Helluva quote from Maurice Clarett about his college days:
“I took golf, fishing, and softball as classes,” Clarett says. “Away from class, anything you can think of I did in my 13 months at Ohio State.” Drugs and women were two of the things. Cars were another—he owned three of them at a time, including a brand-new Cadillac and Lexus. “I was living the NFL life in college,” he says. “I got paid more in college than I do now in the UFL.”
No wonder he loved Jim Tressel. Not that I believe for a second this was a circumstance unique to Ohio State.
Get The Picture 
Sounds like he really likes Canada…
LikeLike
And people wonder why recruits go to Clemson ? Dwayne Allen on Money at Clemson…
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1013469-dwayne-allen-video-watch-clemson-te-make-cryptic-remark-about-money
LikeLike
I don’t know how this goes on……fake classes, luxury cars, rolling in dough..without someone reporting it. Are there no Jan Kemps at these other schools? Are there no resentful academic types that would squeal? I don’t see how you would keep this kind of abuse from becoming general knowledge. OR is a a case of the NCAA knowing, but turning it’s head for certain programs ? (Not an accusastion, but good grief, Georgia had a player suspended for selling his jersey for a few bucks).
If this is true, it’s time for the NCAA to go the way of the dinosaurs and find a new way to govern collegiate atheletics.
LikeLike
I don’t know if that was an intended knock on Jan Kemp. I might be reading more into it than intended. Her wanting her charges to actually get some kind of education while at Georgia is a bit different from cars and monies. Her life ended rather tragically. I wasn’t at all happy with problems it caused Georgia either.
LikeLike
Not at all, AHD. My post was not intended to be sarcastic in any way. My apologies that it may have seemed a “knock” on Jan Kemp. Everyone that mentions JK is not doing so in a negative sense. Education should be the first and most important thing stressed at any school on any level. The comments from Clarette, (if they are not a great exaggeration, which they very well be)..show that the progress UGA has made in this whole area is not being matched in every other institution.
My post was really expressing my disgust that there isn’t more “oversight”, (official or otherwise) over collegiate atheletics. I think most look back on the Jan Kemp ordeal as a positive thing for the University of Georgia, (even though we may have felt differently now). She did the right thing, it took a lot of guts, and it made Georgia a better school.
LikeLike
Ug, Jan Kemp was a nut. She was locked up in jail for 2 years because she lost custody of her children in a divorce and refused to pay child support to her ex-husband who had custody of the children, out of spite. The judge (whom I know personally) was going to let her rot there until she paid. She finally figured that out after 2 years, paid the child support and was released. The University wanted to get rid of her because she was a bad employee. She squealed in response to that, not because she was trying to make UGA a better place or beacuse she wanted to help the athletes. Litigation ensued. The University, as is customary in Athens, mishandled the situation totally giving UGA a black eye. Jan Kemp was no martyr for academics for athletes or any thing else. She was a malcontent who remains the definition of the phrase “disgruntled employee.”
LikeLike
I remember a lot of that, mayor. It’ all very unfortunate. I’m not going to bring her up again..it’s like scraping the scab off of an old wound.
LikeLike
You might be right. She might have been a “nut”. She died in a nursing home from early onset alzheimer’s. Anyhow there are two sides to everything.
LikeLike
Alzheimer’s would explain some of the earlier “nuttiness”.
LikeLike
“If this is true, it’s time for the NCAA to go the way of the dinosaurs and find a new way to govern collegiate atheletics.”
ding, ding, ding, we have our winner. Secession is the answer.
LikeLike
Just a healthy rumor that sucession was being discussed by people in high places (ie SEC presidents and ADs) would provoke the media’s looking at the NCAA to see what the drama is about and possibly cause a “self-evalutaion” of the association that would be productive. Maybe the NCAA should know what it means to be on “probation” with the “death penalty” imposed upon further infractions.
LikeLike
Again, I say the NCAA must be destroyed. This is one of the most screwed up organizations in America more so than the US Government. We gave them all the money and let them decide how to divide it up amongst themselves. I say we blame it Cain. It’s his turn.
LikeLike
What did Herman do?
LikeLike
LOL….Cain killed Abel. Genesis 4:1-15.
LikeLike
Jana? Is that you?
LikeLike
Chuza? Lose something?
LikeLike
The difference between tOSU and Georgia really comes down to the coaching staffs, I think. The coaches are the primary “firewall,” if you want to think of it that way, keeping any impropriety on the part of the players from going public. Not that Richt is 100% pristine in this regard, but by and large he doesn’t seem to initiate a Soviet-era info lockdown when one of the players effs up — when A.J. punted a jersey or one of the players gets arrested/dismissed from the team, or hell, when Richt accidentally butt-dials a recuirt, he fesses up pretty quickly. So quickly it’s starting to drive some members of the fan base crazy, but I think it all boils down to the best of intentions on Richt’s part.
Tressel, though . . . well, we now know just how far he was willing to go to cover up improprieties on the part of his players. (And how quickly he’d reverse field and say “Gosh, no, I knew nothing about it” when he finally got called on it.) I don’t think it was so much a case of the NCAA “turning its head” as it was Tressel doing his level best to ensure there was nothing for them to see in the first place.
And yet Tressel still gets hoisted on players’ shoulders at tOSU games, and Jim Delany still gets to go on TV and snark about the SEC while spouting high-minded rhetoric about how the B1G does things “the right way.” Just shows to go you how far a good marketing strategy can take you in the world, I guess.
