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| "I'm tellin ya, we didn't do anything wrong!" |
National columnist Gregg Doyel, who writes for CBSSports.com, had a blog post today that made some valid points about this whole Oregon Duck recruiting violation mess.
"Don't look at me like that, Oregon fans. I'm not saying your football program should be punished for putting almost $25,000 into the hands of a man with influence on recruits who chose -- gasp! -- Oregon. The school found a legal way to pay off a guy connected to All-American running back LaMichael James and his eventual replacement, Lache Seastrunk."
"They (college football coaches) find a way to exploit an unwritten rule, or even a written rule in the NCAA's massive rulebook, and they use what they've discovered to gain an unethical advantage on other schools."
"For instance, by giving $25,000 to a man connected to All-American running back LaMichael James and his eventual replacement, Lache Seastrunk."
It's not a very long post, but Doyel's point is that sometimes cheating and breaking a rule go hand in hand. And sometimes breaking a rule is different from cheating. He says that Oregon did the latter of the two. The Ducks found a legal, NCAA-approved way to at least get premium access to (if not signed, sealed and delivered) some top recruits, like Thomas and Seastrunk.
"For instance, by giving $25,000 to a man connected to All-American running back LaMichael James and his eventual replacement, Lache Seastrunk."
It's not a very long post, but Doyel's point is that sometimes cheating and breaking a rule go hand in hand. And sometimes breaking a rule is different from cheating. He says that Oregon did the latter of the two. The Ducks found a legal, NCAA-approved way to at least get premium access to (if not signed, sealed and delivered) some top recruits, like Thomas and Seastrunk.
It's becoming more and more prevalent -- this trend of not breaking the rules, but "cheating" -- in the college football world these days. It's the name of the game, and if you don't want to play the game, you'll get left behind. So this problem isn't just Oregon's. It goes on at every major (and/or successful) college football program in the country. Doyel continues:
"Those things happen every year, all over the place. So do things like this Oregon story, where the football program found a legal way to get money into the hands of a recruit's mentor. It's legal but unethical. Right, but wrong."
"Everyone knows it. Everyone except the school in question, the school and its fans, who would be screaming bloody murder if this happened at, say, Oregon State."
"Cheated. That's what you did, Oregon. But you found a way to do it legally. It doesn't make you smarter than anyone else. Just dirtier -- until another school does something legally worse."
Sure, it sounds a little harsh. But is it not the truth?
