O.J. Mayo is the latest example of everything that is wrong with increasingly narrow gap between the collegiate and professional sports world. Saying the NCAA has "new information," president Myles Brand promised to investigate the former USC basketball star, who allegedly received thousands of dollars in gifts from money given to an event promoter by a sports agency.
"I will not allow these allegations to become a distraction to me and my family," Mayo said in a statement to ESPN. "I have not engaged in any wrongdoing."
The agents usually get the fingers pointed at them, but there is no dout that the NCAA needs to share the blame.
Rivals.com's Dan Wetzel wrote it best in his column on Tuesday, "The NCAA went right along. It might always like to blame all its problems on the underworld of basketball but when the chance came to get a quick talent influx they invited it right back into the house.
Agents control the recruiting process for top players these days. They get them young and then divvy them off to schools to rent for a year and then get them back for the draft. It's the case for virtually all the major players at all the major schools."