Miles Bridges pays $40, clears NCAA violation

Submitted by Supa Hot Fire on

According to the report on ESPN, Bridges' family members had a dinner paid for by Christian Dawkins without his knowledge, and that was the extent of his violation. He paid back the $40 value of the dinner and is now clear. Amazing how the NCAA solves some situations so fast while other important ones take far too long (there were also expense reports documenting further payment from Dawkins, but since Bridges and MSU deny the payment, the were dismissed. Go figure).

BlueTimesTwo

February 27th, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^

Bridges is the real victim here. Imagine how bad his luck must be to get busted for the ONLY time he and his family ever accepted improper benefits. Fortunately, we know that Izzo is very concerned about helping victims, so by all accounts Bridges should fully recover from the trauma of this incident and won’t miss a single minute of the tournaments.

umaz1

February 27th, 2018 at 12:30 PM ^

He looks like he is about to cry at any minute at every press conference. You definitely get the feeling that he knows something that the rest of us don't and it is eating him up inside. Total speculation of course.

WGoNerd

February 27th, 2018 at 8:32 AM ^

I don't know about "much ado about nothing" I find it decidedly unrealistic that the dinner happened but the payment to mom didn't. Also find it unrealistic that either happened and absolutely NOTHING else did.

PAY the players, let them make money on their likeness, and let them sign with an agent.  Only way to actually solve all this.

Yo_Blue

February 27th, 2018 at 9:07 AM ^

No, my problem is with boosters and agents.  I don't care about the kids getting paid (properly), but i don't trust SEC boosters to not give the kids a little extra to Tide them over (see what I did there?).  If a kid is driving a Ferrari, is it because of jersey sales or because someone with oil money deciced to help him out.

s1105615

February 27th, 2018 at 9:59 AM ^

Because it doesn’t matter. If someone walked up to you and gave you $5 for being good at your job because your efforts made the company’s stock go up, or they just really like your company and want it to do well on the exchange...would anyone look sideways at it? Would anyone consider it untoward or unfair since your competitors don’t have that kind of support? Of course not.



The difference here is that the kid is putting his health on the line for your entertainment in the hope of the longest of shots of being able to take care of his family, while you and I are already doing it on a far lower risk/reward scale.



Pay the players a cut, let them make money by signing with an agent and whoever wants to endorse them and take anything anyone wants to give them without it jeopardizing their chances at a larger payday down the road.



Amateurism in college athletics is a sham. It’s time for everyone to just admit it and evolve.

Yo_Blue

February 27th, 2018 at 10:07 AM ^

I don't buy most of your premise other than your last sentence.  Sorry.

The greater good is more than the 1% that go pro.  We have to think about the smaller schools that would get out of the sport.  How many programs could afford to finance paying the players?  There are schools in the B1G that would have problems, so how could we expect the MAC to survive?  There are just too many issues right now and nothing that passes the social or legal smell test.

Gr1mlock

February 27th, 2018 at 1:09 PM ^

To the last point, it's not like the MAC is genuinely competiting with the B1G for top end players.  Yeah, Michigan could throw more money at a recruit than EMU.  But how many guys are both Michigan and EMU legitimately going for simultaneously where that could make a difference?  Or even Michigan and, say, Illinois or another low end B1G school.  The top tier programs already have this recruiting advantage, it would change anything for that.  What it would change is allowing Michigan to hang with say Clemson by making the bribes official rather than with bagmen.  

 

Also, not everyone's going to be getting $100,000.  For your average non-descript 3 star, there likely wouldn't be any extra money.  Maybe a team-friendly business would hook them up, but in general, it's not like the schools will be throwing a ton of money at them, becuase the market doesn't support it.  

I Just Blue Myself

February 27th, 2018 at 3:45 PM ^

I'm with you. $500 or whatever it was that his mom was given is nothing. The coaches/conferences/NCAA make a combined billions off the players and partnerships with TV and apparel companies. God forbid the damn players actually make some money off their own value like every other person involved with NCAA athletics.

Steeveebr

February 27th, 2018 at 4:57 PM ^

Here's the thing:

If my kid came home and told me some guy gave him 100k just to sign a piece of paper, I'd probably call the cops.  Generally, these aren't good people just wanting to help a kid out, they are vultures preying on kids not old enough to know what's best for them.

The rules should be in place in such a way that protects kids instead of making them vulnerable to this crap.  Parents shouldn't be profiting off their kids either.  None of this is good.

Schools should be there to educate and help kids so that when they do choose an agent, it's because it's the best agent and not because it's a dude who hung out at their highschool and gave them "pocket change".

That's why the system needs to change and just paying the players or getting rid of the one and done rule won't fix that.  What these agents are doing should be against the law.

trueblueintexas

February 27th, 2018 at 9:40 AM ^

You could pay every player $200,000 a year and it would not solve the problem of bagmen and boosters doing everything they can to insure the best players go to the school they support. If a player/family is willing to accept money now, they will accept additional money on top of their standard payment in the future.

The primary solution is for the NCAA to have an on campus, 24/7, monitoring presence and then have the teeth to do something about it when they see wrongdoing.

bluesalt

February 27th, 2018 at 10:33 AM ^

Even if you could successfully enforce a cap on what the players take in, you have family members, coaches, and other influencers who can be bought to encourage a player to go to a specific school. It’s been going for decades — it was essentially the premise behind He Got Game.

And of course, nowhere in this discussion about paying players have we even scratched why the FBI is involved — and that’s that coaches were steering players towards agents as payment for the agents steering players towards schools — and then agents in turn steered players to financial advisors.

It’s a multi-sided market, and those are notoriously difficult to regulate.

HailHail47

February 27th, 2018 at 8:26 AM ^

So Izzo and Bridges both lied. Izzo said the allegations were completely false. I also read in a State News article that Bridges said he wouldn’t recognize Dawkins if he was in the same room... you had dinner with him you liar.

rc15

February 27th, 2018 at 8:35 AM ^

I agree with you that they were both most likely lying, but him paying the $40 isn't an admission of guilt in my mind. Whether he did or didn't go to the lunch, don't you think he'd be willing to pay the $40 to have his name cleared and not have to deal with it? It's $40...

rc15

February 27th, 2018 at 8:48 AM ^

It does set a bad precedent though. If you're caught taking money, just give it back and everything is okay.

Imagine if that was the law for say shoplifting. Everyone would do it, because the only "downside" is that you have to give it back if caught.

Mr Miggle

February 27th, 2018 at 9:22 AM ^

can be repaid to charity with no suspension or futher punishment. That's routine. So there's no downside. It's a good policy as opposed to suspending players for accepting a free meal, which they probably get offered by more than just agents and bagmen.

Of course, that's also why Bridges parents admitted to it. A smart move since there might be proof. 

Mr Miggle

February 27th, 2018 at 10:40 AM ^

and probably always have. Even at places that run clean programs or where you'd think there's no reason to cheat. Coaches get a lot of free meals too. 

I'd think you'd still have to be careful though. Get comped a lot of meals at the same restaurant and the NCAA probably looks at that as a single event. Same with taking a small handout. If a booster gives you $100 a week, the NCAA is going to add them all up.

Basically, you can get some of the perks that come with being a well known athlete. You get dinged for pushing it too far.