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| While you know my stance on saying "Free (insert name)", I support Flea getting on board with the unfair treatment of UCLA freshman Shabazz Muhammad. |
Full disclosure here. I don't like the NCAA. I don't like the charade they represent. I think they are an outdated model fueled by greed and the desire to swing their power around. They claim to be about student-athletes and yet bring the hammer down on common sense situations instead of use wise discretion.
Shabazz Muhammad is the latest person to see this. The NCAA has made him ineligible to play for UCLA this season so far for taking "benefits" that apparently they knew about two years ago and approved. According to his family, the NCAA approved Benjamin Lincoln providing for housing and a plane ticket for unofficial trips to North Carolina.
Mind you, Lincoln is not connected with Duke or North Carolina so there is no bias here. He's not a booster. He's a financial advisor who's known Muhammad since he was in 7th grade. Now unless you want to assume that we all knew Muhammad would be a superstar in 2007, I believe this friendship goes deeper than just fame.
Surely the NCAA would see this after investigating for a year, right? Then again, this is the same organization that suspended Baylor forward Perry Jones at the end of the 2010-11 season after finding out his mother asked his AAU coach for money so they could make ends meet. Money that she paid back, by the way.
But they don't care. They see money exchanging hands and assume that it's corruption. It's like that famous scene in Casablanca (which upon watching reminds me exactly of the NCAA)
