Chris writes:
>I think the idea behind this kind of rule is to prevent colleges/boosters from
>offering a kind of deferred signing bonus - "Come to the U of Whatever and
>we'll set you up AFTER you graduate or play your four years"
 
That may have been the intent when the rule was passed, and it makes
sense, but the rule has already been interpreted by the NC$$ to mean
that you can't buy a kid a Christmas present.  It isn't that far of a
stretch to say that you also can't buy him lunch or a beer, especially
when someone posted last year here that it was illegal to do as little
as buy a player a beer.  If that is illegal during his period of
eligibility, it is apparently also illegal after it.
 
I would suggest that it makes more sense to interpret the rule to mean
that such post-graduation benefits are illegal only if they were
agreed upon or understood to be agreed upon prior to graduation.  If I
go into a car dealership and the salesman recognizes me as a classmate
of his & gives me a good deal, that's okay.  But it isn't okay if the
customer is an athlete.  Then again, this opens up the question of why
athletes are treated so differently from non-athletes anyway and are
prevented from doing many things that non-athletes can do.
 
If a potential recruit is led to believe that if he attends School X,
he'll get great deals on cars for the rest of his life, then I agree
that is wrong and should be.  But if a former athlete happens to walk
into a dealership, is recognized as such by a salesman and gets a
great deal, one that he didn't expect to get while being recruited or
in school, then what is wrong with that?  Unfortunately, this rule and its
interpretation point out the fact that the NC$$ has power to almost
rewrite the rules in ways that the schools often never intended.  It
also shows another problem, that being that the NC$$ is unflinching in
its handling of situations pertaining to the rules and doesn't look
upon exceptions too kindly.  "Benefits" means anything.
 
UNLV asst. AD Mark Warkentein was quoted in "Undue Process" by Yaeger
as saying, "We probably have 15,000 former student-athletes around the
country.  And now we have to worry about any of them getting anything
that might in any way be construed to have been given to them because
they were a student-athlete.  That's impossible to control.  How can
the NCAA realistically expect that?" (1991)
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Mike Machnik           [log in to unmask]    [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMN* 11/13/93