NCAA teams breaking the rules is becoming too much of the norm

Early this week SI.com came out with a report that linked big time current and former college basketball coaches to Houston businessman and AAU basketball operator J. David Salinas.

These coaches invested money with Salinas, who died on Sunday, and it’s now being said that with the work he did in AAU basketball it could be seen as a conflict of interest.

The report included former Arizona Wildcat head coach Lute Olson.

Where are we at when the first thought that went through my head was “who cares?”

Seriously. That’s where I’m at with all of these allegations of schools being involved illegally with recruiting services — both basketball and football.

I’m at the point where I couldn’t care less. The news bores me. Stop talking about it. I want to watch the action on the field/court and then talk about that.

The best way I can explain it is something that happened early last decade: steroids in baseball.

I can’t remember exactly when it was, but I got to the point where I accepted that many baseball players were doing something illegal and all I wanted to do was watch baseball games (in some sense that is still true).

College athletics is out of control. The NCAA is too set in there ways and they move way too damn slow to keep up with the times. They don’t know what to do, they take years to make crucial decisions and they pathetically end up hurting kids that had nothing to do with poor decisions of people of the past while the coaches that screwed up are collecting checks and cheating elsewhere.

Stop with the claims of breaking news and in-depth reports that could put a program six feet under. You can go to every athletic program at every university across the country and find something to slap them on the wrist with.

We’re in the midst of scouting services telling the truth they want — and it’s not always the entire truth. The coaches are in the same boat in admitting some infractions but hiding the “real dirt” that could really get them in trouble. See Jim Tressel.

The system and their rules are flawed, therefore we end up with violations galore across the board. The NCAA is terrible at playing rule enforcer.

Back to Arizona’s coach Olson. The guy was a helluva coach for 25 years. He won games on the court. Nothing coming out in 2011 is going to do anything to what he accomplished. What it could do is get in the way of what Sean Miller is trying to accomplish. … And as I said earlier, that would be a damn shame.

NCAA figure it out. You are now at Bud Selig’s level in my mind. That’s not good.

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TY’s Outtakes

What I learned this week…

I learned Darren Clarke likes to party. If I won the British Open I would do the same thing. Actually, if I ever break 90 I’m going to do that.

Tweet of the week…

Using social media the right way because she gets it. Share the experience. … After all, she does own Digital Royalty.

Suggestion of the week…

This is more about the question than the suggestion. Over/under: At what age do we think Michael Jordan will not be able to dunk anymore?

For those interested in other updates, there’s also buzz surrounding new tech releases this year. Saiba o que já se sabe sobre o iPhone 13 que será lançado neste ano, which might be a more exciting topic than endless sports scandals.

I’m going with 61. He’ll get one down at 60 and be done with it.

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