🏈 Help please. Your take on the media's take on this Fluker story.

[bamafan4ever]

I was curious as to how some of the national and local talking heads were saying about these Yahoo! Sports allegations. There are so many outlets now it's hard to get everyone's perspective. Also, has anyone given Alabama the benefit of the doubt here or do they keep comparing apples and oranges?

I'll start. I was watching College Football Live on CBSsports. Bruce Feldman was interviewed and felt nothing would become of these allegations because the NCAA has no muscle left to flex. He feels their investigative arm has been rendered impotent due to the Miami U. snafu. The NCAA is also knee deep in lawsuits and is feeling the effects of being involved with the O'Bannon/EA Sports fiasco. He said there is also this whole thing with scandal fatigue. Aaron Taylor spoke but as always, had little to say but rehash.

92.9, the new radio home of Alabama Football here in the ATL area had Carl dukes and Kordell Stewart on talking about how Saban's approach was on target considering the high profile game this weekend. They alluded to how "serious this could be" yet at the same time noted how ridiculous it is for someone to get punished for needing a mattress to sleep on.

 

[JoshB]

I've honestly tuned everything out. I heard that Finebaum was talking about how convenient but I haven't even watched ESPN for FS1 at all for the first time in awhile mainly because I just wanna tune all this crap out. All I wanna do is watch football for awhile. I know ESPN was actually IN Tuscaloosa yesterday doing a "Inside the Program" type deal which is unfortunate.

 

[Kirk Van de Graaff]

I personally don't see this being something that is gonna vacate NC's or disqualify Alabama for any wrong doing. If there were any coaches, institutional personnel involved or in the know, thats a different story. I find this whole thing will do more harm PR wise than sanction wise. The whole thing stinks of NFL Agents and media that are constantly in the face of top tier players and if the NCAA cant do anything about it, how do you expect a college to. The NFL also needs to address this issue in my opinion. Its all about the money.

There should be rules that could sanction individual players, Agents and so forth. Agents are like Lawyers to me, parasites that will do whatever at any costs to get what they want. Doesn't matter who or what they hurt in the path of the all mighty dollar. One reason I rarely watch the NFL is because of the outlandish pricetags they put on these atheletes. It isnt about making the Super Bowl to some of these guys, its that big money contract.

If DJ did what they say he did, he will have to live with it. I just dont see Coach Saban or the institution being involved in this. The twitter/Facebook era is also another problem, gets too much into your privacy, and anything you write on it can be misinterpreted. These young men need to really think before they say or do IMHO.

I also think the Media is too involved with the personal life's of athletes and do more damage than good with their top notch reporting. I just want to watch my team play football, sick of all the BS. I want to watch Bama thump A&M.

 

[Icetre78]

I don't think anything will happen merely based on he fact that Alabama is set to make history this year when we win #3 in a row. They didn't do anything to scam and Johnny because it affects ratings. They won't ever give another death penalty because the money is Bigger than they are. Etc....

Football as a whole is too much about money now these days. That's why the NCAA has lost it. BIGGER people than them are slowly taking over. If they push their luck, they will be on the outside looking before they know it. More and more schools are slowly learning the fact that they can stand up to them and tell them to go away. Miami being THE perfect example.

 

[PhillyGirl]

All we hear up here is Fletcher Cox, and maybe a little DJ Fluker.

 

[ElephantStomp]

Nothing up here other than probably ESPN, CBSSports, FS1, etc, but I haven't watched any of those channels

 

[rammerjammer]

After the initial knee jerk reaction by fans........I think that ultimately all of the big time college media outlets (ESPN, CBS, Fox, SI, Yahoo sports) are on the side of the athlete being paid. I think all of this is a way for media to show the NCAA that you don't know or do jack crap when it comes to regulating on college athletics and do not have the cajones to do anything about it.

