Jennings may just be a pioneer for 'student-athletes'by Jason Whitlock



-----

Discuss: Is it the right move?
Jennings opts for Europe over 'Zona
Why risk being the next O.J. Mayo, the USC one-and-done-er who was done in by sloppy ESPN reporting, a former, opportunistic friend/ex-drug-dealer and antiquated NCAA rules?

For talented, teenage basketball players, a slow boat to China is a better option than being the victim of award-winning gotcha journalism.

We all (know) assume that big-time basketball and football recruits receive "illegal" benefits for pretending to be student-athletes at America's institutions of higher learning. We also (know) assume that journalists and news organizations can make names for themselves by exposing the fact that the kids and their parents/guardians are just as greedy as the constantly renegotiating coaches we put on pedestals.

Brandon Jennings, a former Arizona commit, is smart. Why play the silly game? Why pretend to be a college student for one semester when he can't even "pass" the SAT or ACT? Why let a well-meaning, jealous member of his posse do what Louis Johnson did to O.J. Mayo?


Johnson is the wannabe author-turned-snitch who went on "Outside the Lines" and blabbed that he had receipts proving, among other things, Mayo had a flat-screen TV in his dorm room, ate a few illegal meals and received walk-around money from one of agent Bill Duffy's flunkies. Shocking! O.J. Mayo is really O.J. Simpson.

The story didn't hurt Mayo's draft stock, but it certainly damaged his endorsement appeal and will likely cost him money in legal fees sorting through the allegations.

It's a rigged game.

Why are we playing along? Why are we demonizing kids for an insanely stupid set of rules created by adults?

O.J. Mayo isn't the bad guy. Neither is Brandon Jennings, or the other five-star recruits wise enough to follow him for a year of basketball study abroad. Rich kids do it all the time. They take a semester or two, move to Europe, party, study and broaden their perspective.

A 19-year-old from Europe can join the NBA without anyone objecting. But a teenager from the states who hasn't spent a year masquerading as a college student and justifying CBS's billion-dollar NCAA basketball package is forbidden from joining the NBA.

Why?

The NCAA needs to be blown up. It pimps mostly black basketball and football players to provide welfare to sports played by mostly white athletes. In exchange, the football and basketball players get a half-baked shot at an education they're not prepared for upon arrival and a long-shot audition for pro scouts.

It's a bad deal, flawed from top to bottom. The Yankees just gave a 16-year-old Venezuelan catcher a $2 million contract. Children play professional golf and tennis and sing for the approval of Simon, Paula and Randy.







But football and basketball players are special. Why?

Look, I'm not someone who wants to see the NBA and NFL flooded with teenagers. It's not good for the games — any of them. Michelle Wie would've been better served playing golf in college.

As a fan and as a former college football player, I'd like to see college basketball restored to a place of prominence. But I'd like the restoration to have a hint of integrity.

That won't happen as long as the process is filled with lies from the very outset. There are two options to correct this:

1. Acknowledge that college basketball and football players are entertainer-athletes, not student-athletes. Bring them on campus, pay them, free them of academic responsibility and let them entertain students, alums, boosters and fans while auditioning for a pro career.

2. Form an alliance with the NFL and NBA and invest in education/athletic academies for talented young basketball and football players (of all colors) beginning in eighth and ninth grade.

The NCAA pays its basketball and football players with a currency (education) many of them aren't prepared to spend or value. That has to change, and it's incumbent on the NCAA to be a big part of the change.

I don't care how solution No. 2 jibes with Title IX. Is there something in our Constitution that states a TV contract driven by (mostly) black basketball players must be used to fix America's history of sexism? The money can't be used to educate basketball players when they're 13, 14 and 15 and there's a chance of getting them to a level where they can compete academically in college?

Maybe Brandon Jennings will go down in history as the young man who forced the NCAA to honestly deal with the hypocrisy, stupidity and immorality of its rules.

Form an alliance with the NFL and NBA and invest in education/athletic academies for talented young basketball and football players (of all colors) beginning in eighth and ninth grade.

The NCAA pays its basketball and football players with a currency (education) many of them aren't prepared to spend or value. That has to change, and it's incumbent on the NCAA to be a big part of the change.

I don't care how solution No. 2 jibes with Title IX. Is there something in our Constitution that states a TV contract driven by (mostly) black basketball players must be used to fix America's history of sexism? The money can't be used to educate basketball players when they're 13, 14 and 15 and there's a chance of getting them to a level where they can compete academically in college?