USC is no worse than any other D-1 school

All this hype around the *alleged* Mayo controversy is a crock of crap. All the major Division-1 teams are paying people off. You telling me Beaseley just *decided* to go to Memphis State!? Bullshit. If the NBA is going to force this crap one-year rule down everyone's throats, then they're going to have to expect these kind of back-room deals.

Rebuttal
My point is that market economics sooner or later will break through artifical attempts to contain them. It's like Stalin-ist Russia. If the delta between people's financial reality and their needs becomes too great, black markets crop up. This is what's happening at the intersection between college and pro sports. "Society" wants to artificially keep athletes, who would otherwise be making millions and millions of dollars, in collegiate sports where they don't make shit. Meanwhile, the universities make off with huge revenues off the backs of their "student athletes" and all they have to do is hand out a few scholarships. This is fundamentally broken economics, and the righteous indignation that people like you feel around this is ludicrous. I don't blame the kids for trying to get what's rightfully theirs.

First things first, don’t point the finger at the NBA; they are not the issue here. Agree with their policies (such as the so-called “one year rule”) or not, they cannot be used as an excuse to condone unethical or illegal practices on the part of a player or university.

As for Mayo/Bush, I’m struggling to understand if you believe that their alleged antics violated NCAA rules. Regardless, and at the crux of this debate, is the fact that USC chose to bury its head in the sand and ignore blatant signs of violations occurring right under its nose. In light of the position that student athletes are in, the onus is on the universities to exercise a duty of care to make sure transgressions do not occur. USC failed to do that and they deserve to be named and shamed. Any other university in the same position deserves nothing better.

Finally, the argument that “everybody is doing it” is both short-sighted and irresponsible. Do some violations occur at some other universities? Of course. At EVERY program at EVERY university? No. The fact that there are other programs where violations may occur does not, in any way, absolve USC for its misconduct.

Rebuttal
The smack topic isn’t social economics, student athlete compensation, or the policies of the NBA or other professional sporting bodies. If you’d like to debate the topic of whether student athletes should be paid or to smack down the one-year rule, those are different smack topics than this one.

At the end of the day, there are clear policies that the collegiate and professional sporting bodies have established. Whether we agree with them or not, the rules are the rules and they must be followed (and in the case of university athletic departments, reasonably enforced). Despite all of that, USC showed wanton disregard for the rules- plain and simple. There are many clean programs that do the right thing and don’t deserve to be treated as guilty by association.

This smack topic is: “USC is no worse than any other D-1 school”. That statement is wrong.