How the NCAA Turns Turkey Into Tofu
by Richard M. Southall and Ellen J. Staurowsky – Huffington Post
Congressman Compares NCAA to the Mafia
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Scholarship in Action
Congressman Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat, raised a few eyebrows recently when he compared the NCAA to the Mafia. The Congressman was making reference to the manner by which the league controls the lives of student athletes.
Dr. Boyce: NCAA Athletes Now Demanding to be Paid Like their Coaches
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
NCAA Athletes Start a New Season with No Labor Rights, No Compensation and No Help for Their Families
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
NCAA athletics has become the new prohibition – the illogical construct that creates a destructive underground economy because leadership is being guided by an illusion of what should be, rather than confronting the NCAA for what it really is: a professional sports league. Some of our most highly educated figures within academia are forced to convince themselves that a multi-billion dollar sports entertainment behemoth should be able to get away with not paying its primary employees.
NBA Player Lorenzen Wright’s Death is Still a Mystery
MEMPHIS, Tenn.— In the year since Lorenzen Wright’s decomposing body was found in a secluded field in southeast Memphis, his mother has kept pressing authorities to find whoever killed the former NBA player.
Race-Baiting by NBC? White Females Claim Black Athletes Raped Them
Two white female students claim that black athletes raped them. But the way the story is presented is racially-disturbing.
click to read
The Justice Department May Investigate the NCAA for Anti-Trust Violations
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
A letter was sent this week by the United States Department of Justice to the NCAA, stating that it has received several requests for an anti-trust investigation into the league’s current Bowl Championship Series (BCS) structure. The system is being criticized for making it difficult for teams in some conferences to qualify for the major bowls, costing them millions of dollars in revenue.
"Serious questions continue to arise suggesting that the current BCS system may not be conducted consistent with the competition principles expressed in federal antitrust laws," Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney said to NCAA President Mark Emmert.
Dead NFL Player Dave Duerson would Not Have Qualified for Full Disability Benefits
By ALAN SCHWARZ Published: May 4, 2011
BOSTON — As the football world absorbs Monday’s news that Dave Duerson had the football-related brain damage he suspected before fatally shooting himself in February, an overlooked detail has emerged: had Duerson reached out for help via the N.F.L.’s disability plan, which he helped administer, his neurological injuries would not have qualified for a high level of benefit, if any at all.
NFL Player Gets in Trouble for Remarks about Bin Laden and Slavery
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, YourBlackWorld.com – Scholarship in Action
Rashard Mendenhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers has been taking heat lately for making comments that many believe are in support of Osama Bin Laden. But rather than being supportive of Bin Laden, Mendenhall is simply stating that Americans are celebrating death just a little too much for his comfort:
"What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side…" Mendenhall said on his Twitter account.
NFL Star Was Found to Have Had Serious Brain Injury When He Killed Himself
BOSTON — The suicide of the former Chicago Bears star Dave Duerson became more alarming Monday morning, when Boston University researchers announced that Duerson’s brain had developed the same trauma-induced disease recently found in more than 20 deceased players.
The Reality of Being a Football Star
Watch as YBW’s Eshe White interviews a former football star about the realities of playing in the NFL
Cam Newton is the top Pick; Now the Questions Begin
By Jason DeCrow, AP
NEW YORK — At least one major question about Cam Newton has been answered. The lights shined on Cam Newton after the Panthers made him the first overall pick on Thursday.
The lights shined on Cam Newton after the Panthers made him the first overall pick on Thursday.
Report: Newspapers and Websites Lack Diversity in Sports Reporting
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Some 320 websites and newspapers that belong to Associated Press Sports Editors slightly improved their racial hiring practices last year, according to a study released Wednesday, though they failed again to make any strides in gender hiring for key newsroom positions.
The report, released every two years by the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, gave those outlets a C plus, up from a C in 2008, for racial hires and an F for gender hires in jobs including sports editor, columnist, reporter and copy editor.
Rocky Clark is Dying: Unless We Find a Way to Help
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
To join our coalition for Rocky, please visit SaveRockyClark.com
I woke up thinking about a person I met just two weeks ago. I was thinking about this man because he is going to die unless we find a way to help him. He is paralyzed from the neck down, has one working lung and that lung has enough blood clots in it to kill him.
Meet Rasul “Rocky” Clark, a 27-year old man living in Illinois. Rocky was once a promising young high school athlete at Eisenhower High School in Blue Island, Il. His future came to a halt when he took a bad hit on the football field that left him with the inability to ever use his arms or legs again. As you can probably imagine, the earth-shattering transition from being a healthy 16-year old boy to becoming a quadriplegic is beyond daunting, and many of us could never recover from this kind of devastation.
Jalen Rose Didn’t Seem to Know that He was Under Arrest
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World
It appears that Jalen Rose of ESPN (and the Fab Five at Michigan) wasn’t aware that he was being arrested when he was stopped for DUI. Here is a transcript of Jalen’s interaction with the police officer in the back of a squad car on the night he was arrested for drunk driving:
Jalen: "So what are we doing right now?"
Cop: "We’re gonna go to the police station right now."
Jalen: "To do what?"
Cop: "You’re under arrest."
Jalen: "For what, sir?"
Cop: "For drunk driving."
Jalen: "But I wasn’t really drinking."
Cop: "Um, okay."
Jemele Hill at ESPN Says College Athletes Need to Stand Up
by Jemele Hill, ESPN.com
The problems in college athletics have been much in the news recently — from pay-for-play to unethical conduct by coaches and administrators — and it’s become clear that only a drastic measure can address the hypocrisy, the rampant rule violations and the widespread deceit permeating our so-called amateur collegiate sports.
A revolution is needed at the college level. But the only way we’ll see one is if college athletes do something so radical that it not only makes the powers-that-be take notice but jeopardizes their bottom line.
It’s an action that would require commitment, planning, patience and sacrifice.
It would come with great risk. It would make college athletes vulnerable to ridicule and criticism, and it might even have a bearing on their professional aspirations.
But it’s time. College athletes need to organize and stage a massive boycott, because unless their voice is heard this inequitable system will never change.
Athletes Sitting Out of the NCAA Tournament? It Almost Happened
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
I was proud to watch Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel last week, as Gumbel decided to dig into the issue of college athlete compensation. Securing the labor rights of college athletes has been a passion of mine for quite some time, and I was excited that 2011 provided a tremendous amount of momentum around the topic. Our coalition, The Athlete Liberation Academic Reform Movement (ALARM) now has thousands of supporters around the country and Ben Jealous of the NAACP has joined Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a call to reform of one of the most exploitative systems in America.
The Real Sports episode had me on the edge of my seat, as one couldn’t help but laugh while the beneficiaries of the system, Rich Rodriguez (former University of Michigan football coach) and Billy Packer (CBS Sports commentator), were trying to defend a system that they themselves would never accept. Both of these men have been made into millionaires from the labor of college athletes, and have a direct incentive to keep the money away from the players and their families.
The most interesting part of the show was when Bernard Goldberg interviewed former University of Massachusetts player Rigo Nunez. Nunez shocked Goldberg by acknowledging that he and other players around the country were planning to sit out of the 1995 NCAA tournament. To protest the fact that coaches were earning millions while many of the athletes’ families were in poverty, prominent players around the nation decided that they were going to have no part of the NCAA tournament that year.
Here’s how the conversation went down:
Nunez: At one point it was pretty organized among players that maybe the biggest impact that we can have, and the biggest opportunities for us to have a stand, will be prior to the NCAA tournament.
Goldberg: Well, how was that gonna happen?
Nunez: We were not gonna play.
Goldberg: What?
Nunez: We were just gonna go to the middle of the court and sit down. Every game, in the whole country.
Goldberg: Because you weren’t getting paid?
Nunez: Because it was not fair to us.
In 1995, the black students at Rutgers University were angry that their president, Francis Lawrence, stated that African Americans may not have the “genetic hereditary background” to have high SAT scores. Of course this statement angered the African American students at Rutgers, who decided to interfere with a nationally-televised basketball game that they happened to be playing against U. Mass (the school Nunez played for during the same year).
Quite a few students did a lot of talking, but when the time came to execute the planned protest, some of them got cold feet. Half-time arrived, but rather than going to the middle of the court as planned, the students stayed in the stands. One girl, however, decided that this opportunity wasn’t going to be wasted, and sat down in the middle of the court all alone. When security asked her to move and threatened her with arrest, she refused to budge. Eventually, other black students joined her and before long, hundreds of students were crowding the middle of the court. The game had to be cancelled and both universities paid a huge financial price for the university president’s racism.
