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| The New Black Sox |
When news of the scandal hit the American public was shocked and heartbroken, it would take years for baseball to regain the public's trust. The popularity of the sport took a tumble, but do to swift action from the powers that be, baseball was saved. The baseball owners hired a former federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, besides having the most kick ass name ever, he was a tough guy who got things cleaned up. Landis, his name, and his bow-tie made this statement:
Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ballplayers and gamblers, where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.
Landis meant business, he not only banned the eight guilty players from baseball for life, he also threatened to ban any player who played with or against them ever again. Thus he kept the banned players from forming a new team or league. If not for Landis baseball might have died as a popular American sport in the 1920's.
Fast forwarding to today, College Football has gained ground at an amazing rate. It is quickly becoming one of the most popular sports in America. We would venture to say that it is now more popular than Major League Baseball. Just looking at the media coverage and attendance, College Football is on five different stations every day they play. Baseball may have one or two games on at any given time, at most.
There is also no denying the amount of corruption that seems to be boiling to the surface of college football. A short list of the recent college football scandals:
2011 Scandals Since Mark Emmert took office as NCAA president:
2011 Scandals Before Mark Emmert took office as NCAA president:
The scandals are to be expected as College Football grows in popularity and therefore in revenue. The problem is that College Football has no Kenesaw Mountain Landis. We just have Mark Emmert, who seems to be fine not doing anything at all. All of this years scandals that occurred before Emmert took office as NCAA president were quickly delt with and punished. Since Emmert became president the NCAA has done as little as possible to punish any school. Emmert believes that punishing schools would put College Football in a bad light, unfortunately in the process he may be killing the sport we all love.
Why are Auburn and Ohio State becoming the focus of so much attention? Again it parallels the Black Sox's Scandal, of course there was corruption in baseball before the Black Sox. Of course, to some extent, all the teams were trying to get an edge and cheating, this always happens in sports. It wasn't until some players were so brazen as to try to fix the World Series that it got serious.
Earlier today over at Auburngate.com a poster called smu2 had this to say:
If HBO were doing a story on hookers, they’d go to Vegas. Why Vegas? Because they know there are so many of them, it would be easy to find some to talk. Instead, HBO was searching for former college players who have been paid. So where do they go: the place where there are so many of them, it will be easy to find some to talk. And that answers the NTYF question, “Why auburn?”
smu2 is exactly right, Auburn and Ohio State created the intense scrutiny by how flagrantly they broke the rules. You can use the "everyone is doing it" excuse if you like, but it just doesn't hold water. It is similar to how everyone breaks the speed limit from time to time. But if you are going to go a hundred miles an hour with a tequila bottle in your hand, you are going to attract more attention than the average speeder. You can't point at the guys going five miles over the limit and say well they are doing it too!
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| Mark Emmert and Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Yeah, we are screwed. |
College Football stands at a crossroads, will these kinds of actions continue to go on? Or will we see a crackdown to try to restore some of the public faith in NCAA sports? That may all depend on the media, the NCAA has been very slow to act on major cases like these. There is to much to lose and not enough to gain to make it worth while. While the NCAA may preach that they are in this for the fairness of competition, don't be fooled. If the NCAA can get away with not punishing a major institution they will do so. However, if these kinds of actions had occurred at a second tier school however, the NCAA would be swift to act. The bottom line is money, if the NCAA acts the schools and conferences will pay a price in revenue. If they don't act the only victim is the truth. Groups like HBO real sports, and Yahoo Sports are helping to keep the pressure up, as are many independent bloggers and college football fans. A few of the best sources for information on the Auburn and Ohio State scandals:
As the Plains Burn Blog
I Bleed Crimson Red
Auburngate
M Bighouse
The Crimson Corner
Will all this pressure be enough to force the NCAA to act? Will Mark Emmert be our Landis? These questions will be answered in the next few weeks.
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