Real World Issue

10/8/10
This video perfectly summarizes the main issues surrounding this complicated controversy within the college football spectrum. When asked "Who is to blame for the agent problem?" Charles Davis (a college football analyst for the NFL Network) brings up the point that patrolling every single player on the team 24/7 is impossible for coaches to do, especially during the offseason. They bring in people to lecture their team on the rules and the perils they will face if they break these rules, but that only goes so far. Jamie Dukes, another analyst, notes that the root of the problem is money and it is a "real-world issue." For example, if the player's family is in a financial hardship and the school is making significant profit selling their jersey in the bookstore (while he doesn't get a dime off it), the player is then faced with the real-life situation of making the decision of "Do I do something to help put some food on my family's table, or do I not do anything." He admits that "it is a tough situation" for these athletes because they cannot even work and they have to sit back and watch their school profit off of them while they get nothing in return. Brian Baldinger, a commenter for the NFL, responds "I don't know if you can control it because it's so out-of-control right now." Davis notes that "A lot of people are sitting at home saying 'I wouldn't do it' Well, most of us aren't confronted with that opportunity." The last real choice these players had was choosing which school to play for and when they are suddenly faced with the choice of accepting or turning down that kind of money, it severely complicates things. When told that these players are mature and old enough to know better, Davis had this to say: "But I'd like to see you at 19 or 20, and they're offering you the riches of the world, and they're showing you different things, and they're wining and dining you, and telling you all of this other stuff, saying 'No one's going to find out, this is just between us,' it's very hard." The reality is is that this is a difficult situation that cannot be made simplistic in any way, which these NFL commentators illustrate.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/09000d5d81940a35/Impact-of-agents-on-NCAA-football