Calkins: Slive can't fix college sports

ShareThis

HOOVER, Ala. - Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive wants to reform college sports. Next up, rid the world of poverty. Why put a limit on your pipe dreams?

"College sports has lost the benefit of the doubt," said Slive, which is absolutely true. But so have the people who have gotten wealthy off it.

That includes Slive -- the commissioner of the sleaziest conference in all of sports -- who usually spends his annual "State of the SEC" address here at the SEC Media Days earlier this week gloating over its triumphs and riches. Slive didn't do that this time around. He focused on the troublesome stuff. For that, at least, he deserves some credit.

People like to say that college sports isn't any dirtier than it has ever been, that we just see more of the dirt than we used to see.

Nonsense. College sports is a lot dirtier. Just look at the summer we've endured. Look at the list of schools in serious trouble.

Reggie Bush took tens of thousands at Southern Cal. Jim Tressel lied to everyone at Ohio State. Oregon paid $25,000 to a Texas trainer for his "recruiting services." Don't get me started on Cam Newton.

Some assistant coaches make a million dollars a year. Conferences sign television contracts worth billions. Meanwhile, the universities they're supposed to represent are cutting academic programs and faculty and jacking up tuition for actual students.

It's a preposterous system. You wonder how long it can last. At what point will we recognize it as professional athletics and treat it as such?

So along comes Slive, with a four-point plan for reform, and maybe he should be applauded for trying.

The Pac-12 commissioner would be ignored if he gave a speech like this. The Big 12 commissioner would have to run the text of the speech past Texas for approval.

Slive has real clout. He's obviously working in concert with NCAA president Mark Emmert. But as far as I can see, his four-point plan can be neatly divided into a) proposals that will go nowhere, and b) proposals that will do nothing.

Proposals that will go nowhere

-- 1. Slive wants to give players actual four-year scholarships, not a series of one-year scholarships that have to be renewed.

He wants the scholarships to cover the full cost of attendance. That's great. Makes all the sense in the world. But do you think schools like Memphis would ever go for it? Most athletic programs lose money as it is. They're not going to do anything to add to their financial burdens.

-- 2. Slive wants to raise initial eligibility requirements.

Under his proposal, students would need a 2.5 GPA in their core high school courses to play as freshmen. That's up from the current 2.0. Slive would bring back the "partial qualifier" status for students with a GPA between 2.0 and 2.5 Again, it makes all the sense in the world. And it will never, ever pass. Football coaches want to make it easier to recruit unqualified behemoths, not harder.

Proposals that will do nothing

-- 1. Slive would take the wraps off Twitter and Facebook, allowing coaches to go wild recruiting with electronic media.

He'd also get rid of the silly rule that allows coaches to go watch recruits during certain periods but not actually talk to them. That's fine. No argument with any of it. But it's not exactly revolutionary.

-- 2. Slive would "streamline" the enforcement process. Whatever that means.

If he really wanted to reform college athletes, he'd come out in favor of jacking up -- by a factor of 10, at least -- the NCAA's enforcement budget.

And that's the whole plan. The BCS remains intact. What, you were expecting a meaningful playoff system?

One thing you might notice: Nothing Slive said would stop Bush from taking cash. Or stop Oregon from paying for illusory recruiting services. Or stop Newton's father from shopping his son all over the SEC.

Slive can't reform the unreformable. It's impossible to fix a system that's dishonest at the core. Big-time college sports takes students who are generally not equipped for college, dresses them up as "student-athletes," then calls them amateurs so they won't get any crazy ideas about the television dollars.

But forcing them to go to class doesn't make them students. And cutting them out of the big loot doesn't make them amateurs. Any initiative that doesn't recognize these truths is less reform than it is window dressing.

So it was nice of the commissioner to try. Next up, peace in the Middle East.

(Contact Geoff Calkins at calkins(at)commercialappeal.com. Visit his blog at geoffcalkinsblog.com.)

column