The point is that it typically only takes the courage of one man or woman to spark an entire revolution. Rigo Nunez proves that there is a strong spirit within black athletes which opens the door for them to make progressive change. If athletes were to come together and decide not to play, the entire NCAA would be forced to change its system. All of their excuses for not paying athletes, along with their daunting list of complexities would suddenly become simple, because the players are the ones who bring in all the dough.
For their mothers at home who can barely feed their siblings, and for other young men behind them, one only hopes that the brothers on the court will take a chance and make history. The NCAA is not going to give away billions of dollars easily, but the truth is that this money belongs to players and their families, not to greedy coaches and commentators who keep finding reasons not to share the revenue. But it’s going to take a fight, because power and money are not things that people give away. Power is only ceded when it is TAKEN.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Syracuse University Professor and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
Dr. Boyce: Giving Jalen Rose Another Chance
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
Former NBA player and Fab Five member Jalen Rose was suspended indefinitely by ESPN after reports surfaced that Rose had been arrested for drunk driving. According to ESPN, Rose was being sent to the bench for not reporting the incident to the network. Rose allegedly failed a blood-alcohol test after his truck crashed in Bloomfield, Michigan on March 11. The incident didn’t get to ESPN until a Detroit station contacted the network to get more details for their own story.
"Jalen has accepted full responsibility for his actions. Both parties are taking this very seriously, and as a result, we’ve agreed that he will not be on our air while he addresses this situation,” ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said in an e-mail to USA Today.
NCAA President Agrees that Athletes Should Be Paid a Little More
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
Every now and then, some families get to experience “that intervention moment.” This is when the uncle who’s been getting high, drunk and abusive every single day finally admits that he might have a problem. Of course he still minimizes the significance of his issues, but he has at least opened the door to getting the help that he needs.
For the American justice and economic systems, the NCAA is the addicted uncle. But rather than being hooked on drugs, the NCAA is addicted to the highs of capitalism and corporate greed. By being able to skirt the legal and moral parameters of our society, this professional sports league has been able to extract wealth from student athletes and the African American community to the tune of several billion dollars.
The NCAA’s new president, Mark Emmert, shocked the world when he admitted that it might be time for student athletes and their families to share in the massive revenue streams being generated by their kids. Emmert has admitted that he would like to “explore” the issue of modestly increasing the scholarship limits of student athletes in revenue-generating sports, primarily football and basketball. While remaining far from admitting that there should be significant changes, Emmert has confessed to the fact that the financial asymmetries might be a bit uncomfortable.
Hmmm, let’s see if there is any imbalance, shall we? Well, this year, the NCAA’s March Madness tournament is going to generate $711 million in TV rights alone (not including concessions, apparel sales, ticket sales, etc.). The Bowl Championship Series generates $125 million per year in endorsement money. The NCAA has a 14-year, $10.8 billion deal with CBS and Turner Sports. Coaches like Rick Pitino are guaranteed over $7 million in salary this year alone, primarily because his players show up to work every day (basketball games can’t happen without basketball players). So, some would argue that perhaps the system needs a little bit of tweaking.
Even former NCAA Executive Directors admit that the financial disparities have gone too far.
“It puts intercollegiate athletics in a precarious position,” said former NCAA executive director Cedric Dempsey, “when you see the money and the kind of salaries you see now and the only group in the system that hasn’t received any additional funding is at the student-athlete level.”
Former NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers argues directly in his book, ‘Unsportsmanlike Conduct’ that “What the colleges will not do voluntarily should be done for them,” meaning that the remedies for NCAA exploitation will likely lie in the court of law. The class action lawsuit being filed by former athletes for the use of their images in video games is a great start.
Of course, the NCAA’s suggested changes are not radical. Emmert is tossing around the idea of increasing the amount of discretionary funding for athletes so they can buy groceries or go out on a date without having to beg for money. The idea of providing “full coverage scholarships” is a positive, yet incomplete, first step. What ultimately needs to happen is that Congress and the courts should re-examine the NCAA’s tax exempt status and also consider the numerous ways in which the league is being allowed to violate anti-trust law. By putting a choke hold on the other options of young athletes, the NCAA uses its monopoly status to keep players from having other places to sell their services (it would normally be illegal for all universities to collude into one association that restricts worker salaries, but the NCAA is allowed to do that).
Emmert remains resistant to making student athletes into employees, claiming that paying athletes would jeopardize the purity of amateurism in college sports. The problem is that much of this so-called purity is already lost by the tremendous pressure placed on athletes who make money for the university. In fact, many basketball and football players would not even be allowed on campus if it were not for their athletic ability. So, if coaches aren’t forced to become professors, then why should athletes be forced to become students? An equitable system would allow athletes the right to negotiate a fair market wage and give them the option of paying their own tuition. Many athletes come from single parent homes, so the financial problems that might normally be solved by their fathers are being thrust upon the young men trying to balance both school work and busy athletic schedules.
In a perfect world, the simplest solution to NCAA tyranny is this: the athletes should just stop playing. If the top athletes in the Final Four were to simply stay off the court, that would put athlete compensation on the fast track of NCAA priorities. The silly arguments for not sharing revenue would disappear as fast as a player’s scholarship does when he gets injured. For example, many argue that players should not be compensated because many athletic departments don’t make a profit. But it’s interesting that this so-called lack of profitability has never kept schools from paying their coaches.
The NCAA is going to avoid sharing revenue for as long as it possibly can. This is human nature, for almost none of us would want to share money if we didn’t have to do so. In agreement with Walter Byers, the greatest opportunity for NCAA reform is going to have to come from outside the institution, with the courts, Congress and perhaps even the athletes serving as the primary catalysts. This terrible and embarrassing problem is finally getting the attention that it deserves, and it’s time for the NCAA to do the right thing.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University. To have Dr. Watkins commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
Dr. Boyce Watkins on the Huffington Post: The Madness of Not Paying College Athletes
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
With March Madness upon us, perhaps it’s time to think about what it means to be an American. We should also reconsider what it means to be a college student. As it stands, the 700-plus men and women signed on to play in the largest post-season extravaganza in professional sports (wait, did I say "professional"?) are treated neither as Americans nor as college students. Instead, they are expected to exist in a peculiar socio-economic purgatory created by March Madness that we might call pseudo-amateurism.
In pseudo-amateurism, you get to live the lifestyle of a professional: your schedule is rigorously controlled like an animal at the zoo. You are given massive amounts of media training so you can protect your brand in the public eye. You are expected to practice several times per day, and even on weekends. Oh, and that academic thing? You can do that too, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your full-time job.
Way Back in 2006 – Dr. Boyce in Madison Square Garden Arguing that College Athletes Should be Paid
Given that March Madness is about to begin, many around the country are wondering if it’s time to start paying college athletes. Dr. Boyce Watkins appears below arguing that college athletes should be paid, and explains the reasons in Madison Square Garden in 2006 with Stephen A. Smith in attendance.
This is also a racial issue, since most of the individuals doing the work are black and those earning millions off of the labor are white. The NCAA earns more money during March Madness than the Super Bowl and the World Series, so Dr. Watkins is a long-time advocate of college athletes having the same labor rights as everyone else.
Part 1 is above
Part 2 is above
Dwayne Wade’s Custody Fight Defies the Stereotype of Irresponsible Black Male Fathers
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
This week, a judge in Chicago gave NBA star Dwayne Wade sole custody of his two sons. The decision was made after a prolonged legal battle between Wade and his ex-wife, Siohvaughn. The boys are currently 8 and 3 years old. Wade has argued that his ex-wife has become violent toward him and falsely accused him of abusing his sons. A court-appointed representative for the boys made the recommendation that Wade be given full custody and that his ex-wife receive a mental evaluation.
I happened to be in Chicago when I heard about Wade’s custody decision (which took place in a Chicago courtroom). What’s even more ironic is that I heard about the decision shortly after having an opportunity to watch an episode of the television show, "Basketball Wives." During the show, I thought about the "interesting" custody battle between another baller, Dwight Howard and his ex-girlfriend Royce Reed, who is a member of the show’s cast.
