ESPN: Cheating Didn't Give Trogans A "Competitive Advantage"

So UCLA should just let Baca and Hasiak play because they won’t gain any competitive advantage in using them. UCLA should not have shut down DeShaun Foster because it would have have gained any competitive advantage in using him.

The message is clear: winning is everything and no school should follow any NCAA rules that, when broken, that do not give the school a competitive advantage (is guess the only sacrosanct rule under this analysis would be PEDs).

I am reminded of the (not-so-politically-correct) South Park episode when Cartman teaches school kids how to win at all costs by cheating and not getting punished by using Bill Bellichek as an example of (“Repeat after me, class, ‘I misinterpreted the rules.’”)

Like you, N, I’ve long abandoned everything that is ESPN except when a team I like is actually playing. I watched Gameday once last season and felt like taking a shower afterwards. I think I pointed it out in a post here and was chastised for watching.

Everything else is total hype that is solely calculated to drive up viewership of events that are on ESPN.

Sad, considering how awesome ESPN was in the early 90s.

When people claim a $300,000 dollar house didn’t help Reggie Bush play any better. Or how PEDs didn’t help Bonds, Sosa, Maguire hit a fast moving pill. Or, any of the near sanctioned forms of cheating these days. If they didn’t help, people would not do it.

In regards to Reggie’s free house, car, etc: Hard to argue that a house for the parents can actually improve game play. But that’s not the point. For all the stuff that came out, Dwayne Jarrett’s free apartment, Bush, OJ’s envelope of cash; it’s become pretty obvious how SC does business. For years they and BSPN have been happy telling us how many guys would rather go sit on their bench than start ‘for any other team in the country.’ And, do they really believe these guys would do that without some sort of financial enticement?

PS: Orlando

Sad, considering how awesome ESPN was in the early 90s.

It was Disney’s takeover that changed it all. They haven’t been the same since.

What a tool.

McKnight cited a conversation he had with Cheatey and Bush as his deciding factor in choosing SC. That call was against NCAA rules. So their rule breaking most certainly did give them a competitive advantage in assuring the nation’s top running back.

Taking the money didn’t make reggie a better runner, seems to be the argument. Well, having spoken with parents of athletes, the economic strain on many of them is very difficult. Trying to figure out how to pay the bills (when they might be at the lower end of the economic ladder), trying to find a way to watch their sons play when they are away. I do think this puts a strain on the athletes. I think relieving that strain does give a player an advantage just by the fact that the folks are being taken care of. I remember watching the Cal game and even the announcer was commenting on how he couldn’t figure out how reggie’s parents were able to go to all the away games and stay in the best hotels, considering their jobs. Sitting in practices, I heard several parents discussing whether or not they could afford to get to the K State game or the Texas game and one even trying to figure out how he could get down from the north to watch home games. I’m sorry, but having no financial worries for you and your loved ones does give one an advantage in anything they are trying to accomplish. The students I teach are constantly interrupted in their ability to focus on their studies by a parent losing a job, a parent getting ill, a family member elsewhere needing help, needing to take care of a younger sibling. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone would give them a house and a car and ??? so that they wouldn’t have to stop what they should be doing to take care of these problems. I wish they could not have the same “competitive advantage” that reggie had.