With March Madness around the corner and the FBI investigating benefit violations at Division I schools, the debate around whether to pay college athletes is back in the spotlight.
But ACC Commissioner John Swofford told Cheddar there’s a flaw in allowing these players to profit as they would in the pros.
“I’m not a proponent of pay-for-play,” he said during an interview Tuesday. “I think we’ve got something very special in this country, that’s unique to our country, in terms of combining education with a very high level of competitive basketball and collegiate sports. And it presents a tremendous opportunity for a lot of young people.”
Swofford’s comments come as federal authorities look into collegiate basketball players at 20 top-tier schools who were allegedly getting money and other perks under the table from recruiting agents, a violation of NCAA rules.
The conference head pointed out that it’s primarily revenue from two sports, basketball and football, that funds a broad array of athletic programs. Instead, he says, the entire system needs to be revamped.
“What we need to do in this country is provide better opportunities for those individuals who aren’t interested in going to college,” he said. “If you have that interest in going professional out of high school, I think there needs to be more opportunities to do that, without having to go directly to the NBA itself, because only very, very few players are good enough to do that.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/acc-tournament-returns-to-brooklyn).
Luis Rubiales, the head of the Spanish soccer federation, announced his resignation in an interview with Piers Morgan after he faced backlash over a kiss he gave to Spanish soccer star Jenni Hermoso following the team's World Cup final win.
Michigan State University suspended football Mel Tucker without pay after reports he allegedly sexually harassed an activist last year.
Novak Djokovic has won the U.S. Open for his 24th Grand Slam title by using every ounce of his energy and some serve-and-volley guile to get past Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the final in New York.
Diede de Groot has won her 12th straight Grand Slam wheelchair singles title. She beat Yui Kamiji on Sunday in the U.S. Open women’s final.
Rubiales kissed Jenni Hermoso during the awards ceremony after Spain beat England to win the title on Aug. 20 in Sydney, Australia. The player said it was without her consent.
Gauff is the first American teenager to win the country’s major tennis tournament since Serena Williams in 1999.
The Lions walked into roaring Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night, where the Kansas City Chiefs are nearly unbeatable and were trying to open their latest Super Bowl title defense with a win, and proved what Detroit coach Dan Campbell has come to know in turning around the long downtrodden franchise.
Spanish soccer star Jenni Hermoso said a kiss from federation president Luis Rubiales after the team's World Cup win was sexual assault.
Because tennis balls are extremely hard to recycle and the industry has yet to develop a ball to make that easier, nearly all of the 330 million balls made worldwide each year eventually get chucked in the garbage, with most ending up in landfills.
“You cannot imagine," he said. "One player (is) gonna die, and they’re gonna see.”
