Do You Have To Cheat To Win?

The North Carolina Academic Scandal has something new almost every day now.  Heard on radio the agent for Julius Peppers who was also his academic advisor while at Carolina stated that far too many athletes are in colleges that don't belong there.  Now let me say this right up front, I didn't just fall of the back of the wagon and hit my head.  I know like you know this goes on every where.

Do you remember the very first 48 Hours show back in the early 1990's when the program compared the basketball programs at Duke and State.  One of the question asked to State's player Charles Shackleford  was what he did in the class Introduction to Parks and Recreation.  As A State fan I was out raged that a reporter would ask such a question knowing full well that if you wanted to be a Park Ranger that was a required course.

It does matter which side of the fence you sit if you are winning you will turn a blind eye away if you see your side doing something that maybe is not quite up and up but will scream loudly when the other side is caught.  There was a football coach in the Southeastern Conference when asked why their biggest rival was winning all the time and they were not he said.  "They cheat better than we do". To me that is an admission that we cheat.  Apparently not very well if you still can't win while cheating.

Has our society gotten to the point the only answer is winning and we will do what ever it takes to win.  Baseball is one sport that historical numbers are part of the game.  Every body know Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs but in the last 20 years cheating  using growth hormones to make you hit it farther has taken away from baseball history.

Money is the root of all evil and college sports is eat up with the desire to raise more money.  Lets add nine teams to our conference it will give us a bigger TV contract and all the schools will get their share of the money even though they may not be on TV but they will share the money.  Why do you think Notre Dame doesn't want to join a conference?  They don't want to share that TV money with anybody else.

I take no pride what so ever knowing that Carolina is going through the pain they are suffering now for the cheating that they have allowed to happen.  It is a sign of the times  and Carolina is the one that has been caught today.  I do want to ask this question which I think might be worth while to everyone who thinks cheating is the only way to win.  Is the eight wins a year that Carolina was winning worth all the embarrassment they are paying for now.  It is kind of like the guy that robs the bank and get away with $2,500.  Was it worth it?  At some point in time he will have to rob another bank.  When do you get to the point where you can quit cheating and still keep on winning?  The answer to that seems to be that cheating will never end as long as the winning is the only goal.