Assessing the situation
three-quarters of the way through
the season.
School colors banned from college football
With the growing trend toward black uniforms, what’s the
point in having school colors? Baylor, Arkansas and Mississippi State, just to
name a few, all wore black last weekend. Many others suited up likewise in the
past. So what happened to traditional uni’s? Traditional what? What’s tradition
anymore in the shifting currents of the college game?
Death penalty for Baylor?
Baylor does not deserve the death penalty. And, add to the charges against the football program, Ken Starr, erstwhile president of the university, said that there were 38 other cases of sexual misconduct on the Baylor campus during the time period in question that were not related to the football program or its players.
If Baylor had that many on-campus transgressions, we might assume that they weren’t the only school that had these problems. Given the world we live in, no school small or large could be thought to be innocent of similar problems. Baylor’s, unfortunately, involved the football program—as part of the campus at large—and football deserves some kind of disciplinary action. The malignancy of this ongoing scandal has already been evidenced on the field. Players with this hanging over them, players who had nothing to do with this recent tainted history, deserve some closure so they can regain their enthusiasm and get on with the games, and so that school can tell future recruits what the atmosphere on campus is going to be like.
Closure: The Big 12 and the NCAA need to end this situation.
Death penalty for Baylor?
DDT sez no ! Suspension, if only for two years, is too severe.
Look what happened to SMU. Certainly the Ponies deserved punishment of some
kind for their miscreancy all those years ago, but the death penalty
essentially ended them as a contender in the BCS. They have never bounced back,
and may not.
Now comes the saga of Baylor. Charges of sexual misbehavior
have surfaced. Former players have gone to jail. Along with these charges come
charges of a cover-up or that school officials just ignored what was going on.
Baylor does not deserve the death penalty. And, add to the charges against the football program, Ken Starr, erstwhile president of the university, said that there were 38 other cases of sexual misconduct on the Baylor campus during the time period in question that were not related to the football program or its players.
If Baylor had that many on-campus transgressions, we might assume that they weren’t the only school that had these problems. Given the world we live in, no school small or large could be thought to be innocent of similar problems. Baylor’s, unfortunately, involved the football program—as part of the campus at large—and football deserves some kind of disciplinary action. The malignancy of this ongoing scandal has already been evidenced on the field. Players with this hanging over them, players who had nothing to do with this recent tainted history, deserve some closure so they can regain their enthusiasm and get on with the games, and so that school can tell future recruits what the atmosphere on campus is going to be like.
Closure: The Big 12 and the NCAA need to end this situation.
1 comment:
OK, a couple of comments:
1. I recall a head coach telling me he "really, really preferred black uniforms" as it made it more difficult for opponents to follow the ball. He always did his best to insist opponents wore at the least, white jerseys. He felt it was a valid competitive advantage.
2. If there is no death penalty for programs that institutionalize harboring of felons (include Penn State in that group), then plainly winning and playing becomes more important than ethics and morals. Players change colleges all the time - it is more than a "cottage" industry. Baylor took pains to "look the other way." They deserve the death penalty just as much as the university that protected a pederast. If neither get it, is simply shows that NCAA is a front to keep universities "legally" safe from paying for some of the terrible and tragic things that happen to so-called "student" athletes. Sorry Sam, I appreciate your insights, but you are wrong on this one.
Post a Comment