Will Wade is probably not okay
So uhhh, the wiretapped phone call of Will Wade (LSU bball coach) is certainly something. He's clearly talking about compensation to players and their families in the ballpark of NBA minimum salary "for a two or three year kid." Can't imagine what clear lottery one-and-done types get then.
Link to ESPN story on it.
Pretty damning stuff.
I hear they have a great Engineering school and the Dean is a real football guy, ah, wait, oh, that is another fine academically oriented ess eee see school.
Coach o assistant English professor
The University of LSU*
FIFY
Specifically, the engineering department.
Stew Mandel, whom I enjoy reading, is among the pundits marveling at how this is just no big deal.
Here's the thing: It's no big deal because the pundits are just letting it whoosh by.
Right or wrong, there are a lot of schools that believe that they're trying to win clean while other schools are cheating. If this is the case, it is blatantly unfair. And if the NCAA continues to do nothing about this, you're going to get much worse cheating until they randomly decide to catch someone and punish them for the misdeeds of everyone.
And it hurts the students, too. Reading the quotes in the linked article, Wade was upset because a handler failed to communicate to the family how much was in it for them. It looked to me like the handler was deliberately slowplaying things to get more off the top for himself.
That's garbage.
Nobody benefits from this. Not the players that take money, not the players that play clean, not the schools that play clean. Nobody. Except Kentucky, Duke, Alabama, and Ohio State, and a few dozen super-rich coaches and administrators who are are the only legal recipients of the billions of dollars fans and boosters are willing to pay because they love the sports.
This is one of your better comments.
And that's sort of the issue. Who benefits? Sure, the players make a little coin, but far less than they would be compensated. I'm not in favor of outright paying players because I don't think there's a way to do it that wouldn't violate Title IX, and ruin college sports in general, but the NCAA is draconian in the way it prevents players from recouping some of the $$$$ they bring into schools and the organization.
As for the cheating, if every school was doing it, then whatever. The steroid scandal in baseball is a good example. If everyone is doing it then it's simply an unwritten rule and not cheating. But, very few schools cheat at this level which creates an uneven playing field. And that's a problem.
Rarely does literally everyone do it, there are almost always a few who follow the rules and don't do it. Those folks are harmed by the others even if it is a common, even very common, practice.
Poor thread title. Who is Will Wade? Missing OT.
Cheating in college basketball is not, in my opinion, OT.
The SEC is so fucking dirty, cmon NCAA...DO SOMETHING
OSU, PSU, MSU...
Well as someone that's been on UKs campus many times, I know a $50,000 car is one thing.
Defense from Will Wade and LSU....
"My comments were taken out of context."
If the NBA didn't use the NCAA as a de facto minor league and 18-year olds could start earning money playing basketball the way they can in minor league hockey or baseball, this problem wouldn't be as severe.
Same applies to the NFL.
Yes, I know this will not change—it would take a united front by big-time college athletic programs to bring about such a radical change, and there's no financial incentive for them to do any such thing.
I'm all for paying the kids I don't really care how they do it either. Kids might as well get some for themselves and their family. College kids are like Greyhound dogs, you use then for a couple years and get rid of them.
Don't give me but they get a free education and that's priceless bs. A 6'8 300 lb offensive talk who is African American, with dreads and tattoos , I don't think a degree helps them.
Could've done without that last part.
you seem like a fun guy....
amazing how some of those weird-looking hippy athletes from the 70s became doctors and lawyers after college.
Funny how "offensive tackle" became "offensive talk" in your auto-correct.
iPhone don't lie...
Mr. Grant Newsome begs to differ with you.....
I couldn't agree more (with Don)
We've discovered the new Cleveland State. The SEC is dirty, so ESPN takes on LSU. I can't believe they would touch the SEC given how much they are in the tank for them, owning 50% of the SEC network and all.
There goes the 8 bids they've been pushing for?
ESPN isn't targeting LSU. They didn't break this story and it's going to be everywhere.
He should be banned from coaching for two years and St. Marys School for the Deaf and Blind need the death penalty ASAP
For those wondering... when he said the offer was more than the NBA rookie salary, that's > $500,000.
Plus if you read the article the individuals involved with the shoe company that were found guilty got between 6-9 fucking months... come on, like that's REALLY gonna change anything.
He was surely joking about the amount, unless he meant the G League.
The NCAA does hold actual power over coaches. I'll bet Wade has coached his last college game for a long time.
Wow, who funds this stuff? Can't believe it's that bad. This is like the movie Blue Chips.
uh, adidas??
It is that bad. There are a lot of people with a lot of money out there. I've personally seen compensation in the tens of thousands of dollars for kids to play ball at a particular high school - and some of those weren't even D1 kids. Going on to the next level, there's easily $100k+ involved for the highest recruits.
Imagine how much money Duke dropped on Zion, Cam, and Barrett
Over under at 750k???
How does a guy like Coach K get away with that for so many years and have such a squeaky clean image?
i seem to remember someone posting somewhere that the top guys get low 6 figures for each year they stay in school. i wouldn't doubt it.
Cheaters gonna cheat.
Water is wet.
This stuff gets me way too heated
Same here.
If I had one wish, I'd wish for 5 more wishes because I'd definitely blow one of them on naming myself the NCAA Compliance Czar and nuke the shit out of these schools and coaches.
Why is this shocking to anyone? As soon as LSU started randomly showing up in the top schools for recruits they had no business landing, it was obvious LSU was paying players. All you have to do find out what schools are paying players is look at the top schools for 5 star recruits. If you look at one of the schools and say "Wtf, why are they there?" then they are paying players. cough LSU, Oregon, DePaul, Georgia, USC cough
it's shocking because the dumb fucking coaches like this guy and miller are getting caught. at least calipari and coach k probably have a couple degrees of separation.
You can also add Duke cough, Kansas cough, NC cough, Kentucky cough, for decades that now makes it seem routine for them to get the 5-stars.
Assuming a majority of schools are clean, when do they become sufficiently infuriated by the lack of a level playing field to demand action from the NCAA? Or to take collective action if the NCAA won’t do it?
A collective of schools is precisely what the NCAA is.
If kids are getting serveral hundred thousand a year to play at LSU and some other schools, I find it hard to believe that any schools are clean. When the median annual household income is ~$60k, getting $300-$500k a year is life changing. Unless your family is super rich, you're dumb not to take the money. ...and even then, you'd have to be super super rich not to take the money.
They aren't getting that kind of money. Wade was joking about the amount.
We know what Bowen was given, around $100K. That was from Adidas for their flagship school. He was easily Louisvbille's highest ranked recruit for several years. The kids ineligible at Kansas got less than that. Maybe the guys at the very top get more, but Ayton was the #3 ranked recruit and the amount Miller was talking about for him was $100K.
An SEC program is receiving impermissible benefits?
The NCAA will get right on it.
I was wondering why LSU was good at basketball all of a sudden. I guess this explains it.
Coach and player need to be suspended immediately by LSU. If not the NCAA should bar them from the tournament. If neither acts then the B1G should boycott the tournament. If that didn't happen then fans should boycott the tournament.
Will any of those things happen, even if they should? I'm thinking the chances are slim to none. So what's the point in complaining? If you care about the integrity of the game, your only option is to stop watching as that is the only thing that will make the powers that be care.