The Fab Five Documentary Details All That’s Wrong with the NCAA
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
I lived through the Fab Five era within college basketball, literally breathing the same air and vicariously identifying with the brothers who brought power and style to the sport. I was approximately the same age as the five freshmen who took their team to the NCAA championship, and I even wore black socks on the court (yes, I am ashamed to admit that). An ESPN special recently took my mind back down memory lane by replaying the experience of the Fab Five and how they changed college basketball forever. To this day, there has been nothing like them, and I wouldn’t be surprised if their feat is never replicated again.
The most intriguing aspect of the Fab Five special on ESPN was not their exploits on the basketball court (which were amazing), it was the conversation about money. When these five young men stepped onto the court for the University of Michigan, they instantly became cash cows for their universities. Sales of University of Michigan merchandise went from $1.5 million per year to over $10 million per year shortly after their first season. Jalen Rose, one of the members of the Fab Five, mentioned seeing that Nike had released a sneaker named after the group, and they regularly found their academic schedules being interrupted with trips around the world to promote a brand that was making everyone rich except for their own families.
Dr. Watkins Interview on Why College Athletes Should Get Paid
With March Madness approaching, Dr. Boyce Watkins did a recent interview regarding the details on how and why college athletes should be paid. The interview is below:
1. If college athletes are to be paid for their performance, how do you decide who is paid and who is not?
The market can decide who gets paid. That’s how coaches find out who earns $2 million per year vs. those who earn just $500k. Better performers typically get paid more money on a job, so why should it be any different for athletes?
2. How do you decide how much to pay them? Is it enough to provide for their families and some for extra activities, or is it solely based on something like jersey sales, winning record, etc.?
I don’t think any of us should decide how much to pay someone - no one "decides" that Rick Pitino is worth $2 million per year. He negotiates and the highest bidder gets his services. I am a believer that athletes should have access to the same fair market that their coaches receive. To argue differently is to imply that coaches are more important than athletes or that they deserve better treatment. This is a classist and racist thing to believe.
The way things are now, coaches who win earn more money. Well, athletes who score more points, get more rebounds and win more games should have the right to negotiate a salary that matches their ability. There are billions of dollars being earned from their labor, so their families deserve a piece of that.
3. Where can you draw the line between professional and amateur if you’re paying the athletes in both college and in professional sports?
The line is imaginary. The NCAA earns money on the same level as other professional sports leagues. The only reason they are given a different designation is because they find that calling the athletes amateurs allows them to keep from paying them. It’s sort of like me calling you a dog so that I can then justify feeding you dog food. But if you are a human, then that’s what you are.
College athletes have schedules that are as rigorous as professional athletes. They are expected to put everything to the side in favor of sports and even miss class. They are coached on what to say on TV and how to live their lives. They are controlled in nearly every state of their existence. If that’s not professional, then I don’t know what is.
4. What are your feelings on the rule that the athletes can make no more than $2,000 a year?
It’s another way to control the revenue stream to keep the money going into the hands of coaches and not getting into the hands of athletes. The greatest fear of the NCAA is that the athletes and their families will get a hold of a share of the labor they are generating. Therefore, in order to maintain a system that is unnatural, you must create a set of carefully-constructed protocols in order to maintain your power. That’s why the NCAA creates a long list of rules designed to undermine the labor rights of college athletes.
5. If colleges are allowed to pay their athletes, should they be allowed to pay when recruiting?
If colleges can pay coaches while recruiting them, then they should be allowed to pay athletes. I am in favor of equality and not believing that athletes and their families should be treated like second-class citizens.
$300M Deal for U. Texas While Athletes Get Nothing
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
The University of Texas just inked a $300 million television rights deal for a 24-hour network that will broadcast Longhorn athletes and games. ESPN is the partner in the deal and will distribute the network via satellite in Texas and other states around the country. The network is expected to launch in September.
Given that college athletes are serving as the foundation for massive wealth being generated by schools like the University of Texas, it is time that we consider allowing these athletes to have the same labor rights as other workers who generate wealth around the nation. The United Steel Workers Union has actually spoken out on behalf of NCAA athletes, stating that they should have the right to unionize to ensure that their families can benefit from the wealth being created in these massive financial deals.
Terry Harrington: Former High School Standout Does 25 Years for a Crime He Didn’t Commit
Click to watch the video about the case of Terry Harrington, a former highschool football standout who served 25 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
Visit Your Black World for more black news, black politics and black celebrity gossip!
Black Athletes Discussed on ESPN Town Hall Meeting at Morehouse College
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
I was sitting in front of my TV set flipping through one channel after another, and I found something that both intrigued and concerned me: An ESPN special about the image of the black athlete. I was curious to see what they had to say about black athletes, especially males, since that’s something I think about nearly every single day of my life.
The panel consisted of Jalen Rose, John Calipari, Randy Shannon, Spike Lee, Robin Roberts and others. I was hopeful that the panelists would not succumb to the temptation of taking the paternalistic viewpoint that black male athletes are somehow destined to be ignorant and need to be told what to do. For example, unlike any other sport, men’s basketball and football are the only ones in which there are age limits before the athlete can become a professional. The reasons for these regulations are driven primarily by the argument that the men are too young to go out and support their families by doing what they do for the NCAA without being compensated.
Auburn Wins, the Black Community Loses
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
When I saw the final score of last night’s NCAA championship game where Auburn University defeated the University of Oregon, I sent a tweet to my friends that said, “Congratulations. Your plantation was the strongest tonight.”
As the southerners who love Auburn football celebrate their championship, they may want to take a second to absorb a couple of sobering realities. First, the school got $21 million just for winning that one game. Auburn’s coach, Gene Chizik is due for a multi-million dollar bonus and millions will flow into the pockets of administrators, coaches, commentators, and corporate sponsors, almost none of whom are black.
Ohio State Players Suspended for Selling their “Stuff”
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
Terrelle Pryor, the star quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes, is set to be suspended for four games next season as a result of receiving improper benefits. He wasn’t the only Buckeye kicked out for 1/3 of next season: Four other players were also suspended: Daniel Herron, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams and Solomon Thomas are among the guilty and condemned.
Adams is being asked to repay $1,000 for selling his 2008 Big Ten Championship ring and Heron was busted for selling his jersey, pants and shoes for $1,000. Also among the list of offenses being investigated was that the players received free tattoos in exchange for autographs.
When I read this story, I thought, "Here we go again, the NCAA participating in their typical sanctimonious and hypocritical behavior."
Iowa’s Star Receiver Arrested for Selling Drugs
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
Derrell Johnson-Koulianos is the star wide receiver for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Well, he was the star receiver until this weekend. Iowa City police just arrested Johnson-Koulianos on a long list of drug charges, including: possession of a controlled substance, keeping a drug house and unlawful possession of prescription drugs. Police allegedly found cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs in his home, along with $3,000 in cash.
Johnson-Koulianos is currently in the Johnson County Jail in Iowa City, being held on $8,000 bail. His first court appearance was set to occur Wednesday morning. Clearly, the city and coaching staff are in shock over recent events.
Former Colorado Coach Says New Coach Hired Because He’s Black
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
Jon Embree is a former tight end for The University of Colorado. He is currently an assistant coach for the Washington Redskins. The rumor mill has it that Embree may soon take the next step of becoming head coach at his alma mater.
Typically, such a bold move by a university to give an African American coach a chance might be applauded. In this case, heads are turning because of confusing remarks made by former Colorado coach Bill McCartney.
McCartney, who was one of three finalists for the job as of Wednesday night, shut down speculation by stating that the university had informally offered the job to Embree. He also went as far as stating that Embree was offered the job because he is African American.
"It was never about me doing it again," McCartney told the Denver Post. "It was about setting the table for a black man to come in (as head coach). And he (athletic director Mike Bohn) hired one. Now, give him a chance."
Study: College Basketball Players Have Lower Graduation Rates than other Students
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
A new study by The College Sport Research Institute at The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill has revealed disturbing information about the academic hurdles of college basketball players. According to the study, the graduation rates for NCAA Division I men’s basketball players is 20 percentage points less than the average for full-time male students.
The study goes on to show that the gap grows even further in top-ranking conferences. The authors present evidence that there is a 30.8 percent graduation gap when leading conferences are considered separately.
Women are better off than men in the study. Female basketball players find that their graduation rates are still worse than their peers, but the gap is not as great as it is for the men. For women, there is a 6.2 percent differential overall and a 14.6 percentage point differential in top conferences.
