Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby: Cheating pays
By Mike Dyce
One of the biggest issues in college football is cheating, and by cheating we mean paying players to pick certain schools. It seems like every year players are embroiled in pay-for-play scandals, most notably of recent, Heisman Trophy winning Auburn quarterback Cam Newton or the Sports Illustrated report about Oklahoma State that has been disputed since. It has sparked a trend of examining student-athlete benefits and considering reforming the system.
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At Big 12 media days in Dallas, commissioner Bob Bowlsby said that cheating pays in college football right now. He even goes on to say that it is probably easy to do it and not get caught
“Cheating pays presently,” Bowlsby said, via the Dallas Morning News. “If you seek to conspire to certainly bend the rules, you can do it successfully and probably not get caught in most occasions.”
Bowlsby backtracked a bit to say that he doesn’t think it is rampant.
“I don’t think it’s rampant, I don’t think that at all. I think our coaches and programs are of high integrity, and I don’t have any concerns on a local basis. I don’t think it’s cut rate out there, but I think those that conspire to do things that are intended to get around the rules have less resistance to it now than they ‑‑ they’ve gotten very sophisticated. It’s easy to move money around.”
It brings up the old idiom, “If you aren’t cheating, you’re not trying!”