The Patriot Post® · College Football's Best?

When a recent copy of Sports Illustrated magazine came in the mail, its cover told an abysmal story. It revealed that a six-month study, in collaboration with CBS News, found that 7 percent of the players on America’s Top 25 college football teams – more than 200 players – have been in trouble with the law.

Mark Emmert, now the president of the NCAA summed it up for all of us when he responded, “Seven percent, that’s way too high. I think two percent is too high. You certainly don’t want a large number of people with criminal backgrounds involved in activities that represent the NCAA.”

Before you scoff it away, consider the fact that about 6.6 of the United States population will actually serve prison time at some point in their lifetime. That same data, based on figures from the 2000 census, reveals that 1-in-9 black males between ages 20 and 34 were actually incarcerated in 2008.

The Sports Illustrated report, which included Florida, Alabama, LSU and Georgia Tech among the 25 teams where background checks were done on a total of 2,387 scholarship student-athletes, identified 204 players with legal issues, which is 1-in-14.

Believe it or not, only two teams – Oklahoma and Texas Christian – are the only schools where background checks are done on incoming recruits but the study will doubtlessly trigger more universities to avoid allowing win-hungry coaches to bring thugs onto college campuses.

Among the high points the study revealed:

– Of the 277 incidents uncovered (some had multiple offenses), nearly 40 percent involved serious offenses, including 56 violent crimes such as assault and battery (25 cases), domestic violence (6), aggravated assault (4), robbery (4), and sex offenses (3). In addition there were 41 charges for property crimes, including burglary and theft and larceny.

– There were more than 105 drug and alcohol offenses, including DUI, drug possession and intent to distribute cocaine.

– In cases where an outcome was known, athletes were guilty or paid some penalty in nearly 60 percent of the 277 total incidents.

– Race was not a major factor. In the overall analysis, 48 percent of the players were black and 44.5 percent were white. Sixty percent of the players with a criminal history were black and 38 percent were white.

Want to know the scorecard leaders? Pittsburgh has 22 players who popped up on the background checks, followed by Iowa (18), Arkansas (18), Boise State (16), Penn State (16) and Virginia Tech (13).

Alabama, likely to be ranked first in the preseason polls when the 2011 season begins this fall, had 5, as did North Carolina, and, among other notables, Florida had 7, Georgia Tech had 4, Florida State had 9, and Southern Cal had 5.

Of the Top 25 teams, only Texas Christian had none. “We try to recruit a high-character kid who doesn’t want to do anything to embarrass the school,” said football coach Gary Patterson. “I always say that I only have to find 20 to 25 (players) each year who want to do it the right way.

"Sure, there have been times I’ve bypassed a very talented player because we learned about something he did,” said Patterson, “but there are always others kids out there. They may need more time to develop, but we know they’ll buy into what we are doing.”

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In a related note, Auburn running back Eric Smith, who was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence Feb. 22, was dismissed from the team the following weekend. Smith had a previous arrest on third-degree assault in 2009 after he reportedly slugged another student.

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And what about out at Brigham Young, where one of the team’s best basketball players was just suspended for violating the school’s honor code by having premarital sex? Legendary football coach LaVell Edwards, easily one of the classiest people I ever met when I was writing sports back in the day, summed it best when he said, “I don’t know that those not inclined to understand, will ever understand.”

So let me close with the obvious question: How many student-athletes on America’s top 25 college football teams do you figure have done that?

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