The NCAA Is Crooked And We've Reached The Breaking Point

The greedy NCAA is back at it again today with another (yes, another) investigation into the University of Tennessee. 

They've been very busy lately ensuring the "well-being and lifelong success of student athletes" (my ass). They issued penalties to Florida State earlier this month after another investigation into "rules violations". When the dust settled and FSU finally got them to leave, there were some nonsensical show clauses handed out and a few scholarships pulled, but interestingly they also collected 1% of FSU's athletic department's budget. I crunched the numbers and that's somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5-1.75 million. This isn't enough to significantly hurt FSU’s program but it's damn sure enough for a few bonus checks to be handed out. Are we starting to see a trend here? 

All of these investigations and the punishments that follow are even crazier if you take a step back and see the big picture: this is all jargon that's been in place to ensure that the NCAA can keep their power, raid campuses, and leave with fat checks while maintaining some sliver of authority. No one's being remediated and no problems are being fixed, people are just paying off the NCAA to let them continue business as usual. When you think about it, how else would the NCAA make money outside of the March Madness TV deals? They don’t actually do anything. How did we get to the point where they are the ultimate authority on everything college sports, but they bring nothing to the table? 

I think we can all agree on one thing: It all boils down to power, control, and money. 

Now, they're back to their favorite target: Tennessee. 

In a nutshell, this newest investigation of Tennessee is pure, warm horseshit. It's all about NIL collectives and some of the things they've done for prospective student-athletes/clients. This particular probe has something to do with Tennessee's starter/stud quarterback Nico Iamalavea and a private plane. It’s also important to remember that the NCAA hates the Vols, so it shouldn't come as a shock that they’re trying to harm us. Overall, it's all very confusing because even the NCAA doesn't know what they're doing, but they're saying he rode a private plane and that was wrong because... they say so. They're more or less making it up as they go but the problem is... it wasn't against the rules at the time. The NCAA is trying to enforce rules that weren't even rules at the time that the alleged violations took place! In the letter below the word “retroactively” is thrown around. These idiots at the NCAA are trying to move the goalposts and get more money from the University of Tennessee for something that wasn’t forbidden at the time. I smell a lawsuit in their near future. Welcome to hell. 

If you'll recall, just last July they smacked us with an unprecedented fine after they "uncovered" 200 or so "infractions". To be clear, everyone played nice and cooperated only to have it result in the largest punishment they'd ever handed down, over $8 million. Unheard of! 

Tennessee’s Chancellor, Donde Plowman, was not pleased with today's news, to say the least. She is finally standing up to the bully in the classroom and I think she'll be the first of many to do so in the coming months. 

Reports surfaced about the latest investigation into Tennessee's athletic department and things started heating up shortly thereafter when Plowman absolutely emptied the chamber on these nitwits.

 

This is a "Dracarys" moment for Donde Plowman. She’s Daenerys Targaryen and the student athletes are her tiny dragon babes because the letter below reads like she's ready to burn it all down.

Warning: a lot of words, but worth the read if you're sick of the NCAA's bullshit.

"In short, the NCAA is failing." That line sent a chill down my spine. She knows it, they know it, everybody knows it.

The NCAA is a member-driven organization so what happens if all the members just... leave? Maybe this is the first domino to fall. I feel like this is becoming more and more of a reality after reading through this letter a few times. With her strong statement, Donde Plowman just put into motion a chain of events that will, in my opinion, ultimately lead to the demise of the NCAA as we know it. She is the catalyst for other Power 5 programs to collectively say “go fuck yourself” when the NCAA tries to harass and score a payout. 

I don't know what college athletics will look like in the post-NCAA era, but their clock is ticking. I know it's been profitable for a long time, but people are catching on. They've been manipulative and self-serving in pursuit of their cut of the revenue generated by the athletes and institutions for too long. 

Now that the NIL era is officially here in full force, they're panicked and disorganized. The NCAA feels their stranglehold loosening and is trying to extort as much as they can, while they can. 

Donde Plowman isn't playing their game this time around.