NCAA Wants to Fine Its Players
NCAA Wants to Fine Players Who Get Extra Benefits
12:45 AMOct 26
Source: BV on Sports
The NCAA is working with various groups to find ways to keep college athletes from receiving benefits from sports agents. Most recently, there have been proposals put forth that would fine players for violating the rules. The penalties may even … Read More
Agent Caught Paying College Athletes: Big Deal
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
Sports agent Josh Luchs admitted recently during an interview that he’s been paying college athletes for years. He said that in order to get athletes to sign with him, he’d give them amounts as high as $10,000 in hopes that he might have their name on a contract for millions.
Please don’t act as if you’re surprised. Also, don’t act as if you’re somehow offended by the reality that in an allegedly free and capitalist society that someone would (gasp) pay a few thousand bucks to land a multi-million dollar commodity. The only thing disturbing about Luch’s revelation is that he didn’t pay the athletes even more.
I personally consider Luchs to be part hero, part villain. He’s a hero because everyone knows that athletes and their families deserve a piece of the billions that they earn for the fat cats with the NCAA. College athletics produces revenue on par with all of the other professional sports leagues. For some reason, we are caught up in the antiquated notion that we are somehow preserving the innocence of revenue-generating athletes by forcing their families to remain in poverty while others get rich from their labor.
Luchs is part villain because he too is allowed to take advantage of our commitment to the exploitation of college athletes. In some ways, he is simply the better pimp. He should be paying what the athletes are worth, not a fraction of it. Luchs reminds me of someone I know who loves to date abused women, primarily because they are overjoyed by the fact that he doesn’t beat them. By giving the athletes some semblance of their labor rights, Luchs is their knight in shining Under Armour.
There was a time when anyone caught paying slaves for their labor or even arguing that they should be paid would face significant penalties for speaking out against a seriously corrupt system. Today, we have a world where agents are vilified for paying athletes, even though everyone knows that athletes are bringing in massive revenue for other people. If a commodity has value, people are going to be willing to pay for it. By refusing to fairly compensate athletes and their families fairly, the NCAA is begging for the existence of a black market. Corruption breeds more corruption, so a system as corrupt as college athletics deserves to be trumped by the activities of corrupt agents.
To some extent, sports agents are the Underground Railroad for oft-abused college athletes. We allow the NCAA to restrict athlete labor rights in ways that would be unacceptable in nearly every other industry. We also allow them to violate anti-trust laws that further reduce the ability of athletes to earn a fair living. The idea that it should be illegal for a multi-million dollar employee to be paid fairly for his/her labor is an inherently unAmerican value. Luchs knows that, the NCAA knows that and athletes know that. That’s why we’re all living a big ol lie.
USA Today Author Says College Athletes Should Be Paid
by Dave Meggyesy
The question of whether colleges should pay their revenue-producing athletes — football and basketball players at the NCAA’s top 120 college programs — is a no-brainer.
OUR VIEW: When student-athletes cheat, corrupt adults escape blame
The amazing reality is that these athletes, the hired help whose performance generates hundreds of millions for these top programs, don’t get paid. Who wouldn’t want a business where the cost of your product is virtually zero? The performance of college athletes is the product!
Yet, as a marketing ploy, the NCAA defines college-revenue athletes as "student-athletes" and the games as contests among amateurs, creating a huge distortion. In these "big time" college programs, even the term "athlete-student" would be a stretch; athlete-employee is more accurate, young men and recently young women who work year-round at jobs and don’t get paid.
Black Athletes to Get Featured on New HBCU Network
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
NewsOne.com is reporting that there are plans to launch a 24-hour network dedicated to HBCUs. The network is set to be focused on "edutainment" and lifestyle for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The company behind the platform, C3 Media LLC says that the network is set to fill a niche within the cable industry that has barely been reached in the past.
Much of the programming will also feature various sports teams sponsored by black colleges all across America. "The idea and vision behind the creation of the HBCU Network is to preserve and celebrate the African American colleges and universities, while also providing opportunities for their growth and further prosperity," CEO Curtis Symonds told NewsOne. "At the same time, we are passionate and excited about building a strong media brand and network from the ground up."
Barkley Says Most College Athletes Get Money from Sports Agents
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University
I’m not a huge fan of the "vast intellect" of Charles Barkley. In fact, I usually turn the volume down when he’s talking. All the while, I have to admit that I am one of those people who sometimes finds myself admiring Barkley’s candid nature. He’s the man willing to say the things that other people wont’ say, and he’s usually pretty honest about it. As someone who monitors the status, actions and treatment of black athletes in America, I’ve paid careful attention to Sir Charles for quite a while.
The world was fed a healthy dose of that Barkley honesty recently when Sir Charles decided to admit that he took money from sports agents in college. He didn’t actually say that he took the money and kept it, he just said that he borrowed some money and paid it back when he got to the NBA.
Reggie, You Didn’t Need that Heisman Anyway
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University
I am not sure if Reggie Bush has ever read a word I’ve written. But after I mentioned last week that I felt Bush should give the Heisman trophy back, I was proud to see that he gave it away. Again, I am not one to say that he gives a you-know-what about anything I might say in public, but I can certainly say that I am proud.
Bush gave the Heisman trophy back this week after rampant speculation regarding whether or not he received inappropriate benefits during his time at USC. The speculation was bothersome to me, primarily because Reggie Bush was a human highlight film who earned millions for the NCAA and the university. The idea that they would even consider taking his Heisman Trophy after he’d given the NCAA so much was nothing short of offensive. If a man earns millions of dollars for you and you get angry because he took a few thousand to give his mother a place to live, then you’ve clearly got a problem with your value system.
Bush’s statement about giving the Heisman back is below:
Dan Hampton’s Remarks about Katrina Were Uncalled For
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
NFL Hall of Famer Dan Hampton has a great deal to apologize for this week. During a broadcast of an NFL game between the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints, Hampton thought it would be funny to bring up that little thing called Hurricane Katrina. Making reference to the fact that the Vikings needed to show up with their A-game, Hampton said, "The Vikings need to go down there and hit that town like Katrina."
Bad move buddy, bad move.
There isn’t much to say about Dan Hampton other than the obvious. It didn’t take him long to realize that it might be inappropriate to make jokes about an event that led to the death and displacement of tens of thousands of people. Hurricane Katrina affected real lives in a very real way, and Hampton needs to understand that. Additionally, invoking Katrina into the fantasy world of professional football is only productive to the extent that the success of the Saints has helped to heal the hearts of New Orleans residents who’ve lost everything. So, if you can’t bring Hurricane Katrina up in a positive and uplifting way, please don’t bring it up as a joke.
Maurice Clarett is Back on the Field
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, The Coalition for Black Male Athletes, Syracuse University Scholarship in Action
Maurice Clarrett, the embattled former superstar of the Ohio State Buckeyes, is getting another chance to play football. Clarett just signed a one-year deal to play for the Omaha Nighthawks in the United Football League. This is the first time Clarett has put on a football uniform since spending three and a half years in prison for having a hidden gun and holding up a couple outside a night club.
"I am humbled by the opportunity the Omaha Nighthawks have given me and will dedicate myself on and off the field to prove that I can be a valuable member of the team and the Omaha community," Clarett said. "I am committed to working hard to earn the right for a second chance in football and more importantly in life."
Clarett is now 6-feet tall, 220 pounds, which makes him 10 pounds lighter than he was when he played at Ohio State. The coaches were astonished at his physical shape, giving him credit for keeping himself prepared. He is allowed to be out of the state for 30 days at a time, but his attorneys are hoping that a judge will rule that Clarett can leave the state for the entire football season. He is now 26-years old, meaning that he is at his physical peak.
Athletes with Kids out of Wedlock: The High Cost of Child Support
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
I recently read a very interesting story about how so many black athletes are being hammered by the financial devastation of child support. Their paychecks are getting zapped to nothing, only to buy Coach purses and hair weaves for the women who’ve had their children. Perhaps the sex was good enough to justify the misery, but I’ve never had sex that good.
New York Jets running back Antonio Cromartie is one famous case of “I’m Bound to be Broke-itis.” Cromartie, who is 26-years old, has eight children with six women in five different states. In fact, the Jets had to front Cromartie $500,000 to settle his paternity situation before he even started playing for the team. There are quite a few other cases worth mentioning, but I won’t waste time laying out the issues.
What I will lay out is an added perspective that might help brothers realize the utter stupidity of putting themselves in situations that will keep their pockets empty, kill their ability to support a family down the road and possibly lead to incarceration. Getting caught under the neck of the merciless child support system is an absolutely horrible feeling. Children are a beautiful gift from God, and we can all appreciate a pretty woman, but if you let this stuff get the best of you, you’re begging for a life of misery.
