Congress must take on NCAA deceit
"Seriously, college athletics have started to make the pros look like a Mother Teresa clinic on sportsmanship." So writes Mike Imrem in his revealing Feb. 10 column, "Blame adults for lawlessness in college sports."
It appears to be a message lost on Capitol Hill where Congress remains focused on the Mitchell Report covering the use of steroids in Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Roger Clemens/Brian McNamee side show.
The issues surrounding the NCAA cartel and its detrimental effect on America's educational system, its youth, and its future position on the world stage, never seem to rise above the clutter on the national radar screen.
The NCAA has yet to be held accountable for its lack of transparency that effectively covers up cheating in college athletics via performance enhancing drugs and academic corruption in a system rift with deceit, deception, and fraud.
Congress could follow up on previous investigations with a hearing on an unheralded national scandal -- cheating in college athletics driven by an ocean of tax-free money generated by the NCAA's participation in the college sports entertainment business.
However, many, if not most, members of Congress consider taking on the NCAA to be political suicide -- no matter the long term harm to our nation resulting from the high-jacking of its education system by this business.
In the end, tolerating cheating in college athletics via performance-enhancing drugs and academic corruption appears to be preferable to confronting the formidably resourced NCAA and its member institutions.
Frank G. Splitt
Mount Prospect