The Heisman Trophy Trust is expected to strip former University of Southern California star running back Reggie Bush of college football’s top honor by the end of September, sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Bush would become the first player in the 75-year history of the award to have the trophy taken away. The NCAA found major violations in the Trojans’ football program in June and levied serious sanctions against the school.
Two sources close to the Heisman trust said the body’s investigation is coming to a close, and will ultimately concur with the NCAA’s determination that Bush was ineligible during his Heisman-winning season in 2005. Because of that independent conclusion, sources said the trust will relieve Bush of the award and leave the honor for that season vacant.
I hope this is actually true–it is my suspicion that USC is not the only program in the country making such gross violations and programs will continue to make such violations and players will continue to accept such outlandish “gifts” until the NCAA starts becoming equally severe in its punishments. Here is an instance where if the Heisman Trophy Trust actually sticks to their guns–they will be sending a powerful message to the NCAA and the sporting world–cheating will not be tolerated and consequences for doing so are severe. Sorry Mr. Bush, you won’t be invited to the Heisman Trophy Presentation Show ever again–because you are not a Heisman Trophy Winner–because you broke the rules and therefore are no longer eligible to hold the title of College Football’s best player.
Perhaps baseball and cycling will learn a lesson from this as well–people are always going to look to cheat–that is human nature, but the problem will escalate unless the punishments begin to fit the crimes. Here is to hoping that other sports might follow the Heisman Trophy Trust’s example and start erasing names off the record books and some integrity would return to the world of sports!
Drew Dixon is a co-editor of CaPC, a husband, pastor, soccer coach, reader, movie buff, and gamer. Drew has a BA in Speech Communication from West Texas A&M University and a MDIV in Christian Ministry from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Drew is interested in all facets of pop culture but writes most often about videogames and music. He also writes on videogames for Relevant Magazine. Look him up on Twitter at drewdixon82. Email: dixon.drew [at] gmail [dot] com Steam: Drizzoo703 XBL: Drizzoo82 
Reggie deserves to lose his award, because he broke the rules. But we could avoid all this trouble in the future by just paying BCS football players and major conference basketball players, or at least allow scholarships to include a stipend. The players in the top programs are being used – schools make millions off of ticket sales, licensing, and TV contracts – and are being told that they should be happy with the scholarship, since they’re just “kids playing a game.” It’s shameful, really.
I have heard that argument before and I agree on some level. In fact I think its rather silly that college kids can’t just go straight into the NFL or the NBA. That is exactly what happens around the world with soccer, tennis, and rugby. Though this would really hurt college atheletic’s profits.
I guess what would bother me about what you propose is that it would immediately put smaller schools at a distinct disadvantage in recruiting. Teams like USC would be more or less guaranteed a spot in the top 5 every year just due to their massive advantage in recruiting.
But I would definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts. I am not sure that “they are being used,” as they know exactly what they are getting into when they sign up to play College ball, but certainly they are bringing in a ton of revenue.
The “smaller” schools are already at a disadvantage. I use the scare quotes because Western Michigan University is about the size of Stanford and TCU combined, but will never be in the same recruiting class. But I see your point – the powerhouse schools (Ohio St., USC, Notre Dame, etc.) would have an even greater advantage over the other schools. But it’s a myth that things are even now.
Ohio State needs the same number of starters, and is allowed to give the same number of scholarships as Ohio U. OSU averages around 100K fans at home games, and has multi-million dollar licensing and TV contracts. OSU coach Jim Tressel made $3.5m last year, compared to OU coach Frank Solich’s $450K.
All of the things surrounding recruiting require cash – trips to games, visits to players, player visits to campus – and some schools have more of it than others. That’s just the way it is. If you were to allow schools to offer scholarship athletes a $5K or $7K stipend, it might reduce the temptation to take illegal “gifts”. It wouldn’t do any more to upset an already imbalanced recruiting landscape.
On the issue of players being used, they may know what they’re getting into, but what’s their alternative? I chose not to attempt to play college sports, but I had the grades and support to make that reasonable decision. But we’re talking about a group of overwhelmingly poor teenagers, and a sports scholarship is their only chance to get away, even for a while.
These athletes are being paid less than I am (most of their scholarship, room/board packages total less than my salary), while they spend four years making millions for their schools, ADs, and coaches. Most aren’t encouraged to go to class any more than the nine hours required for eligibility each semester. Then they’re released into the wild. The ones who had good family and social support graduate and survive. The others return to wherever they started, no closer to success than any other college dropout. I call that being used.
BTW,
I realize that I may have sounded a bit harsh. I totally respect the perspective that student athletes shouldn’t get paid. I just disagree.
And I’m glad that there are age requirements for entry into the NFL. I don’t ever want to see some starry-eyed 19-year-old get blindsided by DeMarcus Ware.
You didn’t sound harsh–I asked to hear about it and I thought you addressed it fairly. I am undecided on this issue and wanted to hear your side.
I don’t necessarily think that these guys shouldn’t get paid–I am just not sure how
I think the age requirements are wise for the NFL mostly–every once in a while a player comes along who is ready out of the gate–Adrian Peterson was massive as a true Freshman at OU and would have been fine in the NFL, but I would agree that it is rare.