African American Athlete Labor Rights Being Further Restricted by the NCAA
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University Scholarship in Action
Mark Emmert, the new president of the NCAA, plans to endorse a system for collegiate athletics that disallows players to play one year and head to the NBA. Instead, Emmert wants a system in which the age limit is removed (which is what kept players like Carmelo Anthony from going pro right out of high school) with players being forced to decide whether they wish to declare for the NBA draft or go to college. If they choose to go to college, they are not allowed to play in the NBA for either three years or when they turn 21, whichever comes first. In the face of the new rule, players are pushed to make the decision sooner, and are locked into that decision for at least three years.
Bethlehem Schoals and Tom Ziller of Fanhouse.com write on the racial dimension of this issue in the following way:
NBA Player Lorenzen Wright: Body Found in the Woods
by Dr. Boyce Watkins
Unnamed sources in law enforcement are saying that the body of former Atlanta Hawks player Lorenzen Wright was found in the woods in Memphis. Wright was scheduled to drive back to Atlanta in July with his children when he disappeared in the middle of the night.
The 34-year old Wright was last seen at 2 a.m. on July 19. He was leaving his ex-wife’s home at the time.
Nigel Carr, Florida State and Felonies Galore
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Scholarship in Action Resident at the Institute for Black Public Policy
Nigel Carr was expected to start for the Florida State Seminoles at linebacker this season. Those plans are probably going to be altered, now that Carr faces a slew of felonies related to burglaries he allegedly committed this week.
According to Tallahassee police, Carr burglarized a parked SUV, stealing the victim’s book bag that contained her purse and other valuables. Carr allegedly dumped the items into a nearby trash can and police say they found the victim’s credit card on the floor board of a vehicle being driven by Carr.
Surprisingly, Carr is also a suspect in another car burglary on campus and faces charges from alleged marijuana possession. His career is in serious jeopardy and may likely be coming to an end.
I am not sure what the reasoning might be behind this alleged incident, assuming that the police version of the facts are accurate. Nearly any crime involving a college athlete on the weekend or at night makes me wonder if alcohol or drugs were involved. Carr’s charges for marijuana possession lead me to suspect that this is a strong possibility. For some reason, we’ve fed our young people a set of beliefs that create a culture of substance abuse as a fundamental part of college life. As my daughter prepares for college, I make it clear to her that she should be strong enough to not follow the crowd. I am not one to tell her to refrain from alcohol consumption, but I let her know that college can be a blast without risking rape, illness, incarceration or death, which occurs each year in alcohol-related incidents across the country. While we can’t say that substance abuse played a role in the Carr case, this point should be made nonetheless.
Nick Saban: Are You Really Calling SOMEONE ELSE a Pimp?
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, The Institute for Black Public Policy
University of Alabama coach Nick Saban has made a serious mistake in terminology. During a recent press conference, Saban was asked to respond to NCAA investigations involving one of his players, Marcell Dareus. Dareus allegedly attended a party that was sponsored by a sports agent, which would be an NCAA violation.
Saban then referred to sports agents as "pimps," complaining about how they are determined to undermine the sanctity of college sports by giving the athletes money or expensive gifts. In light of the fact that Saban felt the need to use such harsh language, I thought I might help him to assess what it truly means to be a pimp.
A pimp is someone who does the following:
Tiger Pays $25 million in endorsements for his cheating scandals
Tiger Woods Sex Scandals Cost Him $25 Million in Endorsements
- It’s being reported that the company which represents golf superstar Tiger Woods lost $4.6 million … Read More
- By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 19th 2010 10:21PM | Comments (0)
A Case for NCAA Reform: Dr. Boyce Watkins, Billy Hawkins
Dr. Boyce Watkins - The Institute of Black Public Policy
I wrote about a new book regarding the NCAA’s alleged exploitation of black athletes, written by University of Georgia Professor Billy Hawkins. In his recently-released book, “The New Plantation,” Hawkins goes out of his way to help us understand that the method by which the NCAA does business is not much different from the mindset of plantation owners of the old south.
The analogies used by Professor Hawkins are thought-provoking and appear to be alarmist at first glance. After all, citizens are commonly comparing nearly every modern-day injustice to slavery in order to make a dramatic point. But in this case, the analogies are appropriate, in large part because slavery is not a dichotomy. Instead, it is actually a continuum, with complete freedom on one end and total servitude on the other. One could even argue that slaves themselves were not completely devoid of freedom, since they could have always chosen to run away, buy their freedom, maim themselves or even commit suicide as a way to escape their condition. The point of this very grim example is not to say that slavery was not entirely horrific; rather, it is to say that something does not have to be entirely horrific to be compared to slavery.
NBA Gets Good Marks on Diversity
To view the entire report card for the NBA on race and gender, Please click here
Highlights from the Report (released by the press representative for the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport):
· In the NBA, 82 percent of the players were people of color, remaining constant from last year’s totals. This ties the highest percentage of players of color since the 1994-95 season. The percentage of African-American players also remained constant from last year’s report at 77 percent. The percentage of Latinos and Asians remained constant, at three and one percent respectively. The percentage of international players stayed steady as well at 18 percent.
Visit our Other Blogs and Join Our Family!
Scholarship in Action at Syracuse University
The Whitman School of Management
Follow us on Twitter!
Your News: NCAA Gets Another 11 billion off athletes’ families
The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is expanding, starting next season, but not on the large scale once expected.
The sport’s signature event will grow to 68 teams from 65 in conjunction with a new 14-year, nearly $11 billion television agreement with CBS and Turner Sports announced Thursday. That gives the NCAA a 41% hike in annual media and marketing rights connected to the tournament — and "financial stability through the first quarter of this century," interim President Jim Isch said — without the controversy of a more dramatic move to a 96-team bracket.
Negotiations with CBS/Turner, ESPN and Fox Sports initially had targeted a 96-team field, drawing concern and criticism from traditionalists and others over the impact on the tournament’s aesthetics, effect on college basketball’s regular season and conference tournaments and potential for further intrusion on players’ time and studies.
March Madness: The Billion Dollar Sweatshop
I was invited this week to speak to the Stanford University NAACP about whether or not college athletes should be paid. When I am asked whether I think college athletes should be compensated for their labor, I simply respond to the question with another question: “Why shouldn’t they get paid? Did they not earn the money? Is someone else earning money from their labor? Is the labor of the athlete essential to the revenue-generating process?” Answers to these questions help us to understand how insane it is that athletes earn billions of dollars for coaches, but aren’t entitled to any of that money for themselves. I’ve seen race horses get better deals than that.
Should College Athletes Be Paid?
From Your Black World, AOL Black Voices
Dr. Boyce Watkins, faculty affiliate at The College Sport Research Institute, is going to speak to the Stanford NAACP on Wednesday, March 3. The topic of the conversation will be “Does the NCAA Represent an Opportunity or Exploitation?”
Dr. Watkins is one of the leading authorities on NCAA compensation. He has advocated for college athletes to be paid, and founded the group ALARM: The Athlete Liberation and Academic Reform Movement. He is also the founder of the Your Black World Coalition, with 60,000 members nation-wide.
Is Tiger Woods Being Selfish by holding his press conference?
Tiger Woods is planning to have the press conference of the year tomorrow, during which he will talk about his past, present and future. He will be in the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He is not going to answer questions and the world will be watching. All three major networks are planning to tune in and for just 30 minutes, you may as well call him Tiger Obama, given that his speech is getting the same attention at the State of the Union Address.
Ernie Els, one of Tiger’s arch rivals on the golf course (if Tiger has any rivals), is lining himself up to be one of the first men to attack Woods for his choices.
"It’s selfish," Els told Golfweek. "You can write that. I feel sorry for the sponsor. Mondays are a good day to make statements, not Friday. This takes a lot away from the golf tournament."
NCAA Anti-Trust Lawsuit Continues
A district court judge in San Francisco on Monday denied theN.C.A.A.’s motion for dismissal in a class-action lawsuit headed by the former U.C.L.A. basketball star Ed O’Bannon. The ruling leaves the N.C.A.A.’s licensing contracts open to discovery.
O’Bannon’s lawyers filed the antitrust suit in July, claiming that former athletes should be compensated for the use of their images and likenesses in television advertisements, video games and on apparel. They said Monday’s ruling was an important first step.
