Many people ask if college sports are fixed as well. If you can gamble on it, you better believe it. There have been multiple point shaving scandals over the years in NCAA sports especially in basketball and football. With the amount of money college programs bring in these days and the corresponding television contracts these schools sign they have every incentive to win, create story lines and bring in high ratings. This is often done through point shaving, ridiculous officiating and more. On the other side of the ball, the athletes themselves are often tempted by bookies and others to point shave to earn a little money on the side or pay off debts since they do not get paid to play. A book called
Cheating the Spread: Gamblers, Point Shavers, and Game Fixers in College Football and Basketball by Albert Figone touches on the shady side of college sports and the infamous fix. Pick up a copy and let us know what you think the next time you see a star college player mysteriously start missing easy shots or field goals.
You're absolutely right, corruption is widespread in college and professional sports. I started my own blog this year to expose it over at http://sportsfraud.blogspot.com/ Here's an excerpt:
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I want to make it clear that in most cases, I don't believe players are throwing games for personal gain. They're doing it because they have no choice if they want to continue playing. It's required by the system, and they don't get anything out of it other than being allowed to stay on the team.
Not only do you have to be a good athlete to play major college sports, you also need to have some acting ability.
In football, quarterbacks throw interceptions and get sacked on purpose, and they fumble the snap or fumble when they get hit. Running backs and receivers fumble the ball away intentionally and drop easy passes, and linemen intentionally blow their blocking assignments. Then they usually put on a public display of phony emotion, designed to show how embarrassed and disappointed they are. That's to cover up the fact that they did it on purpose.
On defense, cornerbacks deliberately give receivers a nice cushion and let them catch the ball, then let them slip away from their tackles on purpose. And defenders repeatedly miss easy tackles. Manti T'eo missed a ton of tackles when Notre Dame Threw One for the Gipper against Alabama in last season's national championship game.
Great to hear from you and thanks for sharing. Glad to have more people who will open their eyes to reality that sports are in fact fixed more often than they think.
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