Blood doping, the NCAA and the Tour de France...

[Folanator]

Stay with me here....

The latest investigation with the Gamecocks pretty much confirms what I have been feeling for a long time. CFB is moving down the path that the Tour de France took, and there is a cliff of no return at the end of the road.

You guys may or may not know that I am an endurance sports freak, I love the Tour. It is my favorite event and three of my best weeks of the year. Watching cycling's governing body drag it through the mud for almost a decade has been painful.

A little History. In early 2000 there was a drumbeat lead by cycling's governing body because they were pissed that Lance was kicking the Frenchies asses, (the UCI and WADA) they wanted to clean up the sport after a rash of doping scandals. Certainly a noble goal. They wanted to re-instill the purity of the sport. Just a man and his machine. Mano a mano.

The UCI and WADA were given a tremendous amount of investigative power. They were above the laws of the land. There were no courts of law, no representation. They could come in and make anyone pee in a cup both in and out of an event. If the UCI called, you had better come a running or you would face a two year ban.

The result? Well...the rats came out from every sewer they looked in. Riders, teams medical personnel, they all got caught. Once they start looking, they will find the dirt. Everyone got dragged down.

The clamor was "why is everyone doing PED's". Duh... they are doing it because it is impossible to compete at the highest levels of the sport if you weren't. You want to win? Get a big contract? Have stability and longevity in the sport? Take out the needle. Oh and by the way it has ALWAYS been like that. The drug culture in the Tour has been going on since World War 1. Drugs are not new, the effort to uncover the details and what is behind the curtain...is.

The effect of all of this goodie goodie best efforts of well-meaning people? A sport in the crapper, loosing major revenues from sponsors and zero credibility with people that are on the edges of the sport.

This is not unlike what is happening with the current NCAA. They are starting to look at the dirt that has been under the rug for decades. Once you start looking behind the curtain, you will quickly find that you are not in Kansas anymore Toto. I believe that virtually every school cheats to some extent. The next decade will prove me to be right.

I am telling you right now, this path that the NCAA is horrible for CFB. It may make the Gorden Gee's and administrators of the Biology department happy, it may even make us happy if the SEC comes crashing down but the short and long term prognoses? it will be a ten year proctology exam by a dude with large fingers.

The best intentions of people, to bring the purity of college football back in line is doing nothing but exposing what has been going on for decades. Is this what we really want?

In cycling what happened...it has led to horrible press and relegating the sport to the subject matter for late night talk show monologs. The perception is that everyone is dirty in cycling. CFB is well on its way to that end.

 

[MaxBuck]

Stay with me here....

The latest investigation with the Gamecocks pretty much confirms what I have been feeling for a long time. CFB is moving down the path that the Tour de France took, and there is a cliff of no return at the end of the road.

You guys may or may not know that I am an endurance sports freak, I love the Tour. It is my favorite event and three of my best weeks of the year. Watching cycling?s governing body drag it through the mud for almost a decade has been painful.

A little History. In early 2000 there was a drumbeat lead by cycling?s governing body because they were [censored]ed that Lance was kicking the Frenchies asses, (the UCI and WADA) they wanted to clean up the sport after a rash of doping scandals. Certainly a noble goal. They wanted to re-instill the purity of the sport. Just a man and his machine. Mano a mano.

The UCI and WADA were given a tremendous amount of investigative power. They were above the laws of the land. There were no courts of law, no representation. They could come in and make anyone pee in a cup both in and out of an event. If the UCI called, you had better come a running or you would face a two year ban.

The result? Well the rats came out from every sewer they looked in. Riders, teams medical personnel, they all got caught. Once they start looking, they will find the dirt. Everyone got dragged down.

The clamor was "why is everyone doing PED's". Duh... they are doing it because it is impossible to compete at the highest levels of the sport if you weren't. You want to win? Get a big contract? Have stability and longevity in the sport? Take out the needle. Oh and by the way it has ALWAYS been like that. The drug culture in the Tour has been going on since World War 1. Drugs are not new, the effort to uncover the details and what is behind the curtain...is.

The effect of all of this goodie goodie best efforts of well-meaning people? A sport in the crapper, loosing major revenues from sponsors and zero credibility with people that are on the edges of the sport.

This is not unlike what is happening with the current NCAA. They are starting to look at the dirt that has been under the rug for decades. Once you start looking behind the curtain, you will quickly find that you are not in Kansas anymore Toto. I believe that virtually every school cheats to some extent. The next decade will prove me to be right.

I am telling you right now, this path that the NCAA is horrible for CFB. It may make the Gorden Gee's and administrators of the Biology department happy, it may even make us happy if the SEC comes crashing down but the short and long term prognoses? it will be a ten year proctology exam by a dude with large fingers.

The best intentions of people, to bring the purity of college football back in line is doing nothing but exposing what has been going on for decades. Is this what we really want?

In cycling what happened...it has led to horrible press and relegating the sport to the subject matter for late night talk show monologs. The perception is that everyone is dirty in cycling. CFB is well on its way.

The fallacy being that "college sports is worse than it's ever been; everyone is cheating now."

College sports has never been very clean, but it has always had a terrific benefit for student-athletes and the student body at large. Our problem now is not that there is more cheating; it's that the Information Age has resulted in pictures of every exposed dick being broadcast to millions within seconds - accompanied by a counterproductive moralism wherein fans posture in order to feel morally superior to fans of other schools - until their own program is outed.

This ridiculous emphasis on "amateurism" needs to stop. It's a relatively recent phenomenon in college sports, and it's resulted in a bunch of people getting all outraged over shit that has been going on for decades.

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

Interesting (and troubling) analogy, Folanator.

 

[Folanator]

Interesting (and troubling) analogy, Folanator.