“This is a truly historic day — to our knowledge, no one has ever gotten behind the scenes to examine how student-athletes’ current and future rights in their images are divided up and sold,” said Jon T. King of Hausfeld LLP, one of the lead lawyers representing O’Bannon.
News: USC Bans Itself Over OJ Mayo
USC coach Kevin O’Neill assembled his players early Sunday morning to deliver the news that the Trojans’ eight-game win streak and their newfound status as a Pac-10 title contender won’t matter for an NCAA tournament berth.
The school had decided to self-impose penalties related to former player O.J. Mayo and his relationship with agent/runner/booster Rodney Guillory. But vacated wins from two seasons ago and a scholarship being taken away weren’t tangible to this crew. Having their season end March 7 was all the players heard.
[+] Enlarge
Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images
O.J. Mayo’s involvement with Rodney Guillory led to USC’s self-imposed sanctions, including a postseason ban.
"My heart sank for a second," said senior point guard Mike Gerrity, a two-time Division I transfer from Pepperdine to Charlotte to USC. "I was frustrated. That’s what you play college basketball for — to play in March."
The Trojans haven’t lost since Gerrity became eligible. Since beating Sacramento State and Idaho State before he was cleared to play Dec. 18, they’ve won six games with him as their lead guard. They beat Tennessee by 22 points, won the Diamond Head Classic with wins over Western Michigan, Saint Mary’s and UNLV, then earned a Pac-10 season-opening home sweep of Arizona and Arizona State. The Trojans are on a roll heading into a three-game road swing to Stanford, Cal and UCLA in the next 12 days.
NCAA is the Great Scam of the 21st Century
Read More: Education, Florida State University, Football, NCAA, Seminoles, Sports, Student, University
- Related News
- Chris Henry’s missteps don’t outshine memories of a good heart
- Florida State quarterback EJ Manuel. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
According to the ESPN Show "Outside the Lines," the Florida State Seminoles appear to be about everything except education.
In order to win games and make millions, football players are having their majors chosen for them, and many athletes are being conveniently misdiagnosed as learning disabled. One recent episode stated that one-half of all Florida State University football players and three-fourths of their African-American athletes are Social Science majors (indicative of major clustering). One of the academic counselors said that when she started her tenure, there were 15 football players tagged as learning disabled. That number has since spiked to 65.
When the allegations were released, Florida State University started backpedaling faster than an NFL defensive back. The NCAA has done its usual grandstanding, detaching itself from the Seminoles, as if this doesn’t also happen at nearly every other campus under its domain.
But the truth is that this behavior is not uncommon. If you think that Florida State University is the only NCAAschool to engage in such destructive and irresponsible behavior, then you need to be educated on how many campuses now do business. College athletes, many of them African-American, are brought to college as hired guns, under the guise of getting an education. The entire charade is sustained for the sake of helping the NCAAmaintain its multi-billion dollar professional sports league.
Yes, I said professional, not amateur. Any league that earns money on par with the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB is a professional sports league. NCAA coaches, commentators and administrators - mostly white - earn six and seven figure salaries while simultaneously robbing athletes of their educations, their futures, and the money that they and their families have earned. In order to avoid paying taxes on their revenue, the NCAA spends millions on marketing to convince us that their multi-million dollar corporate extravaganzas are polite little weekend activities that students barely remember to keep on their schedules. All the while, Tyrone Smith attends four years of college and doesn’t even learn how to read.
For the NCAA, the educational mission of their professional sports league is one of the great scams of the 20th and 21st centuries, no different from the Ponzi schemes of Bernie Madoff. It is a convenient illusion, like Tiger’s wife using the golf club to "save him from a car accident."
Black Coaches Finally Getting NCAA Football Jobs
The executive director of the Black Coaches and Administrators, Floyd Keith, said Monday that he is encouraged by the quick hirings of three black head coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision, increasing the number from seven to 10.
"Let’s keep it in perspective," Keith said. "But it’s a positive. Finally — as long as we’ve been involved — I don’t ever recall this early there being such a positive response. And I think that number may even increase in the next few days."
On Monday, Virginia hired Richmond’s Mike London. Recently, Western Kentucky hired Stanford running backs coach Willie Taggart and Memphis hired LSU running backs backs coach Larry Porter.
“
When coaches have had the opportunity, they’ve had success. In recent Super Bowls, there have been black head coaches and they have been winners.
”– Floyd Keith, executive director
of the Black Coaches & Administrators
Buffalo coach Turner Gill is interviewing with Kansas, a source close to the situation said Monday. And Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong has interviewed with Louisville.
"Maybe after years of there being talented individuals out there, there are some open-minded presidents and athletic directors who are saying, ‘Hey, I’m familiar with this guy. Maybe he’d be a good fit here,’" Keith said. "When coaches have had the opportunity, they’ve had success. In recent Super Bowls, there have been black head coaches and they have been winners."
NCAA May Select a Black President
By the end of this week, the NCAA may start the process of joining the rest of the country in making history. Nearly a year after American voters elected the nation’s first black president, the association that runs college sports may be poised to select the first black man to run one of the country’s major sports organizations.
The NCAA’s Executive Committee is slated to meet this Thursday at the organization’s headquarters in Indianapolis, and is expected to choose a firm to help in its search to find a successor to Myles Brand, the former president, who died last month.
Among the contenders is Dr. Bernard Franklin, a former president of four schools, most notably Virginia Union. Franklin, who was hired for the NCAA by Brand, currently serves as the organization’s executive vice president for membership and student-athlete affairs.
Franklin’s ascendance would not only zoom the NCAA past the NFL, Major League Baseball and the NBA in terms of moving an African-American into a chief executive post, but would send a powerful message to university and college presidents, who could desperately use it. (It bears noting that African-American James Frank, of Lincoln University, previously served as the NCAA’s president. However, that title was given to elected officials from individual schools, while the post of executive director went to the full-time chief executive officer.)
You have a much better chance of finding subtlety in a Tyler Perry movie than you do of spotting an African-American football coach or athletic director - often two of the most powerful positions on a college campus - at the nation’s biggest colleges.
NCAA in a Legal Battle over Video Rights with NFL
The NFL’s college advisory committee may find it next to impossible to render informed opinions on the readiness of juniors who are potential 2010 draft prospects because the league has been locked in a multi-million dollar standoff with a Boston-area company that produces and disseminates digitized content of NCAA games for eight major conferences, league sources told SI.com.
According to those sources, XOS Technologies, based in Billerica, Mass., requested the NFL pay a rights fee between $20 million and $30 million for a multi-year commitment to electronically receive the coaches’ tape content for itself and its 32 teams. That content — which shows the entire alignment of both the offense and defense on each play, shot from the end zone — was formerly supplied free of charge in video tape form by schools as a mutually beneficial consideration between the NFL and NCAA. That’s changed now.
Contacted by SI.com on Friday, XOS chief executive officerRandy Ecckersaid his company made the rights fee request to the NFL in August on behalf of the conferences it represents, and that XOS is no longer involved in the discussions between the league and the eight conference commissioners. NFL officials reached by SI.com declined comment.
Read more:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/nfl/10/23/xos.nfl/index.html#ixzz0UoWqx6Tn
Dr Boyce Watkins: University of Michigan’s “Optional” Football Practices
by Dr. Boyce Watkins , Syracuse University
MSNBC’s TheGrio.com , Your Black World
The University of Michigan football team has a storied tradition when it comes to winning. The program is equally storied when it comes to making money by putting athletes on the field no matter what. This football factory rivals the other bastion of athletic exploitation down the road: my alma mater, The Ohio State University.
It was recently unearthed that The University of Michigan has been using "optional" practices as a way to push athletes against their will. Players and their families have reported that any athlete who doesn’t attend the "optional" practices has a strong likelihood of being punished by the team.
I have just one question: why is anyone surprised? The only thing surprising to me about the University of Michigan case is that someone is actually willing to testify against the university. I am simply stunned that the players are bold enough to stand up for their rights in light of the fact that there are extreme penalties for athletes who have the audacity to think for themselves.
For college athletes, loyalty to the NCAA is not a choice. The officials who run college sports serve as the judge, jury and executioner in all cases related to athletic conduct. Like Michael Vick’s pit bulls, athletes within the NCAAsystem are domesticated, indoctrinated and brainwashed from the minute they set foot on a college campus.
The same way that many major retailers look the other way when five year olds are employed in third-world factories, the NCAA doesn’t do a very good job of enforcing the standards within its very own rulebooks. The only standards that seem to be applied strictly are those that keep the athletes and their families away from the multi-billion dollar revenue-generating machine that pays for the massive salaries of college football coaches. This is nothing less than a slap in the face to the players and their families, who give so much on the field.
