According to the NCAA rule book, schools can only provide bagels, fruits and nuts to student-athletes. Merely putting butter, jam or even a cream-cheese packet on a bagel would be a minor violation.
That’s ridiculous.
Speaking of rules that belong in the garbage, on Sunday LSU freshman center fielder Chris Sciambra suffered a fractured vertebrae in his neck and was lost for the season.
The part of the story that makes me sick isn’t the gruesome injury, but the fact that because of an NCAA bylaw, Sciambra’s dad wasn’t allowed to travel back with his son on the team plane.
You know it’s a terrible rule when LSU coach Paul Mainieri, who’s typically low-key, gets riled up.
“I just think there are things in life that take precedent. …I can tell you this, if that was my son, I probably wouldn’t have cared about any NCAA rules. I probably would have gotten on that plane,” Mainieri told The Times-Picayune.
The injury wasn’t a twisted ankle or a fractured wrist. It was a legitimate life-threatening injury.
Sciambra is making a full recovery and will return to the field next season. The NCAA would have a lot of questions to answer if in fact Sciambra’s dad wasn’t allowed to be with his son, had something worse happened.
Just a few weeks ago, Kansas State senior forward Jamar Samuels was ready to suit up against Syracuse in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet Sixteen. Just hours before tipoff, however, he was suspended for receiving improper benefits.
What benefit did Samuels receive that caused him to watch his last collegiate game from the sideline? A mere $200.
Samuels’ former AAU coach Curtis Malone wired the money before Kansas State departed for Pittsburgh for the tournament to help out with food costs.
Malone didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. Neither do I.
I’ve been losing sleep since the news broke that $200 from a man Samuels has known for years forced Samuels to miss the game.
It would be one thing if Samuels was a bonafide NBA talent and would be making millions next year and Malone was trying to cash in.
That isn’t the case.
Samuels will be lucky to find a place to play overseas and won’t get selected in the upcoming NBA draft. He’s simply a young man from a single-parent household that took some money to eat.
Malone and Samuels have had an ongoing relationship before he even set foot on Kansas State’s campus. He was as close to a father figure Samuels ever knew, aside from former Kansas State coach Frank Martin.
Martin was formally announced as the head coach at South Carolina on Tuesday. He had some choice words to say about Samuels’ punishment.
“They don’t have an option. It’s not like they can work while they’re in college. They can’t find ways to make money. When there is no money at home, who is going to help these guys?” Martin said Sunday on CBS’ telecast of the NCAA tournament.
It’s the truth.
If Bill Gates’ son received a scholarship to play Division I college basketball, he would receive the same package as Samuels. The only problem is Gates’ son has a father who makes billions of dollars and can support him beyond the limits scholarships entail.
Samuels didn’t have that luxury. His father left when he was young and his mother is a breast cancer survivor. Where else was he supposed to turn?
Even children who work in Chinese sweatshops get paid a minuscule wage, while college athletes don’t see a dime.
Sweatshop workers obviously don’t have it better than NCAA athletes. College athletes receive free housing and get a top-rate education.
But the NCAA doesn’t fool me one bit. It’s not about making sure kids graduate or ensuring they can succeed in avenues other than sports – it’s about making money.
NCAA president Mark Emmert needs to do something to ensure scenarios like what happened to Samuels and Sciambra never happen again.
Micah Bedard is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Houma. Follow him on Twitter @DardDog.