That's Gonna Hurt
Wednesday, August 2, 2006 at 01:28PM Sophomore quarterback Rhett Bomar and teammate J.D. Quinn, a lineman, have been kicked off the Oklahoma football team, according to published reports.
Oklahoma said that two players had been dismissed by the team but did not identify them. The school said in a statement that the players violated NCAA rules by working at a private business and taking "payment over an extended period of time in excess of time actually worked."
Bomar had a job at a Norman, Okla., car dealer at which he'd work about five hours a week, but claimed, for tax purposes, that he earned $18,000 a year...
For starters this all but kills Oklahoma's shot at a national championship. Bomar is backed up by several nondescript players, most notably Paul Thompson, who was moved to receiver after a disastrous debut as the starting quarterback last year.
I have a mixed reaction about this situation and Bomar's departure.
Clearly Bomar did something ethically wrong here in accepting payments far in excess of his reported labor and in obvious violation of NCAA rules. The dealership in question is clearly an emphatic Sooner supporter, involved not only in this situation but the earlier temporary free car given to star tailback Adrian Peterson. It is unclear whether the Athletic Department has any punishable connection to this dealership that needs investigation.
Given that the rules are what they are right now, Oklahoma did the right thing in parting ways with the two players. Bomar was already on thin ice after two underage drinking arrests and any coach in Stoops' position would have grown tired of such repeated irresponsibility and bad press from someone who is in a position of team leadership.
This doesn't count as a win for NCAA rulemakers though. The unabashed capitalist in me admires the arrangement between Bomar and the dealership. Bomar brought his name and prestige as quaterback to the dealership. He received a financial reward, and the dealership could quietly market the fact that they had a star player working for them and also establish a personal connection to him in hopes of possible future business arrangements. But in the twisted minds of the poverty pimps in Indianapolis, this type of arrangement merits strict sanction.
The NCAA's hilarious logic goes something like this:
Make money off of Rhett Bomar and other college football stars through TV, the BCS, etc = OK
Rhett Bomar and other college football stars making money off their names = Not OK
And then everyone scolds Bomar and screams "you greedy bastard!"
Look, Bomar has some growing up to do, no question about it. Underage drinking is a very small crime (unless accompanied by the whole drinking an driving thing which is abhorrant), but he's been caught twice now including once at a basketball game when he should be breaking the law in private. Combine those incidents and today's revalation about his work at the dealership and his goose was cooked. That's stupidity and arrogance and he clearly hasn't cured himself. I don't argue with his dismissal given this background, but part of the reason Oklahoma booted him, I assume, is to save face before any NCAA investigators.
But should they have to? What responsibility does Oklahoma have for an overzealous car dealer doing business like is encouraged in this great economy and business model of ours? These guys aren't amateurs and the NCAA shouldn't be cheerful about cutting into someone's ability to carve out a living, no matter the exorbitant arrangement.
Tom Zbikowski earned $25,000 for about nine minutes of boxing against the equivalent of a tackling dummy, why can't Bomar do the same for about five hours a week of appearances at a prominent car dealership?
Reader Comments (10)
Zbikowski spent months preparing for his professional boxing debut, not to mention all the years as an amateur boxing. It was the natural progression of his pugilistic pursuits. Did he receive a boost as a Notre Dame football player? Probably…but at least it can't be traced exactly that way. That is, unless Bomar spent his entire youth in various car garages, working on his car waxing skills while his friends were off at the pool or having a good time with their days off, yearning for when all the hard work finally pays off with a big check from a Norman, Oklahoma car dealer.
These kind of rants are getting tiresome.
The NCAA sets rules for the ethical behavior of all athletes and associated programs. If Bomar could make $18,000 for a part time summer job, what's to prevent any school with the connections and money of just paying off their players in a similar fashion? Such a loophole would ensure that only teams that could buy a NC would ever again get one. The NCAA doesn't care if Bomar makes a buck, what the NCAA cares about is if Bomar makes a buck he didn't work for, but instead earned through endorsements tied to his football activities - exactly what you claimed he was smart for doing in your article.
Your snippets seem to show you're not really interested in college football so much as semi-pro football being played at college with no educational accomplishments required. You should be drooling over the AAFL then.
Should the rules change? Maybe. But that does not mean the NCAA is at direct fault. If an institution does not like the NCAA's rules, they can de-affiliate. If an athlete does not like the rules, they do not have to play at an NCAA school (or a school at all). I admit, there is a de facto need to be in the NCAA or play for an affiliated team, but there are other options and by not excercising them, a student-athlete submits himself to the NCAA's and university's rules and punishments.
There are worse things an athlete can do besides collect "illegal" cash.
I hate victimless crimes that the NCAA swears to enforce.
Bomar is an idiot, but the NCAA rules are on a higher-level of idiocy.
Zibby didn't break any rules. Bomar did. He was an arrogant, stupid, idiot to think he could do that and get away with it.
The Notre Dame hating continues.... JEALOUSY!!!!