LikeLike
Meanwhile… Burt Bileema is head coach at Arkansaw.
LikeLike
Let’s be careful throwing stones… Jim Harrick, Jr’s principles of basketball course fiasco took place at Georgia about 15 years or so after Jan Kemp literally two minutes’ walk from Butts-Mehre.
LikeLike
So true. Self-righteousness should be avoided at all costs. The Harrick mess was almost as bad as it gets in college athletics.
LikeLike
I’ve gotta admit that’s a point. A good point.
What finally exposed Harrick?
Was it former players?
LikeLike
Tony Cole
LikeLike
A tv set.
LikeLike
“Self-righteousness should be avoided at all costs.” Agreed. However, in my experience it is Buckeye fans upon whom this lesson is lost.
LikeLike
I wouldn’t want to have to defend the integrity of the program during the Donnan years either. QC and some others were known to have some of the best shit in town.
LikeLike
Consider this: that lawyer – a big tOSU fan – who e-mailed JT about the shenanigans got disbarred.
LikeLike
Yikes. I did not know that.
LikeLike
I am surprised to find out Clarett actually stuck at any level. As for Lrgk9’s comments, Tree Rollins used to be pretty open about the fact that he was being paid $40,000 a year to play basketball at Clemson. And that was quite a while ago.
LikeLike
Ahh – The Crisp County Splinter.
LikeLike
Perhaps not to the degree it does at schools like Ohio State, but sure, there dollars/perks available at many of the Top 50 programs. But my reaction about tosu has always been: how can they be that obvious and stand on their soapbox for all those years? Many instances for cheating have been reported in the SEC (see Auburn) over the years but most had some kind of cover that was blown. The used player equipment sales throughout the state of Ohio went on for years, where did fans/reporters think that equipment came from? When Claret was in school he reported the theft of over $10,000 worth of STEREO equipment from his new car, hello? And the Big X fans have always thrown missles at the SEC concerning violations, but they have both tosu and State Penn in their group….right.
LikeLike
I’ve always thought that coaches and AD spun that whole episode very well. In the end it was his involvement with an agent that finally burned him down.
“Ohio State later suspended Clarett for the 2003 athletic year after he was
charged with filing a false police report. Clarett had filed a false claim that more than $10,000 in clothing, CDs, cash and stereo equipment were stolen from a car he borrowed from a local dealership in September 2003. Athletic Director Andy Geiger stated that Clarett also took thousands of dollars in special benefits and repeatedly misled investigators. Clarett later pleaded guilty to a lesser criminal charge (failure to aid a law enforcement official) in that incident.”
LikeLike
Yall forgot Tressel’s book. Personal hypocrisy is categorized within.
LikeLike
Should be (” see Alabama”). ……….. You Georgia fans need to wake up and smell the coffee.
LikeLike
Looks like you made a wrong turn at Opelika, sport. What’s the matter, you barners got nothing to blog about ? You don’t have to reply to that question because we already know what the answer is.
LikeLike
The worst part is that the Buckeye fans I know will continue their moral preening about how the SEC cheats, lowers academic standards for football, pays players, etc… No amount of evidence can show them that their high horse is a shetland pony. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings one bit if every single one of them hopped their pompous ass on the next flight heading north. Delta is ready to take you and I am ready to see you go.
LikeLike
Dawgy45….”The worst part is that the Buckeye fans I know will continue their moral preening about how the SEC cheats, lowers academic standards for football, pays players, etc… No amount of evidence can show them that their high horse is a shetland pony”
The exact thing can be said for GT fans. I sense a pattern!
LikeLike
tosu is 0 – 9 versus the SEC in Bowls/postseason The 10th bowl was vacated.
LikeLike
And we are to believe guys like Clarett? Why?
LikeLike
I don’t believe all of it. He’s just bragging to get attention.
LikeLike
Or on the Grey Goose again.
LikeLike
It’s possible that MC may have embellished a bit for dramatic effect, but do I believe he received a heavy dose of improper benefits and the gift of a “relaxed” academic scedule? Yes and yes. Why? Two words: Jim and Tressel. That sort of stuff didn’t end when MC left either. There’s a reason a 12-0 team is sitting out this bowl season.
LikeLike
In a perfect world, the players get paid and the colleges keep this billion-dollar business tax-free. In the current system, you just gotta throw a SoCal under the bus every once in awhile to keep up appearances – or in tOSU’s case, throw the basketball team under the bus for the football team’s transgressions.
Given all of the things Congress has seen fit to declare tax-exempt, the easy solution here would be to waive taxes on collegiate athletic revenue even if players do get paid. Then the roster salaries could come up above ground.
LikeLike
Go back and read your comment again. Does it still make sense to you?
LikeLike
Perfectly. Players are being paid under the table because paying them over the table would revoke the system’s tax-exempt status. Congress can separate the two – let the payers receive a salary, and let the universities keep their tax-exempt status with athletic revenue.
LikeLike
Completely off topic, but I’mm gonna mention this here: I see that the SEC has decided not to suspend Dial for his chickenshit hit on Murray – you know, the one the ref was looking directly towards when it happened. Furthermore, Mr. Dial’s discipline will be handled “internally”.
So, for those of you who thought he would be suspended, there’s that. Even though this was entirely expected and predictable, it still pisses me off.
LikeLike
Anybody got that ref’s name?
LikeLike