As the NCAA Tournament concludes this weekend, it offers an opportunity to think, reflect and wonder about the state of college sports in this day and age.
Tell me what comes to mind when you hear these names and teams: Cam Newton, Jim Tressel, Jim Calhoun, North Carolina Football, Southern Cal Football, Bruce Pearl, The Fiesta Bowl, A.J. Green, and out of sheer history John Calipari.
Disturbing isn't it? The sad thing is I left out others, but you get the point.
This is what college sports have come to:
Damn integrity! Damn Academic Fraud! Damn Illegal Benefits! I WANT MY TEAM TO WIN!!!
One could blame so many for this: the NCAA (isn't everything their fault?), Conferences, School Administrators, Boosters (make that Boo$ter$), Coaches, TV Networks, the Athletes themselves; there's a slice of Blame Pie here for all.
Maybe, just maybe, the problem begins with each and everyone of us as a fan.
I don't like that one anymore than you, but maybe we as fans of our schools put pressure on all of the aforementioned to win at all costs, that we may have started or at least not slowed the chain of thinking that has led us to waiting for the next report of a school facing an investigation.
Has our desire to trash-talk, buy our team merchandise with "Champions" on it and see our team hoist a trophy trumped our sense of right and wrong? Has it trumped our memory that these "players" are still students? Has it trumped our belief that Coaches' primary focus is to make these athletes better people before making them better pro prospects?
Do you ever wonder what it would be like if ESPN showed a team's Overall GPA instead of their Overall Win-Loss Record?
There really is no easy solution to fixing the cesspool that major college athletics has become.
Maybe it should start with every fan contemplating this thought:
"When you sacrifice your integrity to win, you have already lost."
Okay. I don't care. Baseball.
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