Happy to see you guys make it back for yet another one of our blog entries on D&K Fadeaway Scoop. Up until this point we’ve filled you in on many NCAA violations and scandals such as the Zion Williamson investigation and the Cam Newton trial within the NCAA. We could continue to give you many more investigations or scenarios of money involvement with student athletes and programs violating NCAA rules which we will, or we can just reverse the rolls and tie it all back into the main issue or point we were trying to make originally. To our readers and viewers that have kept up with our prestige blog you know what our main question was and still is. Do you think student athletes should get paid? Have we changed any of you guy’s opinions or thoughts on the subject at hand with our written entries and videos? Have your thoughts remained the same about the topic? Or from the start you knew that there was nothing that could be said to alter your thinking about the subject. This is what we, as bloggers, want to know.
Here’s one of the biggest NCAA scandals/violations of them all that could steer your thinking. In 2017 there was a huge investigation involving Adidas and several school programs’ players and coaches. Essentially Adidas was trying to bribe certain players to go to an Adidas sponsored school, which would benefit them. Along with the bribing of players they did it with the coaches as well to ensure the coaches got those players to the schools. A big name that you may know now involved in this was high flying dunking guard for the Dallas Mavericks, Dennis Smith Jr… His father received 40,000 big ones in order to ensure his commitment to North Carolina State, and to sign with Adidas once he reached the NBA. It ended up going south for Adidas as he now is represented by Under Armor. Several school programs were involved in this and many coaches got fired immediately. Just goes to show you that money really is the root of all evil in a sense, and especially with the NCAA. James Gatto the Adidas executive was the main guy involved with the money and the bribing. Gatto was among a group that beginning around October 2016 and continuing until around November 2017, conspired to illegally funnel approximately $90,000 from Company-1 Adidas to the mother of a top high school basketball player, according to court documents. The payments were made in connection with a commitment by the student-athlete to attend the University of Kansas, a school sponsored by Adidas and with the expectation that the student-athlete would sign with Adidas upon entering the NBA. It is clear that programs and big time brands such as an Adidas are willing to go far and beyond to bring in certain guys. With NCAA basketball and football being essentially a billion dollar industry there’s plenty of money to go around especially with the major colleges in those sports. Like your Dukes, Kentucky’s, and Kansas’s of college basketball and your Alabama’s, Michigan’s, and Ohio States of college football.
One of the bigger situations in this Adidas scandal happened with the University of Louisville, where head basketball coach, Rick Pitino, seemed to get the bad end of the stick. It was alleged that Rick Pitino and another coach had been involved in a situation where top recruit, Brian Bowen, was funneled $100,000 for his family by Adidas to ensure he signed to the University of Louisville. Apparently about a month before this scandal was found out, Louisville had agreed upon a ten-year extension with Adidas. This could have possibly been because Adidas had delivered what Pitino wanted so they made a deal to extend their partnership. The reason we mentioned that Rick Pitino seemed to have been given the bad end of the stick is because once this scandal was investigated and found out about by the NCAA, Pitino was of course fired from being the University of Louisville’s head basketball coach, which possibly could have ended his entire coaching career as a whole. This wasn’t the only scandal that Pitino had been investigated for; he also was involved in one that ultimately led to Louisville basketball being vacated of their 2013 National Title, so this was the last straw for him and he had to be let go. This scandal also led to the decommittments of multiple recruits because it’s hard to wrap your mind around being a part of an organization that has just been put in the doghouse.
We want to thank all of our viewers for being involved and reading our blog. Please comment and let us know if you want us to continue, but for now we are finished!

Welcome back folks, we really appreciate you guys checking in on our D&K Fadeaway Scoop blog. We hope that we have kept you guys interested in our discussion topics up to this point. In previous segments we have hinted on the multiple NCAA violations scandals that we continue to see very frequently. In recent sports news another major NCAA scandal violation involving Duke’s men’s basketball player Zion Williamson has occurred. It hit the headlines earlier this week so it’s still pretty fresh. In this segment of our blog we will give you guys some detail on what’s kind of happening with this Zion scandal, along with perhaps a few more past history scandals.  

Zion Williamson, the Duke internet dunking sensation was recently dragged into an FBI trial involving multiple schools and coaches offering I guess what u can call under the table incentives for him to come to their school. We’ve seen this type of allegation before with big time college mega stars headed to the NBA such as this past years NBA first overall pick DeAndre Ayton. The NCAA is looking into a phone call that happened to get caught on tape between Zion Williamson’s father and Kansas assistant head coach Kurtis Townsend, in which the father asked for money, housing, and a job. Although the phone call was on an FBI wiretap the evidence wasn’t admitted into trial because of an Adidas executive, Merl Code, and his arrest prior to this, which happens to be a whole different story but still has an affect on this particular trial. Even though the phone call didn’t make evidence on the trial the NCAA could still look into which would put Zion’s eligibility in jeopardy.

