College Sports (Basketball)

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#1      

Dan

Dan
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Dan
Welcome to the college sports news thread.
 
#12      
the juiceman cometh
ChiTown said:
Interesting letter written by the B1G.
https://twitter.com/x/status/2031877802664869903
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On the one hand, I get it. Everything has changed and tampering is endemic, and how can you even enforce it.

On the other hand, professional sports also have tampering rules for good reasons and tampering is actively bad for the integrity of the game.

Let's say Dusty May, a coach I picked completely at random for this hypothetical, decides he wants a player from Purdue to transfer to his team next year. He contacts this player after the regular season and tells him if he'll transfer he can secure him this huge NIL package. The guy agrees. Next thing you know Michigan and Purdue play in the BTT and this player has the worst game of his career, Purdue goes down. Player goes ahead and transfers to Michigan a month later. Probably the guy just had a bad game, these things happen. But man, a lot of people are going to be skeptical and who can blame them?

The worst thing that can happen to a sport is that people stop trusting the results. This is also why I think the proliferation of sports gambling is increasingly problematic. Allowing tampering sets you up for a whole host of potential conflictsof interest.

I think maybe the better thing would be to allow contact to occur at a defined date range during the offseason, for all players, regardless of whether they are in the portal. Absolutely no contact during the season though, not even with agents.
 
#15      
Goillinikobd
the juiceman cometh said:
On the one hand, I get it. Everything has changed and tampering is endemic, and how can you even enforce it.

On the other hand, professional sports also have tampering rules for good reasons and tampering is actively bad for the integrity of the game.

Let's say Dusty May, a coach I picked completely at random for this hypothetical, decides he wants a player from Purdue to transfer to his team next year. He contacts this player after the regular season and tells him if he'll transfer he can secure him this huge NIL package. The guy agrees. Next thing you know Michigan and Purdue play in the BTT and this player has the worst game of his career, Purdue goes down. Player goes ahead and transfers to Michigan a month later. Probably the guy just had a bad game, these things happen. But man, a lot of people are going to be skeptical and who can blame them?

The worst thing that can happen to a sport is that people stop trusting the results. This is also why I think the proliferation of sports gambling is increasingly problematic. Allowing tampering sets you up for a whole host of potential conflictsof interest.

I think maybe the better thing would be to allow contact to occur at a defined date range during the offseason, for all players, regardless of whether they are in the portal. Absolutely no contact during the season though, not even with agents.
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But you can’t stop players from talking to players, friends of players, talking to friends of players, parents, talking to parents, neighbors talking to neighbors talking to players ad infinitum
 
#16      
the juiceman cometh
Goillinikobd said:
But you can’t stop players from talking to players, friends of players, talking to friends of players, parents, talking to parents, neighbors talking to neighbors talking to players ad infinitum
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Here's a secret: laws, rules, prohibitions - they never stop anything 100%. Murder is illegal and has been for centuries. Millenia even. And yet a human society has never existed where people don't murder other people. Doesn't mean we should legalize murder.

Having common sense tampering rules that actually get enforced won't stop tampering. But it'll make it riskier, which means fewer people will do it, and when they do tamper, they'll take fewer risks (so for example you might not try to pry Braden Smith away from Purdue because the chances that gets back to Matt Painter are pretty high).
 
#18      
wc_illini
the juiceman cometh said:
Here's a secret: laws, rules, prohibitions - they never stop anything 100%. Murder is illegal and has been for centuries. Millenia even. And yet a human society has never existed where people don't murder other people. Doesn't mean we should legalize murder.

Having common sense tampering rules that actually get enforced won't stop tampering. But it'll make it riskier, which means fewer people will do it, and when they do tamper, they'll take fewer risks (so for example you might not try to pry Braden Smith away from Purdue because the chances that gets back to Matt Painter are pretty high).
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I'm not sure what I think yet, but to play devil's advocate to help me think this through...

Murder is obviously wrong regardless of rules, so we might as well have the rules so we can deter and punish murderers. It isn't like rule followers are really wishing they could commit murder too if only there wasn't a rule against it, while the rule breakers (who get away with it) get an unfair advantage.

Is talking to a player who hasn't entered the portal an inherently bad thing? So bad that it's worth creating an opportunity for rule breakers (who get away with it) to get an advantage over rule followers? If it weren't a rule, would "rule followers" think it should be an unwritten rule and still be at a disadvantage by not talking to such players?

I see the problem with talking to a player before the season is over (though I guess professional sports allow trading or releasing/signing players during the season, and players sometimes sit while that's being sorted out), and that's probably hard enough to police, but after the season's over, what's the big deal if a player is in the portal or not?
 
#19      
the juiceman cometh
wc_illini said:
Is talking to a player who hasn't entered the portal an inherently bad thing? So bad that it's worth creating an opportunity for rule breakers (who get away with it) to get an advantage over rule followers? If it weren't a rule, would "rule followers" think it should be an unwritten rule and still be at a disadvantage by not talking to such players?
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No, which is why my suggestion was to get rid of that particular prohibition and make the tampering rules tailored better to the activity we don't want. The activity that I don't think any right-minded basketball fan wants is for a team, or its intermediaries, to be in the ear of a player on another team during the basketball season (and I define this as also including the time before the season when the roster is set and preparations are under way).

wc_illini said:
I see the problem with talking to a player before the season is over (though I guess professional sports allow trading or releasing/signing players during the season, and players sometimes sit while that's being sorted out), and that's probably hard enough to police, but after the season's over, what's the big deal if a player is in the portal or not?
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I agree, which is why I think there needs to be a defined "safe period." When is the NCAA tournament final? The very next day, anyone can talk to anyone. Then figure out when it makes sense for that contact to stop. And there you go, you have the period of time for which there is no such thing as tampering. For all other periods (the periods in which a player is actively part of a basketball team) tampering is very much a thing that can and should be punished.
 
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