Sports: Did Michael Jordan’s Speech Reveal His Insecurities?
The tears tumbled, flooding his face and Michael Jordan had yet to march to the microphone at Symphony Hall. He had listened to the genuine stories and speeches of a remarkable class. He had watched a “This is Your Life” video compilation of his basketball genius. Everything flashed before him, a legacy that he’s fought with body and soul to never, ever let go into yesterday.
Yes, Michael Jordan was still fighting it on Friday night, and maybe he always will. Mostly, he was crying over the passing of that old Jordan, and it wouldn’t be long until he climbed out of his suit and back into his uniform and shorts, back into an adolescent act that’s turned so tedious.
This wasn’t a Hall of Fame induction speech, but a bully tripping nerds with lunch trays in the school cafeteria. He had a responsibility to his standing in history, to players past and present, and he let everyone down. This was a night to leave behind the petty grievances and past slights – real and imagined. This was a night to be gracious, to be generous with praise and credit.
The Big Punch: Dr Boyce Watkins Speaks on LaGarette Blount Suspension
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University
When I saw the video of the punch out by LeGarrette Blount of The University of Oregon, I was shocked and disappointed. This knock out blow that the athlete laid on Byron Hout of Boise State certainly has no place in the game of football - at least after the clock has struck zero. The University of Oregon acted immediately, suspending Blount for the entire season, effectively ending his career with the team. This incident is also going to likely hurt his chances of having an NFL career.
Here are some reasons that Oregon State was dead wrong in their decision.
1) The the university has no right to be judge and jury on this case. Where’s the union for college athletes? Oh yeah, they don’t have one. This incident is a reminder and sick reflection of the fact that college student athletes should have the same labor rights as the rest of us. Instead, they are subject to the harsh decisions of universities who care more about their revenues and reputations than the athletes themselves. Before you destroy a young man’s career, there should be hearings and a full investigation by a trustworthy panel of individuals who consider his well-being as part of the process. The idea that someone moved so quickly without knowing all the facts is absolutely ridiculous.
2) He is young. Since when can’t one 22-year old football player punch out another one and not pay for it for the rest of his life? Does it really make sense that the university feels that this man’s years of hard work are so disposable that they can simply throw them in the trash without consequence? Coaches are arrested for DWIs, commit crimes and do all kinds of egregious things, and are simply expected to go find another job. Blount, because of NCAA restrictions, can’t simply join the team at another university. His career is over.
The History of Black Athlete Protests
Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez College football’s centennial year, 1969, also happened to be my senior season at Notre Dame. I played against three teams that year—Georgia Tech, Tulane, and then Texas in the Cotton Bowl—that had not yet integrated their varsity football teams. This was actually a mark of progress. By 1969, the integration of the Southeastern Conference and the old Southwest Conference was finally well underway. It started in the SWC in 1966 at Baylor and SMU and in the SEC with Kentucky in 1967; it ended with Texas and Arkansas in 1970, then with Georgia, LSU, and Ole Miss in 1972.
That was college football’s quiet racial revolution. The noisy one took place on northern campuses. At Oregon State in February 1969, a black linebacker named Fred Milton was suspended from the team after an assistant coach spotted him on campus with a moustache and goatee, in violation of the team’s ban on facial hair. Black students on campus responded with a boycott of classes, many of them left the university, and both the football team and the institution struggled for years afterward against a reputation for racial intolerance. Two months later, 16 black players at the University of Iowa boycotted a spring practice and were suspended; seven were reinstated in August. That summer, John Underwood wrote a three-part series for Sports Illustrated titled "The Desperate Coach," describing the incidents at Oregon State and Iowa, along with dozens of lesser ones in athletic programs throughout the country, as a full-scale assault on coaches’ authority. "In the privacy of their offices," Underwood wrote, "over breakfast in strange towns, wherever two or three coaches get together, they talk about The Problem."
The Third Strike in Kentucky Basketball Shame
The video is out there, and we’ll see it someday. It’ll show Billy Gillispie, months removed from leading the famous Kentucky basketball program, in an orange jumpsuit — the kind worn by the prisoners picking up garbage on the highway. The video will show Gillispie in that jumpsuit, being arraigned last week on charges of driving while intoxicated.
Already the mug shot is out there, and it’s startling enough. It shows Gillispie with puffy, heavy eyes. He looks 10 years older. He looks 20 pounds heavier. He looks drunk.
Billy Gillispie’s mug shot from his most recent drunken driving arrest. (AP)
Still, I submit the following: I submit that Gillispie is one of the luckiest SOB’s around.
If he was going to get arrested for DUI — and this being Gillispie, he was going to get arrested for DUI eventually — last week was the best week possible. It came shortly after two enormous basketball stories had already broken in that state. Just one week earlier, the NCAA had taken away the 2008 Final Four banner from Memphis and the former Memphis coach who replaced Gillispie at Kentucky, John Calipari. And that came after the revelation that current Louisville (and former Kentucky) coach Rick Pitino had a one-dinner stand with a woman who accused him of raping her, impregnating her, marrying her off to his personal assistant and then paying for the abortion.
U. Michigan Football and “Voluntary” Workouts – The Whistle Gets Blown
Ask University of Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez about Mike Barwis, and the superlatives will flow.
“He’s my guy,” Rodriguez told the Free Press in the summer of 2008. “I won’t go anywhere without him.”
Barwis has been Rodriguez’s strength and conditioning coach for six years — four at West Virginia University, two at Michigan. The 46-year-old Rodriguez, entering his second season at U-M, has said Barwis might be even more important than Rodriguez’s assistant coaches because of all the time Barwis spends working with players.
But how much time is too much?
The NCAA, which governs college athletics, has strict limits on how much time coaches can require players to spend on their sport. But Rodriguez’s team has routinely broken the rules since he took over in January 2008, people inside the program told the Free Press.
Dr Boyce Watkins: John Calipari’s Funny Relationship with Black People
Dr Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University
After reading about Kentucky Coach John Calipari being found guilty of cheating by the NCAA, I wasn’t surprised in the least. Calipari has never been known for producing the most highly educated athletes in the world (his graduation rate among African American athletes is 44 percent), and he seems to want to win above anything else. The idea that my alma mater, The University of Kentucky, would immediately step in to pay tens of millions of dollars to a coach that has been proven to be a cheater makes a powerful statement about the ethical disposition of this university. Kentucky is like many NCAA institutions in their mass pillage of African American athletes for the sake of their multi-million dollar fortunes.
John Calipari and his old school, The University of Memphis, have been charged with having an SAT exam taken for a player on the basketball team (believed by many to be Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls). According to several published sources, the SAT exam was falsified during the 2007 - 2008 season. The team has been required to give back 38 wins from that season, costing the school millions in revenue. These kinds of abuses don’t just occur at The University of Memphis. The University of Kentucky’s basketball program has nearly received the death penalty for its long list of violations in the past, so it is only fitting that they hire yet another arguably unethical coach to continue their storied tradition. Here are some quick thoughts about John Calipari and The University of Kentucky:
Dr Boyce and Wilmer Leon speak on the NCAA Lawsuit
Dr. Boyce Watkins of Syracuse University and Dr. Wilmer Leon of Howard University speak about the NCAA class action lawsuit. The NCAA is being sued for illegal use of player images. What do you think? Should the NCAA start paying players?
Tennessee Running Back Has Eligibility Questioned
Tennessee is trying to make one final plea on behalf of freshman running back Bryce Brown with the hope of keeping him from missing any games this season.
The NCAA has been investigating his amateur status dating back to his high school days in Wichita, Kan., and Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton said Wednesday that the NCAA has handed down its initial ruling.
Tennessee isn’t saying for sure what that ruling is, but it sounds like Brown could be suspended for a game or two and have to make restitution for any funds or extra benefits he might have received back in high school as part of his relationship with his adviser, Brian Butler.
Tennessee officials have gone out of their way to clarify that the Vols aren’t under investigation. This issue deals with Brown’s amateur status and goes back to before Tennessee was even recruiting him.
The whole thing has weighed heavily on Brown and angered Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin, who feels that Brown is being singled out.
Calipari Found Cheating – Kentucky Coach Must Give Back 38 wins
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)—Memphis will be forced to vacate the record 38 victories from its Final Four season of 2007-08 under former coach John Calipari because of NCAA violations, The Commercial Appeal reported.
