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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Mayo may be in trouble with NCAA

USC freshman star O.J. Mayo may be in some trouble with the NCAA after he accepted free tickets to an NBA game from Carmelo Anthony.

The problem arises on whether or not Anthony was acting as an representative of the Denver Nuggets. If the NCAA does decide that Anthony was indeed acting as one, Mayo could face some penalties for accepting the tickets.

This whole situation is similar to the Reggie Bush scandal, only on a smaller scale.

I'm not a fan of the NCAA. They take the whole student-athlete thing too far sometimes. Yes, they value the education of their participants, but honestly, how many high profile players graduate? And, if they do, how many graduate with what I would call "slacker" degrees?

Yes, it is wrong for a college athlete to receive compensation. However, in no way would Anthony give Mayo tickets as a piece of "Hey, come join the Nuggets next year" propaganda. For one, I would hope 'Melo is smarter than that. Second, he is Mayo's friend. Friends may not let friends do drugs, but they can give them free tickets to sporting events at their own discretion.

Hopefully the NCAA makes the right decision and does nothing. Perhaps it will give underclassmen a reason to stick around for four years.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh, ameturism... (Or however that's spelled).
It's NCAA's new big deal.
When I filled out all the forms for Clearinghouse, a good chunk of it was comprised of questions like "Have you ever received money to compete?" and "Has any company ever supplied you with products to use in competition free of charge?"
Like tickets to a game Carmelo and Mayo both love is some sort of recruitment tool...