Back to the sports....

Got this from ESPN.com today...thought I would post it here. My first thought was, "good, the NCAA got this one right for a change."

You see, I don't feel that there is anything wrong with college athletes appearing in a commercial in their town. Typically, the NCAA is so corupt that it thinks they can exploit these "amateur" athletes in their own promotional material, but the minute someone goes and attempts to use their likeness outside of the NCAA bubble it becomes a violation. It's crap. So I'm actually GLAD that nothing happened to these Notre Dame athletes.

However, my next thought was this. Of course they didn't bust Notre Dame. Or pretty boy Matt Leinart last year. But if this was Ted Ginn Jr. or Troy Smith from THE Ohio State University? Holy hell would the Buckeyes have the media and the NCAA come down on them. It'd be all over deadspin, that's for sure. I'm not even kidding here people. "Unintentional" and "inadvertant"? What a joke! As if college students don't have a clue that appearing in a promotionl spot is an endorsment! Right, they wanted you to do it because you're a good actor, not because you play football for Notre Dame.

Again, I'm glad nothing happened to this kids, but for the NCAA to believe that these players had no idea that what they were doing was an endorsement is either completely nieve or completely corupt.

Here is the article, from espn.go.com. It's part of the go network. go dot com.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The NCAA won't penalize Notre Dame football and basketball players who participated in promotional spots for a sports talk show on a local television station.

While the NCAA found that the athletes had made an improper "implied endorsement," there was no indication the violations were intentional, John Heisler, Notre Dame's senior associate athletic director, said Wednesday.

"As best as anyone can tell this was completely inadvertent all around," he said.

Notre Dame reviewed the actions of the athletes after questions were raised about the promotional spots last week. The school turned its findings over to the NCAA on Tuesday, Heisler said.

"There are no penalties involved and no eligibility implications as far as the three student-athletes are concerned," he said.

The second-ranked Fighting Irish open their season Sept. 2 against Georgia Tech.

Last year, USC quarterback Matt Leinart had his eligibility temporarily revoked after appearing in a promotional segment on ESPN. Leinart was reinstated without missing a game after Southern California petitioned the NCAA. The NCAA said Leinart's actions were "unintentional and inadvertent."