Rutgers Proves Money is the Root of Evil in NCAA

By now, most have surely seen the video of former Rutgers’ Men’s Bas­ketball Head Coach Mike Rice and how he would conduct his practices. Rice fired the ball at his players, pushed and shoved them, and yelled homophobic slurs at them.

The Outlook staff is disgusted by what happened. This type of behav­ior is shocking, disgraceful, inappro­priate, ridiculous and has no place in college athletics.

We can’t believe that Rutgers didn’t fire Rice when the tapes were re­viewed in December. The school knew that when this story came out it would reflect poorly on them. So all they did was give Rice a $50,000 fine and a three game sus­pension, without any explanation. In this day and age, the truth always comes out. Schools have to stop trying to sweep these things under the rug and hope they will go away.

Money has to be the explanation for the Rutgers administration refus­ing to take bigger steps. Winning and revenue appears to have taken precedence over sportsmanship and human dignity. These are student athletes, not professionals.

While yes, they are on scholarship and were some of the best basketball players in the country in high school, they are still students. College is a time to learn and grow, and that means in the classroom and on the basketball court. The players aren’t going to be able to learn and grow when they are terrified that their in­structor is going to hit them again.

We can understand why the bas­ketball players didn’t report what was going on. They are going to col­lege for free, on scholarships, to play basketball. They don’t want to speak out against the man who recruited them, and possibly lose their schol­arship.

Some editors, however, would not have remained silent. After a few in­cidences, it would have been time to respond. Whether that means going to administrators for help, informing the press to get the story out there, or defending one’s self, silence would not have been an option.

What we know now may only be the tip of the iceberg. Each day this scandal continues growing. With two coaches and an athletic director already out the door, Rutgers needs to worry about whether or not donors will attach their names to this type of program. Donors who have given more than one million dollars to the school did not want to see the Athlet­ic Director, Tim Pernetti, go. When the school doesn’t give consideration to these prominent donors, who’s to know how long they will continue to give?

We would feel more sympathetic for the players if this took place at MU. These are students who are playing a sport that they love, and have been playing for all of their lives. They shouldn’t be treated like this at the col­legiate level. We eat with them in the din­ing halls, work out with them in the gym, and learn with them in the classroom. If they were being treated like this, we would want to help them.

The NCAA should be taking action against Rice. One editor suggests that a two-year sus­pension from college basketball should be in order. He needs time away from the game, away from col­lege students, to figure out his anger problems and find new ways to get his philosophies across to the play­ers.

College athletes need to focus on families, the fans and most impor­tantly, other student athletes. Money and other outside influences can fog an institutues moral judgement, as shown in Rutgers case. Things need to change and protocols need to be put in place to protect all those in­volved in college athletics.