College Football: Ohio State University's Ludicrous Plan To Curb NCAA Violations

Ohio State University is flirting with insanity.

Athletic Director Gene Smith divorced himself from reality recently when he suggested that private investigators be hired to essentially babysit football players at the University.

His plan would involve private investigators somehow trying to keep the entire 100-man roster of the football team from committing NCAA infractions and maybe from doing anything stupid in their lives.

Good luck.

First, for this plan to work, Ohio State would have to hire enough private investigators to keep an around-the-clock watch on the entire football team.

Next, these guys would have to be effective at preventing violations.

Maybe Smith doesn't care about preventing misconduct; maybe he just wants to find out about it so discipline can be handed out.

Fair enough.

This plan is still fatally flawed though.

First, if our government tried pulling something like this, the ACLU would be all over it suing politicians for civil rights violations or something of that manner.

I certainly would not want to play for a football program that treated me like a six-year-old.

Bottom line: How are coaches supposed to help these players grow to be responsible adult members of society if they are afforded less trust and respect than middle schoolers?

Here's the other problem.

We had this thing called a recession recently.

My school, the University of Virginia, had a hiring freeze. There was certainly not a giant expansion of our academic programs and maybe some were even in danger of being cut.

Keep in mind UVA is a giant, well-endowed, wealthy school.

Can we really expect, and should we really want, universities to be spending money on armies of private investigators to follow their football players while valuable research that could literally save people's lives is having it's funding cut around the country?

The fact that this is even a question shows how misplaced our priorities are.

Here's a bold idea for Gene Smith and Ohio State University. 

How about recruiting kids with integrity to come play for your school instead of simply the best athletes.

There's plenty of talented athletes who also happen to follow the rules.

There's also a lot of hard-working, financially-challenged kids who would love if the money to be spent on these private investigators went to academic scholarships instead.

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/739194-college-football-ohio-state-universitys-ludicrous-plan-to-curb-ncaa-violations

Colin Curtis Kevin Russo Curtis Granderson Nick Johnson Javier Lopez Alex Hinshaw