The much anticipated HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel special on the business side of college sports is set to air this Wednesday at 10pm ET and you guessed it, it's not going to be pretty.
SPORTSbyBrooks recently posted excerpts of an advance copy of the show on his blog. In it Andrea Kremer interviews former Auburn defensive lineman Stanely McClover and he talks about the shady side of all-star camps and boosters.
Kremer voiceover: “McClover said it wasn’t until he attended an all-star camp at Louisiana State University that he realized how the game is played. A game of money and influence.”
McClover: “Somebody came to me, I don’t even know this person and he was like, ‘we would love for you to come to LSU and he gave me a handshake and it had five hundred dollars in there. … that’s called a money handshake … I grabbed it and I’m like, ‘wow,’ hell I thought ten dollars was a lot of money back then. Five hundred dollars for doing nothing but what I was blessed to do. I was happy.”
Kremer to McClover: “What did you say to the guy when he hands you five hundred dollars?”
McClover: “Thank you and I’m seriously thinking about coming to LSU."
Kremer voiceover: “But McClover says there were money handshakes from boosters at other football camps too. At Auburn for a couple hundred dollars and at Michigan State. All the schools denied any wrongdoing. And things really started heating up a few months later when he went to Ohio State for an official visit where schools get a chance for one weekend to host prospective athletes. McClover says there were money handshakes from alumni there too. About a thousand dollars. And something else to entice him.” (Read more at SPORTSbyBrooks)
This is why I've repeatedly laughed at the tattoo parlor "scandal" at Ohio State and coach Jim Tressel. Wrong, no question. But there are bigger fish to fry out their that Universities and the NCAA turn a blind eye to or sweep under the rug (see Cam Newton). It is not until an investigative reporter from ESPN, SL.com, HBO, etc does some real homework does the NCAA get involved. This is hardly proactive monitoring.
You can expect more of these stories to leak over the next year, big media is quick to latch onto pieces that sell.
I would love to hear your comments on this one.