• Home
  • Campus
    • Academics
    • Greek Life
    • SGA
    • Student Life
  • State/Local
    • Around Town
    • Board of Regents
    • National
    • Pierre
    • Vermillion City Council
    • Vermillion Police Department
  • Sports
    • Cross Country
    • Football
    • Golf
    • Men’s Basketball
    • Soccer
    • Swimming/Diving
    • Track and Field
    • Volleyball
    • Women’s Basketball
      • WNIT Championship
  • Verve
    • Feature
    • Diversity
    • Events
    • CAB
    • Verve Blogs
  • Opinion
  • E-Edition
The Volante
The Volante
  • Home
  • Campus
    • Academics
    • Greek Life
    • SGA
    • Student Life
  • State/Local
    • Around Town
    • Board of Regents
    • National
    • Pierre
    • Vermillion City Council
    • Vermillion Police Department
  • Sports
    • Cross Country
    • Football
    • Golf
    • Men’s Basketball
    • Soccer
    • Swimming/Diving
    • Track and Field
    • Volleyball
    • Women’s Basketball
      • WNIT Championship
  • Verve
    • Feature
    • Diversity
    • Events
    • CAB
    • Verve Blogs
  • Opinion
  • E-Edition
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
Home
Sports
Columns

COLUMN: NCAA creating downfall

September 14th, 2011 Rob Nielsen Columns comments

Share this story

Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest

Ask any baseball historian what the three greatest mistakes in their sport’s history are and all of them will probably give you the same answer.

First, laughing off Branch Rickey’s impassioned pleas to change up the sport at the professional level leading to professional football overtaking the sport as the country’s most popular.

Second, the strike of 1994 which alienated large portions of the fan base and Major League Baseball’s slap-on-the-wrist enforcement.

Finally, the snail-paced reaction to the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs within the league.

So what does baseball’s fall from grace have to do with the current state of college football? Short of a strike, the NCAA is following essentially the same road map baseball followed into the abyss: an unwillingness to change the game in the face of falling public support and half-witted, slow, inconsistent and often comical responses to major violations of their own rules.

The BCS was created in 1998 to replace the old system of determining a championship, which consisted of using subjective polls and contracts to determine who went to what bowl. The BCS solution: Add a few more subjective polls and run them through a computer, which will also factor in a few quantifiable statistics that no other legitimate sport uses to determine a champion at any level. As a direct result, NCAA football, despite blowing the NFL out of the water on attendance every single week, can hardly hold a candle to its professional counterpart on ratings, especially in the postseason.

But the BCS alone isn’t enough to reduce the stature of college football. Consider last season’s revelations of shenanigans within the Ohio State football program. A few players were handed a five-game suspension which somehow didn’t include the Sugar Bowl. The suspensions were set to begin the next year.

Share this story

Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest

Rob Nielsen

Related Posts

Column: Key Injuries hurting NFL teams Columns
September 25th, 2018

Column: Key Injuries hurting NFL teams

After slow start, does Matt Patricia stand a chance? Columns
September 19th, 2018

After slow start, does Matt Patricia stand a chance?

Hockey teams rely on questionable tactics to ensure home-ice advantage Columns
April 4th, 2018

