Jon Solomon nails Todd McShay with this:
Let’s stop with the narrative, as put forward by ESPN’s Todd McShay, that Tunsil sold out his Ole Miss coaches by supposedly telling the truth to the media. This thinking sums up what’s wrong with the negative stigma created by the NCAA about amateurism. In McShay’s mind, it’s better to lie publicly than to be honest when caught about getting paid. Only in college sports is this line of thinking acceptable. The NFL couldn’t care less about Tunsil getting paid.
It’s time for my obligatory reminder that news of college players getting paid under the table is neither shocking nor worth taking a moral high ground. This happens far more often than people want to believe — imagine if the federal government ever went after tax evasion for these under-the-table payments — yet fans keep passionately watching the college games whenever a story like this comes out.
I get the “NCAA rules are NCAA rules” aspect to this, as Solomon does in his next paragraph, but that’s Ole Miss’ problem. As far as Tunsil goes, it’s not like he committed a crime. Outside of the folks left at the school who have to clean up the inconvenient mess they helped make, ultimately nobody cares but McShay. Well played, Mr. Solomon.
Get The Picture 
“[I}magine if the federal government ever went after tax evasion for these under-the-table payments”
I don’t think they can unless they can prove that any of them are above the $14,000 threshold for the gift tax to kick in. A booster can just say, “I gave him the money out of the goodness of my heart.”
It would be an interesting test case 🙂
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It would be a real stretch to use the gift tax exception. I guess you could if you had no connection to the school at all. If you are a coach, booster, employee, agent, etc. it would be taxable to the kid.
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Agree if you’re a coach, employee of the university or an agent. Clearly would be taxable to the individual.
I don’t think the IRS could go after a payment made by a booster. If the payment were above the $14,000 gift tax exemption, the IRS could come after the booster for the gift tax but not the recipient for income.
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I was under the impression that interfering with the amateur status of an athlete was a federal crime.
isnt that what the Albert Means booster when to jail for?
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Bribing a public official (high school football coach)
But satellite camps are a neat way around that one.
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Well if he failed to report the money as income to the IRS, he did commit a crime. Section 61 of the Title 18 “There shall be a tax on income from whatever source derived; except….”. Unless there is an exception, I’m unaware of, for under the table payments from college boosters or coaches then he is guilty of tax fraud. The total amount does need to be at least the amount needed for filing a return, which is pretty low for a single person. So if the kids are going to take it they are technically committing a crime.
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The outrage in these situation for me is directed at the NFL and NCAA for not allowing 18 year old adults who can enter into contracts, buy vehicles and real estate, vote, serve in the armed services, be held 100% responsible for breaking laws, accept any job they are qualified for and generally live their lives as a fully legal adult but are not allowed to accept a job as a professional football player in the NFL. Since the NFL is never going to modify their collective bargaining agreement to allow 18 year olds to be drafted, the NCAA holds the only solution. That solution is to do away with the reduced college entrance requirements for scholarship athletes in football and basketball.
Great athletes who have no business being on a college campus, other than playing on the school’s teams, can’t be blamed for taking money offered to them. The NCAA has rules that prevent them from doing anything to make any money. These athletes don’t care at all about the academics other than keeping that C average to remain eligible.
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Why doesn’t the NFLPA and NFL adopt the MLB draft. The NCAA needs to modify their stupid rules about the kids dealing with agents. If a CFB player declares for the draft and is not drafted or if he decides to not play even if drafted then the kid should be able to come back to college. If that rule had been in place we would have had Hershel back for his senior year. The NFL used to draft players that went to the AFL and the USFL but the NFL kept their rights if they ever came back into the NFL. This is not rocket science, it could be worked out.
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NFL came up with a a solution because they had to. Right or wrong, there is absolutely no incentive for the NFL to let a kid “test his worth” in the draft if he has the chance to go back to college. That said, I wonder where DeShaun Watson would have been drafted if that was allowed. While the NBA is an example of allowing players to test before hiring an agent, they typically don’t build their teams beyond the 1st round of a draft. You lose a 2nd round pick, it’s not a big deal. The NFL uses all of their rounds to build their teams- losing a 2nd or 3rd pick because a kid went back to college and possibly got injured, is not something the NFL would be keen to grant out of the goodness of their hearts. Not to mention, it gives the undergrads some leverage in negotiations.
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oh and f**k Todd McShay, Mel Kipper and ESPN in general.
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“These athletes don’t care at all about the academics other than keeping that C average to remain eligible.”
Ehhh, yeah, in general I think that is probably right, but then there are folks like Malcom Mitchell who may have started out with that mindset but then got a little bit of a wake up call after a serious injury. Football is great, and if you can make it, do it, but a Plan B is useful, and I think he and some others have realized that.
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I’m referring to the blue chip athletes who would be drafted out of high school if the NFL did not have a free farm system in the colleges. Raise the entrance requirements and the kids playing college football would be actual students, not NFL apprentices. Once the Tunsils and Scam Newtons could no longer get into the college in order to display their talent, the NFL would have no choice but to create a farm system like MLB, even if it was a one level farm system..
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I get your point, but the larger point is that they’re allowed to choose for themselves, not be (basically) forced into a choice by the powers that be. Mitchell may have been able to earn 100k a year when he was 18 and still have joined his book club and taken classes at night. Or joined the NFL out of high school and some other kid who qualified both athletically and academically might have gotten that scholarship and grown in much the same way.
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Let’s put our connection to Tunsil aside for one moment and pretend he was some athlete from, say, Colorado, whom we never recruited. As a college aged kid having his phone and social media accounts all compromised, if the most damaging info leaked on him were a video of him smoking weed and texts asking a coach for money to help pay for his mom’s electric bill, most of us would feel bad that he was humiliated publicly and venture to guess he’s probably a pretty decent guy.
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Probably true.
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How much money did Nkimdeche and Tunsil lose collectively? If you argue that Nkimdeche could have gone at worst #2, and perhaps #1, at his position with a more focused effort on and off the field, then going to Ole Miss arguably cost them $30 million combined.
That, and the NCAA investigation which will now go into a full-court stall for as long as possible, are the things Kirby and every other SEC coach will use to convince players that Hugh is not their best choice.
All part of God’s plan, Hugh.
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