"NCAA is scamming everyone" - NFL analyst blasts administration of employees unworthy of pivotal roles
What a week it has been for the NCAA. The toothpaste is out of the tube, and there is no getting it back in. The NIL deals have completely changed the college recruitment landscape. It has become a free-for-all as colleges battle to see who has the deepest pockets. They have tried unsuccessfully to put some guidelines into place; in truth, it's a mess.
And according to John Middlekauff, host of the 3 and Out podcast, the blame lies squarely with those who work for the NCAA, who Middlekauff believes are unworthy of the roles they have been given. He said:
"I never cared about people cheating because I don't consider it cheating. I consider it the NCAA scamming everyone, all those administrators. I have always looked at them like losers. The athletic administration in my experience, I wouldn't employ any of them. I couldn't respect them any less."
Middlekauff was not done there as he continued his attack on the administrators:
"I am not saying that some are not high-level, but I think there are a lot of people in administration that are scamming everybody."
Nick Saben vs Jimbo Fisher
It is difficult to prove the accuracy of the claims made by Middlekauff. But we certainly know why NCAA football has been at the forefront of everyone's thoughts. It all began last week when college football savant and Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saben, started a fire which he quickly lost control of by, rather ammusingly, suggesting that Texas A & M bought all their players.
Saban: Texas A&M 'bought every player on team' - via @ESPN App @AlabamaFTBL look who is calling the kettle black @nicksaben the guy who has used every method known & unknown to hide the millions of illegal money paid to players let’s investigate espn.com/college-footba…
This obviously didn't sit well with Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher, who angerily fired back, as the story quickly gained national momentum. Never has the word "hypocrite" been used so often. The NCAA seems to have been caught off-guard. Perhaps they were sitting with their popcorn like the rest of us.
Texas A&M HC Jimbo Fisher just fired back at Nick Saban for saying they "bought" recruits.
Fisher calls Saban a "narcissist" and says he won't take his call.
"We built him up to be this czar of football. Go dig into his past." https://t.co/iG4UQ4BH3I
With this now a top story in the national media, and more people getting dragged into it by the hour, everyone was giving their opinion, and the criticism of HQ inactivity soon came to the fore.
Is the NCAA criticism fair?
Middlekauff is merely the latest in a long list of personalities to point the finger of blame at those in power, but they are an easy target here.
Noted on the new podcast: the NCAA spent a ton of money fighting a losing Alston battle to prevent athletes from getting no more than $5,980 each per year — for academic achievement, of all things. A drop in the P5 revenue bucket. twitter.com/ByBerkowitz/st…
They spent millions of dollars fighting the Alston case, which they eventually lost in the Supreme Court, 9 to 0. They have to walk an incredibly fine line in regard to placing any sort of restrictions on NIL.