Hockey teams rely on questionable tactics to ensure home-ice advantage

Facebook Comments

Latest Stories

Feb 13th 5:35 PM
Campus

Sheila Gestring inaugurated as USD’s 18th president

Feb 12th 10:38 PM
State/Local

Senate Bill 122 moves past committee hearing, colleges concerned

Feb 12th 8:26 PM
Special

People of the Pack: Kyra Lunde

Feb 12th 8:00 PM
Verve

Inkpa Mani talks indigenous people, activism and everything art

Feb 12th 5:44 PM
Sports

Bilington Breaks Record as Coyotes Split Between Two Meets

Feb 12th 5:14 PM
Campus

High school scholarship recipients visit USD for Top Scholars Day

Feb 12th 5:09 PM
Sports

Inside a distance runner’s mind: Q&A with Eldon Warner

Feb 12th 3:46 PM
Sports

John and Tommy Vining: Brotherhood on the golf course

Feb 12th 3:11 PM
Sports

South Dakota finishes 8th, surpasses Fort Wayne in Martin Downs Collegiate

Feb 12th 12:29 PM
State/Local

Heart Health tips for National Heart Disease Awareness Month

People of the Pack

"I like a lot of music a lot of other people like, so if I’m just playing a lot of loud music to a crowd and getting paid for it, that sounds awesome."
"The nature here is amazing. The Vermillion River, the park, hanging out with my friends and I like cooking."
"I’ve had a couple uncles and a couple aunties come here. My grandmother attended USD in 1970. So they really inspired me and encouraged me to come to USD. They made it sound really awesome and it is an awesome school. I like USD."
"I’m most active with Alpha Phi. We have a lot of philanthropy events like we have our Red Dress Gala, which is just an event we hold every year to raise money for women’s heart health. I’m pretty involved with that, and we also do the Backpack Program where you pack lunches for kids in Clay County."
"After this year I will be doing my MBA after this. Hopefully I can get into a marketing firm and just work my way up. That’s what I’m hoping."
"I find it fun to go to the library in the student-athlete's section. It's nice because you can go there every night. I have been there every night this week just studying and stuff for my test tomorrow."
"USD really cares about its students. They just keep everything really nice here and it’s personal."
"I want to be a politician just for the simple fact of genuinely educating and helping people who don't understand certain policy issues. I want to help them see beyond the biased media so they can research on their own."
"I want to end up being a delivery nurse, anywhere honestly. That’s the end game. I want to travel a lot."
"I want to be a nurse somewhere, but I don’t really know what kind of area. I just want to help people and watch them achieve their goals and get better."
"I just love singing — singing’s my favorite thing to do. It’s always my escape for everything."
"I am going to become a counselor and try to create a safe and welcoming environment. I'll help them where they are, and try to get them where they want to be."
"I very much care for my family and try to take care of them in any way I can. Part of that when I lived in California was trying to take the stress off of my parents. I would do everything around the house: cooking, cleaning, yard work, taking out the trash, grocery shopping."
"I would travel anywhere, I don’t care. I just really like being in new places and meeting new people."
"I can deal with his (stuff), and he can deal with mine. We’ll be up until four in the morning."                         "We’re just social people, we like to talk and have a good time."
"I’ve definitely met people who are more free-spirited and not judgmental and more interested in the same things as I am. I studied abroad last summer in Ireland."
"(If I could go back) I would’ve stuck with basketball and played basketball in college. I just feel like I missed out on an opportunity. I still could’ve gotten a business degree while playing basketball. I just wish I would’ve worked harder at it. I played at first and then I quit. I signed at USF, University of Sioux Falls. I played summer ball with them, with their team, so I didn’t get to experience the full effect."
"I don’t think I’d change anything, because then if I changed something then something else wouldn’t have happened. Why change? My life is pretty good right now. Life is completely about perspective."
"My favorite artist is my band, Bread of Stone. We are growing up with Christian music and we have a lot of shows too. We already have a couple albums out."
"I was a sophomore in high school when my grandma Betty passed away, and it was two years before that when my grandpa Walter passed away. I don’t remember much of Betty because she had Alzheimer’s, so we would go see her once or twice a year in her home. I know that she liked to bake a lot. She would bake all kinds of things — cookies, pies, cakes. She was known for her little tea parties when we came over. The only thing I remember is her sitting in the back porch with my grandpa when we would go to visit them before they both moved to homes. I remember lots of my grandpa. He was a fiery, grumpy old man. He used to give us Sunkists and cookies every time we went to see him. We’d bring him meals when he still lived in his house, and later when he had moved, we would take him to church every Sunday and go for hour long drives that he loved and we all had to suffer through."

Weather

  • Home
  • Campus
  • State/Local
  • Sports
  • Verve
  • Opinion
  • E-Edition
  • Back to top

The Volante

The Volante is the University of South Dakota’s independent student-run newspaper since 1887. Al Neuharth Media Center The Volante 555 N. Dakota Street Vermillion, SD 57069

About

  • About
  • Code of Ethics
  • History
  • Awards
  • Executive Staff
  • Jobs
  • Comment Policy
  • Apply
  • Advertise

Engage

  • News Tips
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Overheard Submission
  • In The Know & In The Dark
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe

Media Partners

  • KYOT-TV
  • KAOR-FM
  • Coyote Communication
  • Coyote Creative
  • Media & Journalism Department
© The Volante 2015. All rights reserved.