The newspaper, citing an unidentified source close to the situation, said on its Web site Wednesday night the NCAA will release findings of its investigation Thursday. The Commercial Appeal said it was unaware of any penalties beyond this season.
The NCAA investigated whether someone took the SAT exam for a player on that Final Four team. Memphis was notified of potential violations in January and met with the governing body in June.
The NCAA has said an unknown person took the college entrance exam for a player—with his knowledge—and that the player used it to get admitted. The governing body says the athlete played for the Tigers only in the 2007-08 season and the 2008 NCAA tournament. Just one person fits that description: Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls’ No. 1 overall draft pick in 2008 and its rookie of the year.
The latest from Dr Boyce Watkins on AOL Black Voices – 8/11/09
-
Dr Boyce Money: Is the NCAA Racist or Just Getting Rich?
In a letter written to NCAA president Myles Brand, Chairman Bill Thomas of the House Ways and Means …
-
Dr. Boyce Money: NCAA Finally Gets Sued
I’ve written extensively about the NCAA and what I perceive to be its consistent effort to exploit …
-
Dr Boyce: Congressman Compares NBA Age Limit to Slavery
I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Congressman Steve Cohen has chosen to take on the NBA’s …
-
Young B-Ball Star Takes European Money - Good for Him!
In light of Jeremy Tyler’s decision to skip his senior year of high school in order to play …
-
Dr Boyce Watkins: Should College Athletes Be Paid? A Black Perspective
Dr Boyce Watkins appears on the Madison Square Garden Channel after a New York Knick’s game and asks …
Suing the NCAA: Why It should be done
I’ve written extensively about the NCAA and what I perceive to be their consistent efforts to exploit the black community. They spend millions on public service announcements to protect their deception, but eventually the athletes and the public are going to wise up to what they are doing. The truth is that college athletes should be paid for the same reasons that any actor in a Hollywood blockbuster film would expect to receive compensation. The problem is that the families of athletes don’t quite know how to organize and fight for their power. So, when I read about the recentlawsuit against the NCAA for allegedly misusing the images of athletes for videogames, I was a very happy man.
Let me break it down for you:
Based on my 16-years of experience as a college professor (I currently teach atSyracuse University, a school that earns millions off black families every year), collegiate athletics is not, in my opinion, about amateurism and it’s not about education. It’s about making money. Period. Many athletes are admitted to college every year and they would not be granted admission were it not for their ability to play sports and make money for the campus. Making money is not a problem, but the problem comes with the fact that universities do not share this revenue with the families of the players.
NCAA Being Sued Over Use of Player Likenesses
LAS VEGAS — Lawyers for the former U.C.L.A. basketball star Ed O’Bannon filed a class-action lawsuit against the N.C.A.A. on Tuesday, claiming former athletes should be compensated for the use of their images and likenesses in television advertisements, video games and apparel.
The lawsuit, which did not include a dollar amount sought, will bring into focus how the N.C.A.A. handles player images, especially after players leave college and are no longer bound by N.C.A.A. rules, and its vast licensing deals, which are estimated at about $4 billion. None of that money goes to the former players whose images, jersey numbers and likenesses are used.
“We really couldn’t believe that these compensation practices still existed in any kind of industry,” said Jon T. King, a partner at Hausfeld, a Washington-based law firm that is representing O’Bannon. “We do antitrust cases in all sorts of industries, and when we learned about this disparity, it was literally shocking to us.”
The Great Jim Brown Goes After Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan
For years different people have always grumbled about the lack of activism and social change involvement of professional athletes. Specifically our most successful athletes like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Tiger Woods. In a recent interview with HBO’s Real Sports, former NFL great Jim Brown went in on the lack of activism for social change from both Tiger and Jordan in recent years.
"There are one or two individuals in this country that are black that have been put in front of us as an example," Brown told Real Sports host Bryant Gumbel. "But they’re basically under a system that says, ‘Hey, they’re not gonna do a certain thing.’ Yes, that
www.blackbloggers.wordpress.com
“Chosen One” Leaves High School at 16 – Only Because he doesn’t play football or Basketball
Read below about Bryce Harper, the 16 year old who is going to college next year only so he can be eligible for the 2010 MLB draft. If he were a basketball or football player, he would not be able to do this. So, not only does this story make a mockery of our educational system, it also points out the hypocrisy which exists in the way basketball and football operate relative to sports dominated by non-black athletes.
When big Bryce Harper made the cover of Sports Illustrated two weeks ago, I knew we’d soon again be hearing from the 16-year-old ‘chosen one.’
But not quite this soon.
On Sunday, the sophomore from Las Vegas found his way into national headlines again when his father announced that Bryce will forgo his final two years of high school and use a GED to enroll in a community college this August. Though it more or less makes a mockery of our education system, the Harpers’ plan would make Bryce eligible for the 2010 draft, where he could conceivably be the Nationals’ No. 1 pick and eventually join forces with Stephen Strasburg to save Washington baseball from itself.
Congressman Compares NBA Age Limit to Slavery
Steve Cohen, Democrat of Tennessee, wrote that the four-year-old rule, which requires that players be 19 years old and one year removed from their high school graduation, is of “deep concern.”
“It’s a vestige of slavery,” Cohen said Wednesday in a phone interview, noting that most of the players affected by the rule are African-American. “Not like the slavery of 150 years ago, but it’s a restraint on a person’s freedoms and liberties.”
Cohen said he was dismayed to hear that N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern was hoping to extend the age limit to 20. He added that his office was in the process of looking into the legalities of the limit and that a hearing and legislation were possible. He said the issue would fall under the jurisdiction of the House’s Judiciary Committee.
“Hopefully, they’ll just do the right thing,” he said.
NCAA to Investigate Memphis for Violations Under Calipari
The University of Memphis is responding to an NCAA notice of allegations accusing the men’s basketball program of major violations during the 2007-08 season under John Calipari, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The allegations include "knowing fraudulence or misconduct" on an SAT exam by a player on that season’s team, which finished runner-up in the NCAA tournament, The Commercial Appealreported on its Web site.
Lamar Chance, spokesman for the basketball program, declined comment Wednesday night when contacted by The Associated Press.
Because of privacy laws, the player’s name was redacted in the report, which was obtained by the newspaper through the Freedom of Information Act.
Memphis, which received the notice on Jan. 16, is scheduled to appear before the NCAA Committee on Infractions on June 6.
Calipari, who left Memphis for Kentucky on March 31, is not named in the report, the newspaper said.
DeWayne Peevy, sports information director for Kentucky, said Calipari had no immediate comment.
Top Black News Site in
America
Dr. Boyce Watkins
Top Black Speakers Bureau
The Top Money and Love Book in America
Get Hip Hop Gossip
from Autumn Jones!
Black Women United
Your Black Fashion
Your Black Money Blog
Lady Drama
Your Black Gossip
BlogRoll
Black Money
Black Speakers
Black Celebrity Gossip Hip Hop Black Scholars Dr. Boyce Watkins Black Attorneys Black History Money and Love Blog Black Politics Black Global News Dr. Boyce Watkins Blog Black Love Black Women Black Power Black Life Black Writers Black College Hip Hop vs. America Hip Hop Intellectuals Black Men Black Gospel Black Advice and Counseling Black Beauty Black Education Black News Black Sports Black Celebs Black Health Black Reviews Black Fashion Black Hair African American Speakers Black Media Black Men in America Black Women African American News Cornel West Black Politics in America Patti LabelleBlack Scholarship
Black Bloggers
Black Public Scholars
Black Authors
Black Greeks
Black Leadership
Black Athletes
FIERCE Blog for Women
Black Enterprise and Black Wealth
African American Money
Young Black Men
African American News
The Wendy Williams Experience
Young Black Students
Young Black Love
Financial Advice
Black Education
Black Press Release
African American wealth
Black Love
Black Hair
African American scholars
Black Sports
Black Politics
Barack Obama
Black women and Money
Black Speakers
Chris Brown and Rihanna
Barack Obama Stimulus Plan
Black Bloggers
Black Press Releases
Black Real Estate
African American Finance
Black Estate Planning
Black Bankruptcy Advice
Barack Obama Financial Crisis
Black Insurance
Black Retirement
Black Personal Finance Advice
Dr. Boyce Watkins
Black Financial Experts
Black Scholarship Funding
African American Speakers
Nicole Spence - Black Dating Site
Couples and Money Blog
Paying College Athletes
