Over the past year, there has been talk of allowing National College Athletics Association players to get paid for playing their sport. Only a select few players at D1 schools would be paid, and it would bring on a whole new aspect to recruiting, eligibility, and team popularity.

Little did anyone know, some of the nations players in top schools have already been getting paid.

They’ve received cars, jewelry, tutors, strippers, houses, vacations, and cash. It’s all a part of a system that plagues the NCAA.

Every year, it seems that another school has a violation. This year has been more scandalous than before. It started when Terrelle Pryor of the Ohio State Buckeyes and several other players traded championship gear for tattoos. It seemed like a minor trade-off, but the NCAA quickly swooped in and handed out punishments.

Then, coach Jim Tressel resigned after learning that he was being investigated in his role for the scandal. Just when the NCAA cleared up that scandal, another school got caught, and this time, players weren’t only receiving tatoos.

It was reported that a booster gave University of Miami (Fla.) football players money, cars, trips, prostitutes, jewelry and even an abortion. It was so shocking to the nation. The story continually ran on every major news stations and Sportscenter.

But is this story really even shocking? The University of Miami is hardly the first school to get busted for violations, and there will be plenty more to follow. So why is this such a big deal now?

It shouldn’t even be a shock that D1 football has more than a few skeletons in its closet. College kids love to party, and when you’re the top ranked team and you’ve just beat your conference rival, you’re going to want to celebrate. And why shouldn’t you? You work hard at practice all week long, spend hours upon hours training, studying and preparing for your opponent. So when are you supposed to work at a job or study for your classes? That’s where the boosters come in. They come to you and say, “I know you’ve worked so hard to get to gameday. You played awesome. That sack on Tim Tebow was phenomenal. Here’s a couple of extra bucks to buy yourself a drink.”

In an interview on the HBO series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, a former NCAA Division I football player admitted that he would go and ask a booster for a thousand dollars whenever he needed some money.

It’s something that the NCAA has tried to cover up, and the public tries hard to forget. College athletes should be doing this for the love of the game, and their hard work should pay off when they get to the National Football League. Yet, this is not how it works. Instead, the NCAA has a small fraction of the investigators working on recruiting violations. They only hear about cases if someone tips them off, and even then, they spend most of their time trying to figure out which of these tips are legitimate. It’s only a matter of time before the next school gets caught. The punishment will never be harsh enough because the sports bring in too much money for the NCAA to ever seriously change.

hrutt.mavs.coloradomesa.edu