Dennis Dodd’s just sayin’, y’all.
College football seems to be one wiretap away from the obvious becoming public: The nation’s No. 1 college sport is as crooked, scandalous and cheat-ridden as its basketball counterpart.
That has sort of been forgotten as college hoops’ culture continues to be flayed in public.
We’ve known for decades basketball had a seedy under-the-table aspect to it. The recent revelations from the FBI and media reports of its investigation have filled in the details.
But to think college football is immune to such corruption would be foolish. The sport continues to be the No. 1 economic driver for college athletics. It’s just that we’ve been distracted lately.
Hey, you don’t want to be thought a fool, do you? After all, think about it.
The temptation to cheat is certainly there as the structure of football and basketball have become more similar. Salaries, pressure and revenue have never been higher. At certain levels of college football, you even hear of a “going rate” paid for talented recruits. In other words, the amount of cash it would take to the get in the running for a five-star recruit.
With the influence of spread offenses, it’s possible — like basketball — to change the fortunes of a team with one or two players.
Consider where Clemson would be without Deshaun Watson or Oklahoma without Baker Mayfield. Take the deep threat away from Alabama during its current dynasty run. Would it have won titles without Julio Jones, Amari Cooper and Calvin Ridley?
Whoa… Watson, Mayfield, Jones, Cooper and Ridley had “going rates”? Tell us more, Dennis.
Editor’s note: To be clear, these are just examples of recent impact players on major college football teams. No violations are being alleged.
Oh… wait, I get it! No specific violations are being alleged, right? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, and all. If I’m a superstar negative recruiter, I can work with that. In the current climate, it’s not exactly hard to throw something out there and have it resonate. And if you’re the subject of such a whisper campaign, how do you disprove a negative like that without making yourself look weak in the process? Just ask Lyndon Johnson…
Get The Picture 
Baker Mayfield is an odd name to mention in a discussion of cheating. He had to walk on at two different schools, didn’t he? I don’t think the OU coaches even knew he was coming. Did you see /hear Cowherd proclaimed yesterday the he absolutely knew of one SEC program that was absolutely cheating? He’s old friends with McIlwain from college, wonder if he got any tips?
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I have no doubt cheating is rampant in CFB given the NCAA’s rule book. The money, the pressure to win and the willingness of fans/alumni to help are a cauldron of bad stuff waiting to happen. If the cartel were blown up and replaced with a better structure, all of this would go away.
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I know he’s just throwing out names, but no Cam Newton?
My love for the game of college football died a lot that fall.
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Seems like Auburn would warrant at least a paragraph or two.
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Agree, that is a very odd name to leave off the list, also Tunsil and Bush.
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Same here.
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The diference between CBB and CFB is three fold:
The future NBA players are pretty much identified by age 15, making them relatively safe investments.
1 guy can redefine a basketbal team that usually operates arpund 5 starters and 2 key subs. 7 dudes. Versus, you know 50+.
Basketball players can jump after a year, making a return immediate.
Football players are much more questions marks. They have to prove themselves in college for 3 years. 1 or 2 players aren’t going to take a team from borderline bowl eligibility to a New Yars Bowl, much less CFBs Final Four.
But we already knew Dennis was dense.
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Why are schools paying money under the table to 5 star recruits when room, board, access to training facilities, and most importantly tens of thousands of dollars in tuition!!!! Is more than adequate compensation for their services? Why would they tack on more compensation to the employee, ahem student athlete when said student athlete provides no more value to the school than the cost of the scholarship. Man that’s might altruistic of the school.Come to think if it why would schools pay millions of dollars to coaches? The coaches should be so grateful as to be associated with the prestige that is Texas A&M and Alabama. It’s almost as if these schools have determined the value these players and coaches bring to the school and program and that said value is greater than what the school would pay over the table to a coach or under the table to a recruit.
#isupportamatuerismbecauseidontunderstandhowmarketswork
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The real question that should be asked is why can’t these five star recruits use their skills to work in the professional world? Don’t blame the colleges, they are not the ones who artificially created this market (unless they colluded with NFL).
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why are there so many fun haters out there ? If they take down college football, I’m gonna be so depressed.
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The offseason is clearly in full bloom. Sports writers gotta write… bloggers gotta blog… fans gotta comment.
How many days till college football.
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That column by Dodd is some pot stirring for sure. Love to know how he picked those 5 names.
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Clicks. The names and associated programs generate clicks.
Yahoo runs an article about basketball players getting five or even six fugure inducements. Who ends up in the headlines? Players who got a meal, value less than $200. Why? Because those players generate the clicks,
The NCAA model emits a stench, but so do guys like Dennis, Pat, and Pete.
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I think basketball is much more visible because the amount of money per player is a lot higher – one sport has 12 spots on the roster and the other has 85. The total amounts may not be that different, but per athlete, the amounts involved are much higher in basketball. Plus there’s a lot more “corporate” money in the basketball world (mainly the shoe companies). Those companies aren’t trying to influence football players the way they do basketball players.
And for whatever reason, the football coaches seem to be a little better at maintaining plausible deniability than their basketball counterparts.
But at the end of the day, the old NASCAR adage holds true for both sports….”If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’.”
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Who just had the #1 recruiting class in the nation? This stuff scares me……
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I was thinking about this the other day. I don’t think football is quite as bad as basketball but that’s not saying much.
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I have no doubt that money changes hands in CFB recruiting to get players. I truly feel it’s not as shady as CBB, though. I think the Agent/AAU/Shoe company dynamic in CBB makes it far more susceptible to what we’re seeing that in CFB.
I could be proven totally naive, though, but I do think it’s less shady in CFB.
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Taking a page straight out of the Liberal Media guide to Fake News!
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Obvious troll…LOL.
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I do think the checkbooks are going to be out in Knoxville based on some of the behavior we saw on Signing Day 2.0. I hope UGA, at all levels,not just coaches, is ready to deal with it.
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Bagmen, oh my lord, say it isn’t true. You mean Div. 1 schools have players that are paid to go there? This is a shock, a shock, I say.
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