The writing is on the wall and it's not going to be pretty. Uuuugh...

 

[MaxBuck]

The writing is on the wall and it's not going to be pretty.

Sometimes it's just that way.

 

[scarletmike]

The writing is on the wall and it's not going to be pretty. Uuuugh...

I agree. The South Carolina mess came out of seemingly nowhere to me (maybe some of you had heard something suggesting it, I sure didn't), and sounds like a massive bomb. What has happened over the past year and change is a big zit on the face of the sport and all the schools, and I don't see it ending anytime soon.

 

[kinch]

Sometimes it's just that way.

And why?

 

[Nicknam4]

But what is the NCAA supposed to do? Let people cheat?

 

[muffler dragon]

Very intriguing post, Fol!

 

[Folanator]

But what is the NCAA supposed to do? Let people cheat?

The question might be would you rather

be morally right?

or would you rather be happy?

It's not a flip question. There are many times where the moral path will make you miserable in both the short and long term. I think this is one of those cases.

 

[DiaBuckeye]

The question might be would you rather

be morally right?

or would you rather be happy?

It's not a flip question. There are many times where the moral path will make you miserable in both the short and long term. I think this is one of those cases.

But it doesn't matter what any of us think... The loose thread has been pulled, there's no stopping it unravelling now.

Though I do agree, it's only a matter of time. Where I think your Tour comparison fails however is this: without the juice, cyclists become less athletic and therefore less interesting and profitable. But without all these monetary benefits, college athletes will remain just as strong, competitive, and profitable as ever. So I say purge the corruption and cleanse the sport. Though it will take years, it won't ruin or even lessen anything.

 

[Folanator]

But it doesn't matter what any of us think... The loose thread has been pulled, there's no stopping it unravelling now.

Though I do agree, it's only a matter of time. Where I think your Tour comparison fails however is this: without the juice, cyclists become less athletic and therefore less interesting and profitable. But without all these monetary benefits, college athletes will remain just as strong, competitive, and profitable as ever. So I say purge the corruption and cleanse the sport. Though it will take years, it won't ruin or even lessen anything.

I dissagree. This years TDF was one of the most compelling ever, certainly in the post Lance era. 99% of the people watching cannot tell the difference in how those guys climb or TT clean or dirty. What was the interest Internationally? Down 50%.
The HTC team is the most sucessful team over the past 4-5 years winning hundreds of races. They folded this year because they could not get a title sponsor. They race clean.
The brusing that a sport can take from repeated scandals, can in some cases never recovered from.

 

[DiaBuckeye]

I dissagree. This years TDF was one of the most compelling ever, certainly in the post Lance era. 99% of the people watching cannot tell the difference in how those guys climb or TT clean or dirty. What was the interest Internationally? Down 50%.
The HTC team is the most sucessful team over the past 4-5 years winning hundreds of races. They folded this year because they could not get a title sponsor. They race clean.
The brusing that a sport can take from repeated scandals, can in some cases never recovered from.

Obviously you know more about the TDF than I, but I can't help but feel that CFB is an entirely different monster for the simple fact that it is an amateur sport (which is ironically what this "cleansing" is attempting to protect). There will always be college football players because there will always be high school football players that need it- whether they are getting extra benefits from it or not, they need college football to get to the next level. And as long as that raw talent exists, it will always be profitable and competitive.

 

[Steve19]

Quite frankly, I think that a loss of sponsors and less money on the table would be good for college football. With all due respect, when a college coach is getting paid ten times as much as a world-leading physics professor [or business or medicine, you name it] at the same university, then something is very wrong. Chasing money away will help lower the costs and ultimately make college sports more sustainable.

I know the argument about needing money for Title IX requirements, by the way. Universities need to offer less athletics options, if sports cannot support themselves. If women's lacross is unprofitable and it can't be supported by surpluses in men's lacrosse, then do away with both as official sports and move them to self-supporting club status.

College sports is not about winning. It's about the values that are learned. When it gets to the point that we are arguing that we want to be blind to unethical behavior, then we really need to examine where we all went wrong.

 

[MaxBuck]

Quite frankly, I think that a loss of sponsors and less money on the table would be good for college football. With all due respect, when a college coach is getting paid ten times as much as a world-leading physics professor [or business or medicine, you name it] at the same university, then something is very wrong. Chasing money away will help lower the costs and ultimately make college sports more sustainable.

I know the argument about needing money for Title IX requirements, by the way. Universities need to offer less athletics options, if sports cannot support themselves. If women's lacross is unprofitable and it can't be supported by surpluses in men's lacrosse, then do away with both as official sports and move them to self-supporting club status.

College sports is not about winning. It's about the values that are learned. When it gets to the point that we are arguing that we want to be blind to unethical behavior, then we really need to examine where we all went wrong.

As the parent of a D1 athlete, I need to disagree with Steve's commentary. Big College Football provides the funding necessary for a great many student-athletes to pursue sports in college, which leads to a greatly expanded overall educational experience. There's no question in my mind that my daughter got as much or more out of the intercollegiate competition, and the network she built with other athletes both on her teams and others, as she did out of the excellent academics. None of that would have been possible without football and the revenue it brings to the school.

The problem is not, IMO, money, it's the absurd insistence by the NCAA that benefits provided to star athletes are "improper." And the equation of paying for a quarterback's tattoos with "immorality" is similarly absurd.

Those of us in business are accustomed to dealing with supply-and-demand on a daily basis. We're able to get for our products or services whatever the marketplace decides is a fair price. This kind of education should be made available to student-athletes as well. If you look at all the "scandal" that is floating around Big College Football right now, it's almost all related to "improper benefits." Yet what is really improper about them aside from the legalistic, myopic rules of the NCAA which itself profits from the very athletes it wishes to prevent from making a few bucks on the side? BS.