The NCAA: Upholding the Finest in American Hypocrisy

The NCAA, an organization with such open-decision making practices and clear accountability as to provide lessons to the mafia, is forcing a University of Minnesota wrestler to give up his music career or be declared ineligible for profiting off his own image. Can we please just disband this organization?

Bauman embodies everything for which college athletics should stand. He should be the face of the NCAA. But the NCAA wants to make sure it is the only entity that can make money off Bauman?s face. Fearing an NCAA reprisal, Minnesota officials have asked Bauman to take his name off his songs and remove his image from the videos if he wants to remain eligible to wrestle at Minnesota.

He has two more years of eligibility remaining, but he is willing to sacrifice his scholarship rather than go by an alias in his music. ?Now that I have a message,? Bauman said Wednesday, ?I?m not going to go by an alias to deliver my message. ? If I stop, what would that show people? If I just made an alias, what would that show people? That I?m going to quit what I started??

This is the NCAA in a nutshell. When it isn?t busy hijacking a federal bankruptcy deposition to gather dirt in defense of its flawed model of amateurism in an infractions case involving Miami, its schools use that same flawed model as the rationale to attempt to crush a young person?s non-sports career. Never mind that if Bauman were a minor league baseball player instead of a singer, the NCAA would allow him to keep his baseball earnings and still wrestle. Apparently, those 99-cent iTunes downloads of Bauman?s Ones In The Sky represent a threat to the purity of college athletics, even though Bauman has yet to make a cent of profit. ?I?ve not broken even on anything I?ve done,? he said.

At some point, the people at the NCAA and the leaders of the universities that comprise its membership need to stop and think about what exactly they?re fighting for here. Bauman?s case is yet another example of a group of people who have their heads stuck so deep in their massive rulebook that they can?t see the bigger picture.

Bauman, who is just returning to the mat in practice after missing three months because of concussion issues, is hoping he can make a last-ditch effort to keep his music and his scholarship without giving up his name. ?I have a plan,? he said. ?I?m going to run it by our compliance department.? If he wanted to go by DJ Takedown or MC Reversal, Bauman could promote his music on YouTube and sell his songs on iTunes. But why should he have to? If Bauman?s name is the price of a wrestling scholarship, the price is too high.

Source: http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2013/02/the-ncaa-upholding-the-finest-in-american-hypocrisy

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