Notice to the NCAA: Just Play Some Football

By: Emily Nassi (University of Delaware)

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College football season is around the corner, a time when most school’s feel a strong sense of pride for their programs, players and coaches.

Unfortunately, college football has become the new breeding ground for NCAA violations. One by one, more schools are being investigated by the NCAA for breaking rules.

Michigan is starting their hearings this weekend, as the NCAA accused them of practicing more than a team is allowed to. West Virginia was accused having non-coaching staff assist with practices, analyzing film, as well as attending meetings. North Carolina just hired a lawyer as well, as two of their players may have received gifts from agents. The NCAA was also looking into issues involving Florida and Alabama.

In early July, USC was forced to vacate a year of wins, lost scholarships and have a two year ban on bowl games.

The sad thing is, this probably isn’t the last of the violations by football programs.

Let’s take a moment to figure out why these coaches thought what they were doing was such a good idea. Sure, a few more practices can make all the difference right? Having other people help the team out shouldn’t matter.

If these guys were doing their jobs, it shouldn’t have mattered. No one should feel the need to practice more than the however many hours per week football programs are allowed to. Did that extra hour or so of workouts really help?

Losing isn’t fun. Athletes and fans alike both know this. However, losses are forgotten. When a player on the Michigan program looks back at his season, he’s not going to remember every detail of every loss. Or even everyone win.

What he will see though, is a team that was shamed by the NCAA and people around the nation. A team that had to admit guilt and taint their program. For what? Michigan didn’t do so great anyway.

As for those players who receive improper benefits from agents and whoever else, it’s a sad situation when they can cost their entire team a season of wins, and affect the classes a few years from now. A good part of USC’s team wasn’t even in college yet when Reggie Bush did what he did. But now they have to pay. And unlike Reggie Bush, most of these guys won’t play in the NFL and not even care about their college days.

Most college football players only have those four or so years to play their sport to the best of the ability. Most will never see the professional sports world as an athlete. They want to look back on those four years, the ones that are supposed to be the best years of their lives, and know they played their hardest, and played fair.

This trend of violations in BCS schools is disturbing. Hopefully these programs wake up and realize that they are preventing their athletes from doing what they’ve wanted to do all along. Just play some football.

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