Founder of Microsoft Corporation Bill Gates watches the semi final match between Hubert Hurkacz and Roger Federer in the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea – USA TODAY Sports)

If Bill Gates, the Waltons Want to Buy a National Title There's Nothing Wrong with That

People have to get past the years of brainwashing to eliminate the stigma behind buying players

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Apr 3, 2023 4:14 PM EDT

In this story:

FRISCO, Texas – Earlier this week, now retired Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim appeared on "The Field of 68" to clarify comments he made regarding Miami's Final Four team.

It seems people took offense to his phrasing that the Hurricanes bought their team.

"I tell the truth," Boeheim said. "I said Miami bought their team. I should have said they succeeded in NIL. I phrased it wrong. But it was a fact."

Let's get this straight. In the world of NIL, everyone buys their team.

It's the No. 1 reason why the children of the people reading this will probably pass from this earth without Arkansas having ever won a national championship in football that is actually recognized in the record books.

Arkansas also must buy its players like everyone else and the resources aren't there to properly fund a program as large as a football program. The state is more suited to sports like basketball and baseball where a little money can have a massive impact on the team's overall performance.

In one of the most inspirational athletic speeches every put to film, Rocky Balboa explains to his son the process through which winning is accomplished.

"It ain't about how hard you can hit," Balboa said. "It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It's about how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done."

As much as I love playing that clip for teenagers and then explaining how there are others elsewhere out-working them because they're so determined to overcome their circumstances, it's not a clip I would play for an athletics director like Hunter Yurachek.

The clip would read more like this.

"It's not about how hard you hit. It's about how much you pay and whether you pay it to someone who is willing to keep getting back up once they've been paid. That's how winning is done."

For the right amount of money, any team can be a champion. The next national championship in college basketball could just as easily come from the University of Central Arkansas.

If Bill Gates or one of the Waltons decide they want to conduct a grand experiment to see if they could individually alter college sports, it could definitely be done.

If either required definitive proof, a simple agreement with UCA athletics director Brad Teague to put together a schedule that includes teams like Gonzaga, Tennessee, Texas, Duke and UConn throughout the non-conference in exchange for a $500 million endowment of a new collective, plus an extra $30 million to go out and hire the best coach possible would do the trick.

The best players in the country would be in Conway, Arkansas waiting to play for the best coach in the country.

Who knows? The Bears might even lure away Eric Musselman just for kicks in this scenario or entice Gonzaga legend Mark Few out of the Great Northwest.

The Bears would become national favorites in one recruiting cycle and there's not much anyone else could do anything about it. Their sudden rise in attention and popularity would begin syphoning off dollars from the Central Arkansas area currently reserved for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Players still have to find a way to win and have skills that fit together, no matter how many 5-stars can be bought.

But, that's just the point. No matter how they're being paid, the players are being bought, especially the top-tier players who aren't looking to get degrees in specialized fields that only certain schools have.

Their specialized field is basketball, and in a lot of cases, the people they leave behind struggle to keep the lights on. There's no need to be upset with a player taking advantage of the best deal in the best position to build a personal brand and move on to the NBA.

If a medical student can get a full ride at Arkansas and is offered a chance to make $12 per hour as a CNA as part of a partnership or get a full ride at Texas while making $35 an hour as part of a similar partnership, would anyone have a problem with the student choosing to go to Texas?

The idea of buying a player is only bad because the NCAA used to go out of its way to make sure not even common sense help could be given to a student athlete.

Former LSU coach Dale Brown once had to slip $300 to a few of his players to get home to see their best friend who was in his last days with cancer because the NCAA said the plane offered to fly them would be a violation of the rules. The players couldn't afford to go and Brown was willing to pay whatever the price to make sure they went.

It was the right thing to do under the circumstances.

The Good Lord isn't going to meet Brown up in Heaven and say "I cast you into the Lake of Fire because you chose to break NCAA rules so you could show compassion and decency to a fellow human being in need."

Even though players' names were once used to sell products and make video games, there was no compensating them, even in the name of basic humanity. It was a mantra beaten so heavily into the heads of sports fans that many knew whether too many ketchup packets with a plate of catfish might be a violation.

That's not the world Americans live in anymore.

If Texas A&M wants to pay your son $2 million to go stand on the sidelines for a year and then transfer, then that's perfectly fine. Have him collect those Aggie paychecks and run.

But if anyone says something to your child about being bought and paid, then tell them to stick it. That same person is either too lazy to get a job, or is bought and paid for his or her services also, and the world has enough hypocrisy to simply tolerate it.

So, say it loud and proud university athletic departments.

"We bought our players too and are darned proud of it!"

And lay off Boehiem. He's right no matter which way he words it.