It's All About The "U"

Pretty damning scandal to come out of Coral Gables last week, what with 73 current and former University of Miami football players accused of taking cash and other benefits from a former booster/current felon.

Monster reporting by Charles Robinson and Yahoo!Sports on this. The booster, Nevin Shapiro, makes some wild claims about his time jock sniffing around the football program, but most of it seems to be corroborated by outside sources, or, the players themselves.

After the last year of scandals at UNC and Ohio State, I can see why many people are up in arms about this latest saga. Some even want the "death penalty" invoked. Others are reviving the ideas of paying players for all of the money they generate for their schools.

I'm not sure that either idea would happen, but I am sure that my idea won't: a minor league system for both the NFL and NBA. It's good enough for hockey and baseball. High school athletes with no interest in college can go straight to the pros in baseball and hockey; why not for football and basketball? I already know the answer: money. The leagues aren't going to make a huge investment (the NBDL doesn't count) in training athletes for their top levels when they have colleges doing it for them.

One can dream, anyway...