NCAA's injustice

Imagine being one of the top players in college football, arguably America's second-favorite spectator sport.

If you're like me, someone who grew up and lives in the southern United States, you know it's the most important sport, with people basing their entire social calendar in the fall months around their alma mater's schedule.

For me, the University of Georgia is the school whose fortunes on the football field determine whether or not a fall Saturday will be an enjoyable one or one I'd rather forget. (So do me a favor, Georgia, and beat Arkansas this weekend as I celebrate my 40th birthday).

With the actions of a football team dictating the lives of some many people who invest in following the programs that make up the Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten and whatever the Big East morphed into, let's go back to the initial question posed in this column: Imagine being one of the top players in college football.

Every student, alumni, fan of the school, NFL scout and opposing team fan knows your name, with your exploits on Saturday determining whether millions rise to cheer your success and sing the fight song with the marching band.

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The only accolades this top player will enjoy is a scholarship to the school: tuition, room, books and meals paid for, and access to an incredible social network of alumni who want nothing more than to meet the current stars representing their school on the field (people who can offer jobs if the dream of playing professional football ends and the reality of finding a vocation outside of sports sets in).

The memories you created on the football field as a letterman open doors to potential employment few of your fellow non-student-athletes at your school could ever imagine, as long as you take school seriously, work hard and graduate.

For University of Georgia fans, the past couple of weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions because Heisman Trophy front-runner Todd Gurley was suspended for violating a seemingly minor rule of the NCAA (the organization that governs the billion-dollar-a-year industry that is college sports): Gurley was suspended indefinitely while school investigates whether or not he was paid $400 to sign 80 pieces of memorabilia on the Athens, Georgia, campus.

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The NCAA requires schools to immediately declare a player ineligible if the discovery of possible rule violations have been uncovered.

You can imagine how this news was received by the Bulldog Nation in Georgia and by athletic departments around the country, fearful of a similar situation engulfing their football program in turmoil and controversy.

A rule, no matter how asinine, is still a rule, and if Gurley did sign his John Hancock in exchange for a couple hundred bucks, then he knowingly violated a rule, jeopardizing the season for his teammates and ultimately letting down hundreds of thousands of Bulldog faithful.

But at a time when athletic departments and local law enforcement are actively protecting their star athletes from criminal investigations (looking at you, Florida State, courtesy of this eye-opening report from the New York Times), perhaps it's time to rethink the concept of a player being able to make some spending money in exchange for their autograph.

The Boston Globe's Christopher Gasper wrote an article titled "Todd Gurley suspension is absurd," and it's worth quoting from:

This is the way college sports work. Everybody benefits from a high-profile athlete's ability, but the moment that athlete tries to benefit from their own talent beyond their scholarship he or she is buried under the weight of the NCAA rulebook. If you're a major college football star, you're better off being accused of rape or shoplifting or breaking a university statute than trying to profit from your own name, the one you made valuable through your performance. And so the absurdity of the moral value system of college sports is exposed yet again.

Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston is still playing, despite a rape allegation and numerous run-ins with the law. Florida quarterback Treon Harris was reinstated on Friday, after a sexual battery complaint against him was dropped. Three of Harris' teammates, including leading receiver Demarcus Robinson, were "suspended" by Florida coach Will Muschamp for one "game" earlier this season for violating team or school rules. Florida's season opener against Idaho on Aug. 30 was canceled after inclement weather limited it to one play. Muschamp risibly counted that as a game served for his offenders.

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According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gurley's crime is allegedly receiving $400 for signing 80 items on the Georgia campus last spring. That's $5 an autograph. Up until this week, Georgia was selling jerseys with Gurley's number on it for $134.95 on its website (only $89.95 for the replica), according to ESPN. But Gurley is the violator of the rectitude of sanctified amateurism.

The New York Times profile of the Florida State University football program cited above notes, "an examination … of police and court records, along with interviews with crime witnesses, has found that, far from an aberration, the treatment of the Winston complaint was in keeping with the way the police on numerous occasions have soft-pedaled allegations of wrongdoing by Seminoles football players. From criminal mischief and motor-vehicle theft to domestic violence, arrests have been avoided, investigations have stalled and players have escaped serious consequences."

Todd Gurley's actions that required the University of Georgia to suspend him didn't require a cover-up by law enforcement in Athens to protect his status as an eligible player. Instead, it's a reminder the NCAA is far more concerned with punishing individuals who dare to try and make a few financial gains instead of investigating programs that cover up the criminal nature of their players.

Having played professional baseball and spent a few years in the minor leagues, I can tell you a lot of guys in the baseball farm league systems are barely getting by financially, and most of them will never get the call up to Major League Baseball.

But they can sign a few autographs for about the same amount of money as Gurley did and not pay any price except for making sure they note it on their tax returns.

College football fans have big moral questions to ask themselves, especially when considering the ramifications of the New York Times expose of Florida State University football.

But for a player to be suspended over $400 in exchange for some autographs while other athletes are allowed to play as dark legal clouds swirl around their heads is a sign something is seriously wrong with the NCAA.

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