“If you take a poor kid and buy him a new washer/dryer, a couch and some chairs and maybe a decent bed to sleep on, then you’re considered a hero and they put you in a parade. If we do it, we’re criminals.” -Bob Huggins, WVU Head Basketball Coach

Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Every news story has more depth to it than what gets reported. Oftentimes, when you hear about something in the news, you need to stop and ask yourself, have you considered all possibilities?

The latest buzz surrounding college basketball is one that on the surface seems to be easily settled. College coaches, players, parents, and even sportswear companies have been ousted by the FBI, causing a whirlwind of accusations of bribery and fraud during the action of recruiting players.

Most who hear of this story are disgusted by the greed and dishonesty that goes into cheating, but also by adults taking advantage of young players. For the most part, that initial reaction is appropriate for this story. But, there is more to consider. Bob Huggins point of view on this issue has caused me to question who is at fault in this situation. If amateur sports weren’t the multi-billion dollar industry it is today, nothing like this would have ever happened.

Just to make myself clear, I am not under the delusion that these coaches and agents are bribing players out of the goodness of their heart. They’re just doing everything they can to make sure their programs win because more wins mean more money.

To win, the programs need the best players. To get the best players, the program must have the most to offer. Chaos is a ladder.

What did the NCAA expect to happen once they turned basketball into a cash grab?

The best players don’t want to be playing for a school that means little to them when they could be making millions in the NBA. The notion that they should go to a school to play ball where their only reward is a scholarship towards a degree that they have no intention of completing is idiotic.

These kids all watched as Russell Westbrook signed an extension worth $41 million per year and they are supposed to think that they don’t deserve free meals and a place to live while they are essentially trapped in a one year contract that ultimately does nothing for them.

In addition to that, bringing in athletes that have no business attending that school due to their poor academic marks is cruel. The only purpose these kids have while at this school is to make a handful of people very rich. As a result, the players and other students suffer because these athletes are taking a large amount of scholarship money away from more deserving students.

The truth is the only people with anything to gain from sending players to college first are the coaches, schools, and anyone else who can make money off of an amateur sport. Any player with talent to make the jump to NBA out of high school would be nuts to choose college instead.

Those accused in the most recent college basketball scandal are just continuing to play the game that has been created for the purpose of exploiting the talents of these young kids. In the end, everyone is punished except for the NCAA. Whether they end up getting arrested by the FBI or if they’re at the mercy of the rules put forth by the NCAA, everyone else loses except the puppeteer.