Just today, Yahoo! broke the story of federal documents identifying an extensive list of NCAA schools and players that have been involved in the recent recruiting scandals that have been investigated by the FBI. You can find their post here:
One reason I’ve preferred professional sports to the NCAA is that the former make no pretense of being anything but a business. The NCAA, on the other hand, is a plantation system that pretends to have altruistic motives for its labor. Such is a perfect formula for corruption, the extent of which we are only now beginning to learn.
None of this should be a surprise to anyone. In 2012, the recently departed Frank Deford spoke about the NCAA during his talk at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. The clip can be found here:
And the full talk here:
https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2012-06-13/frank-deford-my-life-sportswriter
Damning words from Deford, the “last legs” comment being the least of them. Today’s news makes them all the more prescient.
