SI: Oklahoma State football players got sex, drugs and money

Yeah, I don't know anyone who would be surprised about this happening at any DI school. Some of it is fraud, some of it is more of the "this is a bullshit system" variety, but all of it is assumed to be happening everywhere. Stanford, Rice, Army and Navy would be the exceptions maybe, but even they have guys taking some easy A's from friendly professors.

So we're through the money and the academics and it seems we have smoke and not fire. The money could be damaging until you realize how much they had on Oregon and penalized them one scholarship. But the sex and the drugs were always what was going to set this one apart.

 

For schools like Stanford, Rice and service academies, the payoff for the jocks doesn't come when they're in school, it's their getting admitted in the first place. A Rice diploma carries a bit more real world clout than one from OSU.

 

People will get hung up on the sex and drugs because it's sex and drugs, but I still think the "pay-for-play" and "diploma mill" charges are far more serious when it comes to the integrity of Oklahoma State as an institution --- especially the academic stuff.

If I was an Oklahoma State grad, I'd be much more upset that other degree-holders didn't work as hard for their sheepskins as I did than I would be that other students got laid and got high more than I did.

 

Allegedly.

 

Set it apart how? You mean from the Oregon case? Or apart from anything else that has been uncovered in the last few years, including the Miami thing?

The sex and drugs part will be just as uninteresting and just as big a waste of time, money, and resourses as the first two parts on handouts and grades.

 

Set it apart in that I don't think people are quite used to the idea of running a prostitution ring for high school boys. Not saying this doesn't happen, but the public disclosure of it would be pretty new.

But we'll see. I was underwhelmed by the "academic fraud" portion. Maybe the sex will come up similarly short. If some coed just got freaky of her own accord ... Yeah that has been known to happen in college.

 

I mean, I'm sure the girls were put in place to "take care" of the recruits. And that they knew full well what that meant. This is nothing new. Calling it a "prostitution ring" simply puts a new title on it. The idea is the same; and idea that the public has known about for a long time. And has mostly shrugged off. As it will here.

 

I would argue with the idea that the public knows 18-year-old boys are getting laid on their recruiting trips by order of the coach. I do remember that when He Got Game came out, that was the scene the college establishment fought hardest against.

 

I thought that cat got out of the bag four years ago:

http://deadspin.com/5422400/tennessees-hostess-program-catches-recruits-and-ncaas-eyes-updated

 

By order of the coach? I'll be shocked if there's anything resembling evidence of that in this report. Now, do coaches know it goes on? Sure. Do they ignore it? Absolutely? But do they order it? Doubtful. They don't have to. Boosters and others can do that for them.

 

Boone calls bullshit.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/college-sports/other-colleges/20130910-oklahoma-state-benefactor-t.-boone-pickens-lashes-out-at-sports-illustrated-article.ece

 

Wasn't there a controversy at Duke over a more forgiving degree path (sociology?) designed for athletes? I'd imagine you'll find the same kind of thing at Stanford, Rice, Vandy and the like. You won't find a proportional number of Engineering Physics majors, I'm sure.