Kansas Basketball can’t fool me - Part 2
This is part 2 of an ongoing rant in which I complain about one of the most prominent and successful collegiate basketball programs in history. For part 1, click here.
The NCAA and KU have some beef. That beef and its intricacies are perhaps a little too complex and involve more legalese than I care to get into. In a nutshell, KU was one of several programs involved in an FBI probe regarding illegal compensation of players (among other things). The FBI didn’t punish Kansas, so now the NCAA has taken matters into their own hands and served KU with allegations of wrongdoing.
This isn’t really the time or the place to delve too deep into these issues, so I’ll let you do your own reading and come to your own conclusions on the matter.
I guess that I should say for transparency’s sake that I think all major collegiate athletic programs engage in some form of under-the-table compensation and that college athletes at such programs deserve some form of compensation. Whether that’s NIL privileges or something else, I don’t know, I just don’t like the idea that those athletes see $0.00 of what the colleges make.
Just my two cents.
As a KU fan, I’m in a constant fear as to what the NCAA will do. Other big-name programs like North Carolina have been involved in scandals before without major repercussions, which gives me a little bit of hope.
Does the NCAA really want to punish one of the most recognizable and bankable programs it has? A program that routinely appears in one of the most notable revenue generating athletic ventures in North American sports? Probably not, right?
There’s a part of me that worries just how pissed off the NCAA is about this. Kansas hasn’t exactly flown under the radar since these investigations began. Some of the stuff that’s gone on could be taken as a big hockin’ loogie to the face of the NCAA. Could they decide to make an example out of Kansas and let other colleges know that no one is immune to their regulations? If they did decide to do that, a slap on the wrist wouldn’t cut it. They’d have to bring the hammer down to effectively send a message.
That’s the thought that keeps me up at night. It’s the thought that has me clenching my teeth every time I think of next year and beyond.
What if this is KU’s last realistic shot at a title for the foreseeable future? What if, after this season, things in the KU athletic department get really hot and Bill Self decides that the time is right to pack a U-Haul full of his trophies, rings and awards and call it a career? What if something worse happens?
In all honesty, if I had a gun to my head, I’d bet that nothing serious will happen. I’d bet that with the new NIL rules coming into effect soon, the NCAA knows that it’s behind the ball on athlete compensation. Punishing a college basketball Blue Blood for that very reason would make for some juicy headlines and generate some horrific press (which, honestly, the NCAA should be pretty used to at this point). Kansas will probably be fine.
Probably.
That “probably” is one of two reasons why I have no choice but to buy into this Jayhawk squad (beside being a lifelong fan). There’s a chance - a chance - that the next few years in Lawrence will be rough sledding for basketball fans. So why not buy in to a bonafide #1 team with so much at stake?
The other reason is the fact that if I don’t buy in and Kansas does win the title, I will hate myself forever.
I’ve spent all this time complaining about not winning another title so that, if and when Kansas loses this year, I can be right. I can say “Look at me! I was right! I didn’t believe in this team and now they lost! You all held the faith and now that they lost, you’re all sad! We’ll not me, because I was right!”
And if Kansas wins, I can celebrate and enjoy it; but the champagne would taste like a lie. If I don’t believe they can win it all, what’s the point of being a fan?
What’s the point of following sports at all if you can’t believe, for a season or a night, that your team can go all the way? Yeah they’ll lose more often than they win, but that’s the way it goes for everybody.
There’s nothing better in sports than going to bed the night before a big game and thinking about all the people you’ll watch the game with. Or the beer in the fridge you’ve been saving for tipoff. Pleasantly fantasizing about whether you’d rather have a championship hat or a shirt. Should you buy the DVD? It’ll probably be on YouTube, right? There’s nothing quite like waking up on gameday and thinking about the fact that you could be going to bed that night with your team still standing.
So whatever, I don’t care about being right.
Kansas - you can’t fool me. I know what I’m signing up for. I know that the odds are against me and that there’s a more than likely chance that I’ll have to write something in the next few weeks talking about another heartbreaking loss.
But there’s a chance that I’ll get to write something about a Kansas team that cuts down the last net.
And as long as there’s a chance, I’ll keep the faith too.
Rock Chalk.