U of M shows its true colors
In light of the recent events surrounding the athletics programs in collegiate sports it is time for sports fans everywhere to let the powers that be know how fed up they are.
The University of Michigan has taken a barrage of negative comments from the media in the wake of allegations that more than $600,000 was funneled to its basketball players from booster Ed Martin.
But this does not begin to punish Michigan for what it has done. Granted, the Fab Five went a long way in influencing the youth of Michigan to play basketball, and are largely responsible for many of the good things that Michigan-born basketball stars such as Shane Battier and Morris Peterson have done for their communities and sports, but at what cost?
Michigan has always fancied itself the “Harvard of the Midwest,” and it was above such allegations of wrongdoing purely because it was Michigan and no one wanted to out Big Blue.
I grew up a Michigan fan because my dad told me it did things right. It put a premium in success, but not at the cost of its integrity. Hate to say it Dad but you were only half right.
Fall out from Cakegate, as the local media has dubbed the Martin scandal, is that the Michigan everyone thought they knew is no more.
Gone are the days when people nationwide would look up when someone would say something about Michigan athletics. Maybe it was naïve for Michiganders to ever believe Michigan was completely clean, but this new hard evidence is a bitter pill the most diehard Maize and Blue fans must swallow.
Michigan always seems to hope to emulate Duke’s rise to supremacy, but it seems that its actions resemble more of University of Nevada-Las Vegas than the Blue Devils.
Not to single out our neighbor to the south as the only example of dirty collegiate athletics, but was it not Michigan who always seemed to shine above the hypocrisy of amateur athletics that raised seven figures in revenue? Michigan always seemed to give the idea that it could be done right; you just had to be committed to it.
So what begs to be asked in the wake of Cakegate is, “If Michigan is capable of this, than who else?”
What is the silver lining to all this?
Try rooting for the underdogs like CMU and Kent State; the teams which have trouble building enough funds to pay its coaches to stay, let alone high priced $100,000-plus high school recruits.
With Kent State competing against Oklahoma, Indiana, Kansas, Illinois, Maryland, Connecticut and Arizona, doesn’t all this talk of scandal and cheating really make it easier to root for the little guy?
When you think of Chris Webber allegedly and Robert Traylor admittedly strolling out on the court having been paid more than most Americans will see in a year’s worth of work, and then think of Trevor Huffman, Andrew Mitchell and Demetric Shaw going out on the same stage; who is more appealing as a hero?
LIFE Sports Writer Brad Bates can be reached at sports@cm-life.com.