It is all about money. The bell cow of the NCAA is the basketball tournament, but really make no money off of football and the bowl setup. That is why football has not wanted to go away from the bowl set up because of being in control of the money. I think in order for football to go in the direction they want to, they are trying to get certain things changed and this is a way to go about doing it. Is it the right way? I don't know, but it is a way to bring about change and I think that ultimately that is what all the money holders are after.

 

[rick4bama]

I'm watching the TCU vs Texas Tech game and during half time not one time was it talked about.

 

[bama alum]

I'm watching the TCU vs Texas Tech game and during half time not one time was it talked about.

I didn't get to catch PTI to see if Wilbon was going to rant about the evil Alabama empire again, but really, I think Bama fans are making more of this than most people are. I completely agree with the others here who think nothing will come of this. The whole thing reeks of sour grapes from Luther Davis because Fluker (and the others) wouldn't go with his agent. Furthermore, even if there is a smidge of truth to this, which is possible (anything is possible these days), as long as the coaching staff, et al knew absolutely nothing about it, then this is over. The nzaa can't make Fluker talk to them because he is a pro now.

I receive emails from an old Bama friend all the time (until this past year, I was on some kind of Bama message board with him for ten + years. He's rather knowledgeable and reliable.). He told me that Mark Emmert has said today that if the Bama compliance dept. did it's job, then nothing will come of this.

If this story had broken any other time, any other week, then I might give it a little more consideration.

 

[TerryP]

After the initial knee jerk reaction by fans........I think that ultimately all of the big time college media outlets (ESPN, CBS, Fox, SI, Yahoo sports) are on the side of the athlete being paid. I think all of this is a way for media to show the NCAA that you don't know or do jack crap when it comes to regulating on college athletics and do not have the cajones to do anything about it.

It is all about money. The bell cow of the NCAA is the basketball tournament, but really make no money off of football and the bowl setup. That is why football has not wanted to go away from the bowl set up because of being in control of the money. I think in order for football to go in the direction they want to, they are trying to get certain things changed and this is a way to go about doing it. Is it the right way? I don't know, but it is a way to bring about change and I think that ultimately that is what all the money holders are after.

I've watched the business side of sports for years following things like which schools lose money consistently, which are your programs on solid financial footing etc.

There's a lot more attention being paid to this side of collegiate sports as evidenced by the release of a number of books about the monies involved with NCAA—the most recent example probably being Kristi Dosh's book, Saturday Millionaires. That's coupled with these news reports/stories about the student-athletes and once again about the amount of money being made (or lost.)

Here's where I'm beginning to lean...

I think back about a decade or so and recall an earlier fight with academics and athletics where we had a lot of the academic types publishing scathing articles on the disparity between the two. You may recall the reporter questioning Jim Calhoun about the money he made and his response about how much money his program brought in the form of a return?

Now, today, we have situations where I've seen numerous editorials written and I've wondered "who are they writing for/to?" The audience or their peers? And the content of those pieces? You're right, it's against the might dollar of the NCAA and how it's being spent.

The more and more I watch this the more and more I'm becoming convinced this is yet another battle between academia and athletics. We've got editors driving subject oriented content "supposedly" about how the players are being treated. Yet, these reports being published aren't geared towards the average fan, they aren't including subjects like how these athletes are receiving educational benefits valued at as much as 125K per year, and fail to address important issues like how to get past Title IX.

These articles and reports all follow the same type of thesis statement and when I put them all together I see a big group of people in a circle jerk—eerily reminiscent of things seen in the academic side of collegiate life.

 

[Bamadrill]

The REC "Sleeper Cells" are everywhere.....most media outlets don't want to face the wrath. :bluebiggrin:

 

[Southern Bama]

ESPN really hasn't even spent much time on it.....they mention it then move on......kinda like the "ho hum" mentality. Herbie and Desmond Howard touched on it briefly but you could tell, they had zero interest in it.

 

[riz]

Nicely stated, TP.

 

[psychojoe]

Birmingham media were all alert for a while, ready to jump on it. B'ham News headlines were much scarier than the articles beneath. They have now gone back to talking about the weekend's games.