I am somewhat of a sports nut, although much less so as I have gotten older. I use to have favorite teams (Yankees, Packers, Celtics) in the three major sports that I followed religiously. And of course the Cyclones. Today I couldn't tell you what the Celtics or any other NBA team is doing specifically. The coming and going of players makes it hard to follow Football even though the Packers have arguably one of the top 3 quarterbacks in the game. MLB is boring to watch due to the commercialism and and length of time between innings and the incessant number of pitching changes. And buying a team doesn't appeal to me, although the Yanks current roster is more loaded with farm talent.
I use to be a big college basketball fan. I have made no secret that the AAU culture has diminished my interest. I don't like it for a variety of reasons. It diminishes the high school programs. It discourages team basketball. It weakens fundamentals. It emphasizes pure athleticism. But mostly it makes possible, or at least facilitates, the scandal that I think we are going to see unfold. We all knew (wink, wink) that money was exchanging hands illegally.The blue bloods don't get all the good players because of the personalities of their coaches. We just couldn't prove it. And Lord knows the NCAA wasn't going to really try to find out.
Well, now the FBI is involved and they don't give a rip if you are a blue blood or not. They will pursue the payments wherever they may lead them. And since they are actual crimes, they have subpoena power unlike the NCAA. Most of you don't remember the "fixing scandals" in the early 50's. Another example of FBI involvement in investigating point shaving in the NYC area. I was very young but remember it being on the news casts. Later found out that it involved gambling, organized crime and paying players to fix games, sometimes even outcomes.
Anyway, this current scandal can go one of two ways. The whole seedy thing is exposed and all of the players and coaches and schools have the boom lowered on them by the Feds or they find the most obvious ones and let it go at that. If it is the former a lot of schools will be involved one way or another. I wouldn't be surprised if all P-5 schools have some level of involvement. If it is the latter, then we will all just know that players are being bought like always.
Either way, it kills my enthusiasm for the game, particularly when the product on the floor is not enjoyable to watch. This will get uglier before it gets better, imo.
I use to be a big college basketball fan. I have made no secret that the AAU culture has diminished my interest. I don't like it for a variety of reasons. It diminishes the high school programs. It discourages team basketball. It weakens fundamentals. It emphasizes pure athleticism. But mostly it makes possible, or at least facilitates, the scandal that I think we are going to see unfold. We all knew (wink, wink) that money was exchanging hands illegally.The blue bloods don't get all the good players because of the personalities of their coaches. We just couldn't prove it. And Lord knows the NCAA wasn't going to really try to find out.
Well, now the FBI is involved and they don't give a rip if you are a blue blood or not. They will pursue the payments wherever they may lead them. And since they are actual crimes, they have subpoena power unlike the NCAA. Most of you don't remember the "fixing scandals" in the early 50's. Another example of FBI involvement in investigating point shaving in the NYC area. I was very young but remember it being on the news casts. Later found out that it involved gambling, organized crime and paying players to fix games, sometimes even outcomes.
Anyway, this current scandal can go one of two ways. The whole seedy thing is exposed and all of the players and coaches and schools have the boom lowered on them by the Feds or they find the most obvious ones and let it go at that. If it is the former a lot of schools will be involved one way or another. I wouldn't be surprised if all P-5 schools have some level of involvement. If it is the latter, then we will all just know that players are being bought like always.
Either way, it kills my enthusiasm for the game, particularly when the product on the floor is not enjoyable to watch. This will get uglier before it gets better, imo.
