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Recall that last fall the NCAA let North Carolina off easy with no penalties, despite mountains of proof that there was academic fraud going on in volving football and basketball players for many years.
There is a new emerging type of scandal that is probably happening at other schools, but North Carolina just got caught.
When the big corporate shoe companies like Nike cut multi-million dollar deals with schools like North Carolina, one of the perks is that each football and basketball player (and probably other athletes) receive a variety of special edition custom shoes that are not available to the public. Those special model shoes are highly coveted by shoe collectors, and fans. So the players can potentially make thousands of dollars by selling their free pairs of shoes to dealers and middlemen. Of course, that is a violation of NCAA rules.
Today's breaking news reports that 13 North Carolina footbal players were found to have been selling their Nike Jordan shoes. Some players received in excess of $2500 for their shoes! UNC discovered and self-reported this way back last January, but it is just now being revealed publicly as they announce the suspensions. Apparently, the NCAA will again go easy and will not impose any further penalties other than the required suspensions under the NCAA's extra benefits rules.
The 13 football players have been suspended for 1 to 4 games depending on the amount of money involved. The NCAA is allowing UNC to stagger the suspensions so the team won lose too many players at one time.
I simply cannot believe this is a unique and isolated instance. I have to believe this is going on at many other schools, and probably has for a long time, and likely is happening in other sports as well as football.
There is a new emerging type of scandal that is probably happening at other schools, but North Carolina just got caught.
When the big corporate shoe companies like Nike cut multi-million dollar deals with schools like North Carolina, one of the perks is that each football and basketball player (and probably other athletes) receive a variety of special edition custom shoes that are not available to the public. Those special model shoes are highly coveted by shoe collectors, and fans. So the players can potentially make thousands of dollars by selling their free pairs of shoes to dealers and middlemen. Of course, that is a violation of NCAA rules.
Today's breaking news reports that 13 North Carolina footbal players were found to have been selling their Nike Jordan shoes. Some players received in excess of $2500 for their shoes! UNC discovered and self-reported this way back last January, but it is just now being revealed publicly as they announce the suspensions. Apparently, the NCAA will again go easy and will not impose any further penalties other than the required suspensions under the NCAA's extra benefits rules.
The 13 football players have been suspended for 1 to 4 games depending on the amount of money involved. The NCAA is allowing UNC to stagger the suspensions so the team won lose too many players at one time.
I simply cannot believe this is a unique and isolated instance. I have to believe this is going on at many other schools, and probably has for a long time, and likely is happening in other sports as well as football.
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