There was another similar situation for what Zion is being investigated for back in 2011 with Cam Newton, the current starting quarterback for the Carolina Panthers. There was an NCAA scandal put on his back when it was reported that there were documents that indicted that Cam’s father, Cecil, sought out money that ranged from $120,000 to $180,000 for Cam to sign his letter of intent with Mississippi State. It was also indicated that his father had the help of a man by the name of Kenny Rogers, who was a former player for the Mississippi Bulldogs to get this deal done, which in NCAA terms could be consider as him acting as an agent. With this being against NCAA rules as well, this put more heat on Cam. As most college sport fans know, Cam signed to Auburn, and as previously mentioned, Zion signed to Duke. It may seem like in both these situations, the student-athlete could have known about the violations, and so to stay eligible they signed to a different college so their names would not be involved. There is also speculation that the other school they signed to might have offered more incentives to the student-athlete, but that is billion-dollar question that these investigations are trying to figure out.

You would think with all of these allegations and scandals that the NCAA would just figure out a healthy way to pay student athletes without any such altercations, instead of investigating the many different trials that turn out to bring programs and certain players down, or trials that end of being a waist of time because their wasn’t enough evidence or they were just flat out wrong with their assumptions. How about trying to figure out a way where you can pay student athletes without any major circumstances that can alter lives and careers. In college sports we know that it’s all about the players so recruiting is usually at the top of coaches agenda. With big time high major players like a Zion Williamson of course coaches and programs want to go out of their way to bring a type of player like that to their program. Whether that’s offering money or other incentives of that nature. We feel as if it’s benefitting the program and that player plus the player’s family if the incentives are helping them out as well. Everyone wins right? The NCAA should figure out a way to not bring down these programs and players, but help find a way in which everyone comes out happy and succeeds.

With all this being said it all comes back to the main question. Should college athletes get paid? It seems as if the NCAA goes through more drama and problems trying to trial these programs and players for money received by student athletes than finding a solution to it. So what do guys think? Thanks for tuning in with us yet again on D&K Fadeaway Scoop. See you next time with the latest scoop.

Welcome to the sport blog of Dylan and Kwa, hence the D&K! We know there is plenty to talk about and discuss when it comes to sports. We feel we can provide valid arguments and access with a specific topic at hand, that we witness practically everyday by being apart of the Houston Cougars men’s basketball program.

So with that being said, in today’s world there are many different social issues that are debated in the sport world. Some of the social issues include arguments on new rules added to the National Football League, professional athletes taking a stand for what they believe in, and equal pay to our woman athletes, but the social issue we’ll be focusing on is whether or not our college student-athletes should get paid; or if it’s already happening behind closed doors? Of course the athletes feel as if they should get paid, and that comes with good reasoning. They work extremely hard on a day-to-day basis more so than your average college student. They have to go through intense workout training as well as go to classes and get their work done. They do this all while still trying to have and maintain a social life outside of both. They also are highly marketed with merchandise under their number, as well as performing on national television every game. However, the average college student feels as if they should not be getting paid. Their take on this is that they are on full scholarship already so essentially they are getting paid. Not having to worry about student fees at a major university would be a big stress relief off of the non-college athlete. They feel as if they get special treatment and some think that it’s unfair. Why should they get paid if everything else is free? That’s their thought process. They feel as if there is no correlation between the two. While both sides obviously have their reasons why they should or shouldn’t, we will break down our argument on which side we believe and will partake in.

Now that we have provided you with the basis of both sides of this issue, here is our take on the topic at hand. Although both sides have a valid argument on why they think student-athletes should/or shouldn’t get paid, we will provide more of an inside scoop of things. First off our take on this is easy, we do believe that college student-athletes should get paid because we are involved daily in the division I college basketball setting. We witness and know what type of hard work goes into being a college basketball player… it’s nowhere near easy!! Yes they have the benefit of being provided a free education, but schoolwork is just one of the challenges it takes to compete at the collegiate level. From morning workouts, to practice, to meetings, to study hall these athletes barely have time to breathe… then they repeat the next day. Why not reward them with cash for enduring this long and grueling schedule? If that’s not enough then take into account the expectations put on these young adults to win and succeed in their programs in the spotlight; or the fact that the universities merchandise them by using their number on jerseys, or creating memorabilia of them, and selling these products for profit. Also with them playing every game on national television and the universities are profiting off of ratings from the game, and the student-athletes are not seeing a penny of that revenue made by the universities for using their name as a market strategy. Imagine playing in one of the biggest games in the country with the game being televised on ESPN. The game is trending on social media with the amount of buzz for a lifetime. The school benefits tremendously because of the ratings and sold out arena. The athletes perform their hardest without receiving any of that revenue. That’s tough to even think about, let alone actually partake in. I wouldn’t think anyone would want to be empty handed financially in this situation especially the athletes who indeed are the ones that are performing.

Now with this being said, could there also be a possibility that some of these college athletes are already getting paid, and reeking benefits behind closed doors? Of course there is a possibility, with multiple scandals and acquisitions being made against collegiate sports teams every year. From Reggie Bush receiving payments during his tenure at USC, which caused him to be stripped of his Heisman trophy; to DeAndre Ayton possibly taking money to ensure he commit to Arizona. It is a chain reaction that continues to happen that we will discuss more in detail next time. Hope you enjoyed our take, and thanks for tuning into D&K Fadeaway Scoop!     

Greetings sports fans!

A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning. – Pat Riley