The NCAA Needs to Get it Right

For the college fans having opinions regarding universities and players connected to illegal benefits, the NCAA showed there’s a double standard in its investigations.
The decision to rule Auburn QB Cameron Newton eligible raises many eyebrows on the conduct of universities in regards to recruiting. It's fair to say the public needs a better understanding what the punishments are if any kid takes money. The end result usually is a suspension and expulsion from the team.
There are many questions to be answered when evidence showed that Cecil Newton, Cameron’s father, took money for his son’s commitment to Auburn. So why did the NCAA rule him eligible for this Saturdays SEC Championship game?
The conspiracy theories have already begun from chat rooms to college football message boards.
Would the NCAA made the same decision if Auburn was 9-2 or 8-3?
Is the Southern Eastern Conference scared in losing a slot in the BCS title game where the two teams would reportedly receive about $16-$18 million each from the sponsors? If Cam Newton was ruled ineligible for Saturday game, the Tigers would not beat the Gamecocks.
Read on South Carolina vs. Auburn Football, Week 4Auburn vs. Mississippi State 2010 Football PreviewConference Expansion Could Change College Football Forever
Auburn played South Carolina on Sept. 25th where they needed Newton’s heroics for a 35-27 victory. It’s hard to imagine the Tigers beating the same opponent twice if its best player wasn’t there.
Make any argument you want, but the ruling doesn't say much for the NCAA and its plans for disciplinary action.
Former U.S.C. running back Reggie Bush took money and benefits from the university during the 2004-2005 seasons. The Trojans punishment was a two-year ban on post-season play and loses of scholarships. The ultimate punishment was Bush giving back his Heisman Trophy on Sept. 14th.
When word leaked out about Cecil Newton taking $180,000 for his son’s commitment to Auburn, people were crawling out of the woodwork when that story broke. Everyday sources were saying they received text messages or written statements on what it would take for his son’s commitment. The evidence was overwhelming and took about five weeks to investigate. Were now expected to believe that Cam Newton had no idea what his father was doing according to the NCAA.
The NCAA sent a strong message during the USC investigation and lost all credibility with today’s ruling on Newton. They had a chance to crackdown what universities and players are doing regarding illegal benefits and blew it a major way.
Copyright Jonathan Cisowski. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication. Print Article

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Triathlon Race Day Nutrition: Eat Right for Maximum Performance

The Bike Leg in a Triathlon For Taking on Fluids - Image by Jimmy HarrisTriathlon is the fastest growing endurance sport on the planet. Getting nutrition right on race day can mean the difference between failure and success.

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Two years later, Josh Hamilton gets his MVP (and right on time)

Josh Hamilton collected 22 of 28 first-place votes in AL MVP balloting (AP).

Josh Hamilton won the American League Most Valuable Player Award on Tuesday, putting an exclamation point on his incredible comeback from the depths of drug and alcohol addiction to the top of the baseball world. It’s a redemption story you’ve probably heard ad nauseum by now, but it’s no less astonishing.

Whether Hamilton truly deserved the award over Miguel Cabrera and Robinson Cano remains up for debate. Many folks would argue that, considering Hamilton missed about a month of playing time due to injury, the sturdy and steady Cabrera and Cano were more deserving. I can’t argue much with that logic, but seeing as Hamilton’s stats were as good as anyone’s and he was such an overwhelming sentimental favorite, those guys was facing pretty steep odds.

But if you know Hamilton’s story, you know 2008 was his breakout season, when he graced the covers of all the magazines and all the feature stories were written about him. Hamilton redemption tales became a small cottage industry in sports writing. We knew everything about him, how he’d been a No. 1 overall pick, fallen in with the wrong crowds while rehabbing an injury as a Minor Leaguer, washed out of baseball after the flunked drug tests piled up, wasted away in the throws of addiction and malnourishment. Then he bottomed out, focused on sobriety, rediscovered Christ, rededicated himself to his family.

But that story climaxed at the 2008 All-Star Game in the now-defunct old Yankee Stadium. Hamilton launched moonshot after moonshot into the black Bronx night, threatening but never really threatening to put one through the window of a 4 Train car. He might have, though, so you were compelled to continue taking in this spectacle. It was like watching the real Roy Hobbs. He couldn’t really put one onto the subway track, could he?

From there, though, he tired in the second half. Nagging injuries mounted. The grind of a 162-game slate — the rigors of which he was unaccustomed, remember — got the better of him. And so, there was no MVP for Josh Hamilton in 2008. The Rangers finished four games under .500 and lightyears behind the first-place Angels in the AL West.

When 2009 rolled around, the Hamilton malaise lingered. There were whispers that he was banged up throughout Spring Training. Then it came out early in the season that he’d had a relapse during the offseason. Unseemly pictures of a night out gone awry surfaced. He played in just 89 games to underwhelming production, his season effectively a washout.

Folks wondered about Hamilton’s durability. Had the years of abusing his body left him in a compromised state?

Well, he did miss about 30 games this season, so that question hasn’t been definitively answered, but the numbers were certainly restored to their first-half-of-2008 glory. This year, 2010, was a confirmation that we hadn’t heard the last from Hamilton, that 2008 wasn’t a fluke.

It’s fitting, in a way, that Hamilton got his MVP two years after his grand arrival. Persistence, more so than timing, has certainly proven to be his stronger attribute.

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