Clarett - do you blame the NCAA?

He stuck up two people in an alley with a gun:
http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/9138326

My question - do you blame the NCAA at all for this? I don't mean is it their fault that he (allegedly) pointed a gun at somebody. I mean, is the NCAA blindly naive in thinking that college football is not a money game? Are college football players exploited?

Yeah, they get a free ride, but it's a lot of work and expectations on the players. Then, the NCAA throws a 500 page rulebook on top of that, saying that the kids can't take a couple hundred dollars a week, while the schools charge $45/seat, pay their coach $500,000 a year, and the school gets $2 million for going to a bowl game.

Clarett is an outlier, granted, but is this a bigger problem than just Clarett?

While I agree they do deserve some sort of pay, almost all of them r there on multiple thousand dollar scholarships so they can't and should not get too much more.

and this has absolutely nothing to do with the NCAA. this is about a stupid immature kid who might have been playing a bit of a joke, and that further shows this young man's stupidity and lack of maturity if that is the case.

I should have been clearer - I didn't mean blaming the NCAA for Clarett pulling a gun. I meant it about the last part of the article:
In a magazine interview in November 2004, Clarett said coaches and boosters arranged for him to get passing grades, cars and thousands of dollars while at Ohio State. None of the allegations were verified and Clarett never responded to NCAA requests to be interviewed about them as part of its investigation into Ohio State's athletic program.

Without NCAA regs about receiving money, Clarett would have returned for at least his sophomore year (out of necessity due to the NFL's age policy). I was just curious if anyone else felt the NCAA system is broken?

Without NCAA regs about receiving money, Clarett would have returned for at least his sophomore year (out of necessity due to the NFL's age policy). I was just curious if anyone else felt the NCAA system is broken?
Using Clarett as an example of anything but his own stupidity is a fruitless endeavor.

Would an extra year in Ohio State have made him a better player? Maybe. Would it have made him a better human being? Well, he admits to taking payments and receiving passing grades he didn't deserve. His first actions upon leaving Ohio State were to burn every bridge he had crossed, and then some. He has embarassed himself in workouts and training camps. He is now an alleged felon. Ohio State is a fine school, but I don't think they were going to fix Clarett.

Good points - he very well may have violated the rules even if college players were paid. I guess I'm just still a little shocked as to the depths he's fallen in such a short period of time. If he had a halfway decent head on his shoulders, he would have been playing yesterday!

I should have been clearer - I didn't mean blaming the NCAA for Clarett pulling a gun. I meant it about the last part of the article:


Without NCAA regs about receiving money, Clarett would have returned for at least his sophomore year (out of necessity due to the NFL's age policy). I was just curious if anyone else felt the NCAA system is broken?

its not broken but it could use some tweaks. Like I said they should get some type of allowance for their play, but since most of them r there on fully paid scholarships I can't feel a huge amount of sympathy for them when I've known other college students who r able to take on full class loads, work one and sometimes 2 full time jobs, and they don't have anyone fixing their grades to help them out or getting boosters to "help them out."

Players are paid. They are given lodging, meals, and education, all as a part of their scholarship. These are all things they don't have to pay for and are worth well more than $100,000 per year in total. That's more than I make in a year.

College is a time for training for the real world. Whether you're there studying law, biology, math, business, or the sport of football, you're there to learn your trade. Most people have to pay to learn their trade.

If Clarett had taken it upon himself to work hard and stick with football, he wouldn't be in the predicament he's in now. It's all his own fault.

what a winner... lol...

Players are paid. They are given lodging, meals, and education, all as a part of their scholarship. These are all things they don't have to pay for and are worth well more than $100,000 per year in total. That's more than I make in a year.

College is a time for training for the real world. Whether you're there studying law, biology, math, business, or the sport of football, you're there to learn your trade. Most people have to pay to learn their trade.

If Clarett had taken it upon himself to work hard and stick with football, he wouldn't be in the predicament he's in now. It's all his own fault.
More than $100,000 a year? Maybe at Yale but even at expensive school tuition, room and board dont come close to $100,000. Sorry but at the most it is say $50,000...at the most. At more reasonable schools like say FSU ot Penn State it is probably closer to $25,000 a year.

Meanwhile the coach makes a million or so and his assitants bring in 6 figures. The school brings in a couple mil. The conference adds a couple schools so they can have a conference championship(another game the players have to play) that makes the league and the schools 10 or so mil. Then its off to basically meaningless bowls(more games for players to play) that no one watches outside of the ficticious BCS championship game where schools and conferences makes another 5 or so mil. This is all cold hard cash and not "theoretical money" like scholarship money.
So everyone involved in college footbal makes real money except the guys who actually play it. Sounds sorta shitty doesn't it?
I don't think the guys should get paid some stupid salary or anything but the NCAA needs to stop talking out both sides of their mouth and admit that college football only means one thing to them. Money. And the players only mean money to them by extension. Give these guys reasons to stay in school, do a good job and learn and finish up. Give these guys a shot a real meaningful life when their playing careers don't take off. Give these guys a chance to have a life after sports rather than blithly bullshitting them about "education" and eligibility all the while they exploit them at every turn for the most money they can get out of them.
The NCAA is the most dispicable organization in America today. It is responsible for asanine decisons that keep hard working guys like Jeremy Bloom from playing football simply because he happens to be an Olympic hopeful in another sport. A sport that requires sponsorship to actually make the Olympics. You'd think the NCAA would welcome an Olympian into the fold rather than turning him away. What a joke. It is responsible for asanine decison like letting college basketball players declare for the NBA draft but only if they don't sign an agent. No matter that outside of the top 5 or so picks you have to have an agent to actually get drafted nowadays. What a joke. It is responsible for asanine decisons that don't let a guy with 6 brothers and sisters and a mom with cancer who can't work get a job working at a shoe store to make some money to send his family. What a joke.
Theme here: the NCAA is a big fat F&*^ing joke that is an embrassment of american education. The whole lot of them ought to be fired and they should start over with a system that makes sense.

Oh by the way. Clarett is a big moron who ought to grow up. Maybe some time in the poke for armed robbery will give him the perspective that he clearly lacked when he idiotically thought rules didn't apply to him. He'll get what he deserves.

End of rant.

Thanks FRPLG - that is my point about the NCAA. And, to reiterate, Clarett is an idiot.