Talk of Agents Dominates SEC Media Days
The juiciest headlines coming out of SEC Media Days has little to do with on the field matters, but who was at what party with what agent.
As has been reported, the University of Georgia is the fourth team to be added to the list of schools being investigated concerning a Florida party which involved agents and NCAA college football players. UGA reciever A.J. Green has denied that he is the player under investigation.
Reached by phone Tuesday night — almost a day before the NCAA contacted Georgia — Green told SI.com that he did not attend the party. Green, who is considered on of the nation’s best receivers, said a Georgia compliance official asked him Tuesday if he attended the party. Green said he spent Memorial Day weekend at home in Summerville, S.C.
“I never went to South Beach,” Green told SI.com.
Sports Illustrated does a good job of explaining exactly what is going on-
Earlier Tuesday, ESPN.com reported that Alabama officials are investigating rumors that defensive end Marcell Dareus attended the party. NCAA officials have interviewed several North Carolina players as well as South Carolina tight end Weslye Saunders. Investigators are trying to determine whether agents or financial advisors paid for the party. If someone other than the players footed the bill, any player who attended would be found to have accepted improper benefits and could be ruled ineligible to play for part or all of the 2010 season.
Jim Litke, of the Associated Press, has called out Nick Saban for referring to the agents as “pimps.” Litke feels that many of the coaches are being dishonest when giving their opinion involving agents and NCAA programs, and I tend to agree with him.
Everyone hates agents — even scrupulous agents — unless they have one. The problem with making unscrupulous agents the villains in this drama is that just like the kids they pick off, they’re only the low-hanging fruit. Considering the way college football is structured, it’s nothing short of laughable to hear the coaches and conference commissioners occupying the branches above to suggest the rot could be stopped there.
Big-time college football is effectively running a minor-league system for the NFL, and they’re doing it largely on the backs of kids whose football schoolwork is so demanding that many will never be able to take advantage of the scholarship that gets thrown in with it.
It’s not about the scholarships, anyway. As incoming Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly noted not too long ago, both of his predecessors routinely boasted some of the best graduation rates in the nation and both got fired.
Leave it to Steve Spurrier to give the most honest and straightforward assessment of the situation when he said that he had no real solution and that “I guess sometimes the lure of taking some cash right away affects all of us.”
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