Colleges Have Gone Money Mad!

The debacle going on at Carolina resulting in players losing eligibility, the school probably being placed on NCAA probation and a big chance they will have to give back all of their wins in 2008 and 2009 and maybe even 2010 brings us to the question, What ever happened to intercollegiate athletics?

Does any body remember the day when the ACC required any athlete to score 800 on the SAT to even play sports.Those days are long gone as now-a-days all you need to do is run fast, catch a ball or shoot a basket and you can play at my school.

Back in my days of covering Chowan Junior college back in the 80's and early 90's Chowan had a place in the college world of being a place to go when you couldn't get in the big schools.  It was good for an athlete but it was also for that student that needed to learn how to study and make better grades before transferring to the major institutions.

What happened to that world where if you are not good enough to qualify to get in school you don't go there?  Go somewhere else and learn some academic responsibility and then call us and we will see if we will take you then.

The answer of course is money and Cable TV, ESPN, CBS College sport channels need to fill 24 hours a day of sports and colleges have plenty of that regardless of the sport.  Colleges found out very quickly they could make more from TV in one game than 50,000 fannies sitting in the stadium watching the games.  Even though this is not a college I see the day the NFL could be seen only on cable and not even in a stadium in front of fans.  TV is where the money is.

There is no doubt that the NCAA is a ship wreck with a 6,000 page rule book.  I find that a rule like a school can not pay  for a players ride home if a parent dies to be insane.  I am against any player receiving more than an athletic scholarship.  There are times when just being a human being is important and getting a player home in emergencies is just the right thing to do.

I read on Tuesday Ken Herman's story in the Telegram and his suggestion that Football be made into a college curriculum.  Send players to college to study football whether it is to be a professional football player coach, agent what ever that  may lead a person in a football life.  I like that idea.

You know in colleges today that 70% of people that graduate college are doing something besides their major in school. So colleges train for four years  in some cases six years students to be one thing and when opportunity knocks they head in a different direction.  Today's football players already major in football so why don't we give them a degree and say they are qualified to do something in life related to football.

Kind of makes you want to scratch you head and think about that doesn't it.

Do You Think Kobe Wants To Play in Turkey? REALLY

 Most of us peons in this world agree that we will go to work for you and each and every year we will sit down and decide whether we should get a quarter an hour raise this year or we go find somebody who will give us 50 cents an hour more.  We talk all the time about how un loyal professional athletes are and yet we do the same but for much less.

The NFL lockout is over.  Football's case I see there is just no other place to go to play football.  The owners have the upper hand.  We have something in football that you can't get unless we give it to you.  We are not going to continue to pay these high prices.  Yet when the lockout is over they do.  It is the new guys that will get less.

Owners locked the doors to change the way they do business but they will go right back  to paying Peyton Manning 18 million and Tom Brady 15 million.  Why not start all over with a new salary structure for everybody.  It sure does look like we have wasted about 135 days and in the end business as usual.  Sounds like our government at work here?

Basketball is another animal all together.  Seems as if the world plays basketball and jobs are easy to come by.  I don't see the NBA owners in any position to lockout because players do have other options.  So lets say Kobe decides to go to Turkey to play basketball next year.

How can he since he is under contract to play for the Lakers.  This is where I am really confused.  How can any owner close his doors  and when they open them again keep on doing it just as before. What was the purpose of closing the doors to begin with.  If  you deny any one work don't they have a right to look elsewhere?  By locking everyone out  aren't you voiding contracts?

I see the NBA being totally different from the NFL as the players have all the leverage where the owners had it in the NFL talks.  The only possible advantage the owners have is all the players can't go over seas and play but the elite just might.  They are of course the only ones who really don't need the money so they will get the over seas jobs while the end of the bench guys will suffer working at Wendy's while Kobe and company go off to Turkey

I  have to ask this question. Does Kobe really need to go any where to play basketball?  Is this a power play like the power play of last summer when LeBron and D-Wade joined forces.  I can see the minimum wage guys in the NBA needing to go and I say minimum wage laughingly half million a year.  Least when Michael Jordan play in double A  baseball he bought Birmingham a new million dollar bus and he rode with everyone else.  Can yo see Kobe riding a bus from Istanbul to Ankara.  No, he will fly and meet the team  at the next game.

I heard in all this  bantering going on that the average NBA player plays 4.5 years.  That stat is very close to any professional sport.  We hear about the Larry Birds who play 15 years but forget about the Monte Towe's who lasted only two.  Can any player risk his NBA future in going to any foreign country to play for one year and while there blow a knee out that will take two years to recover or end his career?

The NBA is betting there will not be enough that will try it and I am sitting here thinking why do I have to endure all of this talk to begin with. Let's face it Professional sports team owner know their players are broke until the next check comes.  There are very few players who understand how to sign a check without hiring somebody else to do it for them. 

I have always said that if I won the lottery I would put half of it in the bank or invest it  and we will see about the rest of it.  I don't believe in the lottery until it hits a hundred million then  I might be able to afford to pay off my debts.  These high contracts are like the lottery every two weeks .  Instead of investing they buy cars that they can't even drive or live the high life and one day wake up with a busted knee and knocks on the door to meet the next ridiculous payment for something they didn't need to begin with.

The NBA owners are betting those guys come around to the owners side and the NBA goes on as if nothing happened.   That's what the NFL did for over four  months as sides sued each other  and in the end a handshake and kiss and everyone is back to making money.

Midgets Win First game- Not The Second

The Rocky Mount 10U Midget Tar Heel 9/10 year old baseball team needed to win twice Sunday in order to bring back to Rocky Mount their second straight Midget State title.  Johnny Ramsey's squad made sure that they would make it to the title game as in the first game of the day they beat West Raleigh 9-6 to set up the winner take all second game.

Winning a State Championship by any team that plays for a title representing Rocky Mount Parks and Recreation not only gives those involved medals but to be immortalized with a sign that hangs going into the entrance of the Little League side of the complex.  If you haven't been to a game there as you enter  each State Champion since 1991 have a plaque hanging on the walkway heading up to the field with each player and coaches name there.  The 9/10 year old team of 2011 will not make it to the wall of champions as in the second game of the day West Raleigh won the night cap 4-1.  Many of you know a 9/10 year old game of 4-1 game is dominated by pitching and defense and this deep into a tournament both teams still had enough pitching for only five runs to score.

Jack Nicklaus won 18 so called majors in his golfing career.  He also finished second 19 times. Getting to a championship game is tremendous.  Good going Midgets.

Saturday was the first so called official day of practice for any up coming fall sports program in public schools. Several of our local high schools had a midnight madness at 12.01 Saturday morning.  Most other sports will begin practice today. 

College basketball has become famous for Midnight Madness on October 15th.  I doubt that any of them would hold a midnight practice if it were not for the cable sports channels giving each school money in order that they show those schools on TV.  I see no advantage for our high schools holding a practice at midnight to get a jump on other teams.  Every high school that wanted to practice on Saturday had done so by noon Saturday so there was no advantage practicing at midnight.