Brutal Times for Brutus & the Bucks

Heh... if losing 3 straight conference games isn't bad enough for the football zealots down in Buckeyeland, now there's this new story involving former Buckeye running back Maurice Clarett and his numerous allegations surrounding his treatment while in Columbus. The allegations include recieving the keys to numerous cars during his freshman year and recieiving thousands of dollars in payments from boosters.

I have mixed feelings about all of this. As Brad Edmonds does a good job of pointing out in his column on Lewrockwell.com titled "National Communists Against Athletes", the NCAA is a despotic association that imposes it's will on university athletes, laying down the law in terms of how such athletes can live their lives while representing their schools. Forbidding players from recieving payments and restricting how athletes train are just two examples of the many ways in which the NCAA acts as a despotic agent that provides no real positive atributes to college athletics aside from scandals and hypocrisy. I say hypocrisy since they prevent athletes from being paid, which some would call exploitation, while helping to set up lucrative multi-million dollar deals for schools and conferences through TV contracts, endorsements, and other goodies. Since such an agency shouldn't even exist as far as I'm concerned, there really shouldn't be any controversy stemming from OSU's treatment of football players.

Why did I state that I have mixed feelings? Well, my principled stand on the issue of liberty is in defense of a football player and team that I personally loathe. As a Michigan fan, I look forward to seeing the Wolverines pounce on the Buckeyes in a couple of weeks, sending the OSU faithful home with the realization that their team is inferior. Having the Buckeyes play without Clarett will only make this easier, although they still wouldn't stand a chance even with him.