www.reggiebush.com/#talk (you have to go to the post titled “To all my fans”.  You may be asking yourself how long has things like this been taking place and this article may help http://www.moneyplayersblog.com/blog/agents/.  You may also be asking how agents get into the business well this article discusses how. http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Agent-Josh-Luchs-Comes-Clean-About-Two-Decades-Inside-the-Dirtiest-Business-in-SportsConfesses-to-Pulitzer-Prize-Win-92040656 This article also discusses how the agents worked to get the players that they did and how they paid them to sign with them.  This is a very similar article to the article found in the Boston Globehttp://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/football/articles/2010/10/13/report_former_agent_admits_paying_players/.  Does the NCAA take too long to make decisions on a player’s eligibility or does it go overboard to make sure nothing else is going on?  The article found in “The Red and Black” which is the University of Georgia’s school newspaper discusses this topic http://www.redandblack.com/2010/09/06/green-in-doubt-with-ncaa/.   Should the NCAA work together with the NFL to bring a stop to the agent dilemma this article discusses the topic http://www.cnbc.com/id/38328371/Is_The_NCAA_Really_Boasting_About_Agent_Regulation.  The rules are in place to take agent’s licenses away but not by the NCAA but by 42 individual states bound to keep their collegiate athletes eligible and amateur http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/17/laws-on-sports-agents-rar_n_685000.html.   Coaches agree with the idea of regulating agents especially Nick Saban of Alabama http://www.tidesports.com/article/20100921/NEWS/100929938/1011?p=3&tc=pg.   The NCAA attempts to reach out to NFL scouts for cooperation http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2010/9/23/1706530/ncaa-asks-for-agents-cooperation-in-eligibility-investigation.  How can Universities stop this agent epidemic that the entire country is experiencing?  This article discusses how some institutions are attempting to do this http://www.denverpost.com/sportsnews/ci_15671620?source=rss. What is the NCAA doing to help stop the problem?  This article discusses it http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-07-28/sports/os-college-football-agents-20100727-14_1_agent-alabama-nick-saban-college-football.  Could the numerous NCAA investigations put agents out of business? Here is what the Sports Business Journal had to say about it https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/66323.  Thanks for reading this really long post!

Is it fair to hold players out?

So for some reason it is 2:30 in the morning and I can’t sleep which really sucks because I have a 6:30 lift in the morning.  For an even stranger reason I feel like talking about how the NCAA goes about conducting the investigations that they have on players.  It is the complete opposite of the judicial system that is put in place here in America.  In the real court system you are innocent until proven guilty but in the NCAA’s court you are essentially guilty until proven innocent.  You may ask how can this happen?  Well here is how, let’s say that a player is under investigation for receiving extra benefits.  That player cannot participate in any games until the investigation has been concluded.  Even though the rule states that a player is innocent until proven guilty if they are proven guilty than the team that let that player play will have to forfeit all of their wins that they achieved with the help of that player.  This is not the way things are supposed to be.  The system is flawed just because of allegations brought upon a player should not hold him out of a game.  This hurts the team tremendously.  Take for example the University of North Carolina Tar Heels to begin the season they had 13 players withheld from their first game against LSU this year.  The Heels were missing numerous skill players that have now begun to be declared innocent.  The Heels lost that first game followed by their second game against Georgia Tech by a total of 12 points who is to say with the help of those players they don’t win those games.

Hello,

Today I feel like talking about how temptations of accepting the bribes that are being put in front of the college athletes today.  These Agents know what they are doing when they are asking these players if they wanted to take some free stuff such as trips, cars, money, free tickets and things like that.  Let’s be honest what college student wouldn’t accept these extravagant gifts.  Even though these athletes know that they are not supposed to accept these gifts why wouldn’t they?  In the past ten years there have only been around five major cases that have caused athletes to lose a year of eligibility because of agents.  Nick Saban coach of the defending National Champion Alabama football team went as far to call agents “pimps”.  I have found a video that shows this press conference at the SEC media day.   He says that the agents are coming in and giving these unexpecting college kids that have came from nothing lavish gifts that these kids have never had the opportunity of having.  Here is a short clip frome the SEC media day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZJsPCZbPXc

Introductory Post

When watching any sports games there are always the standout players, the guys that make the big plays, the big hits, the clutch moves, and the plays you’ll never forget. The difference in college sports and professional sports is that the players are getting paid in the pros and the players in college cannot receive a single penny outside of their scholarship.  If a college athlete accepts money or gifts from outside sources they are subject to become ineligible and their team may be stripped of all wins that the player was involved in.  The problem with this rule is that agents are able to contact these players and although they are not supposed to they give players these extra benefits.  Let’s be serious what college student is not going to take a free trip, a free car, a free house, or any other gift offered by an agent.  If these players accept these gifts they will be punished as I said earlier but the agents themselves are not punished one bit.  That means that they have the right to offer these kids all of these gifts and not pay any consequences.  But if a player accepts a gift their entire season can be taken away.  It sounds to me like there is a double standard in place here.  For those of you who are asking why a agent would try and bribe these athletes it is because they will sign for upwards $70 million over 6 years.  These agents are trying to get a head start on the competition and guarantee these athletes signing with them so that they can get a cut of that money.