The NCAA finds itself in a situation much like that one Nazi’s face in The Raiders of the Lost Ark: melting slowly into a pile of dank and disgusting evil goop. With scandal after scandal arising, stories are dropping faster than the bags dropping that are causing the scandals in the first place. Although not all of the stories are completely fully informed, the NCAA scandal is real and it is going to cause major changes throughout the organization and throughout the country.
There is just one thing that fans of college basketball needs to understand: this is not on the kids. The players are not at fault in this scandal. They are simply a group of individuals that are caught in the middle of some really messy stuff made by the suits and coaches of the NCAA. Unfortunately, with kids playing their hearts out to achieve the dreams of success that helped them escape from situations that many college students can not fully sympathize with, fans are still giving them the brunt of the blame for the scandal and the bag dropping.
On February 10, Michigan State wrapped up a regular season Big Ten title on the road at Wisconsin. In the waning seconds with star forward Miles Bridges on the line to ice the game, a sea of Badger faithful unleashed a chant they had been sitting on since the February 23 Yahoo Sports article naming specific players for their involvement in the scandal.
Miles Bridges knocks down two free throws to chants of "Cheater" to seal a 68-63 win for Michigan State and the program's first outright Big Ten championship since 2009.
— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) February 25, 2018
This is for a total of a reported $400 and a $70.05 lunch to his mother. To clarify, he is not his own mother. So to review, Miles Bridges took none of the reported money, and there is no indication that he is even aware of the situation. And to resolve the situation, the NCAA told him to give $40 to charity. It doesn’t seem to be necessary to be heckling a kid for a fine that’s less than that parking ticket you got for parking in the “2 hour only” zone in front of your house at school.
And this wasn’t nearly the worst of the aftermath for the kids. On Saturday Auburn, which was one of the schools originally implicated due to the actions of an assistant or associate head coach, took on Florida in Gainesville. At the end of the game, which Auburn lost by six, fans decided this was an acceptable thing to do:
This is absolutely shameful. Everyone involved with Florida basketball should be ashamed of themselves for their fans’ actions. These kids are not the ones that the FBI is going after, nor the ones that should be chastised. No one ever threw a pair of panties at Rick Pitino following the allegations of hiring escorts for recruits. No one ever threw pencils at Roy Williams because of the academic reports. So why do the players get the brunt of all the anger, then. This is something in the world of fandom that I will never fully understand, or will ever be able to ever be comfortable with viewing.
At least all of this actually has the coaches and suits of NCAA on alert. Following this absolutely absurd act from the Florida fans, Bruce Pearl self-reported the money that was thrown at his players. Everyone in the NCAA is walking on eggshells right now.
The important thing, though, is that March is just around the corner. Instead of focusing on everything bad going on in college hoops and using that to punish the players, the same ones that are subjects of exploitation almost every day of their life in college, let’s cheer for the kids during the most wonderful time of the year. I’m not asking you to root for the other team, I’m just imploring you to not punish the kids for the sins of the NCAA and their coaches.