No Loss for Words

So I’m watching my friends on FOX News this afternoon and they were talking about an Auburn University basketball player suspected of point shaving.  One of the panelists asked about why it was such a big deal and Sheppard Smith made it sound as though something important was on the line when what is really on the line is the integrity of sports betting.

For many years the government prohibited sports betting on college sports but relaxed the regulation because of pressure from some high level interest group; I would imagine.

I would imagine it was the sports gambling industry.

So except for the gambling aspect, what is the big deal?  If a player by intention doesn’t play as hard as he normally does and his team suffers, the coach sits him on the bench or releases him from the team.  A coach’s job might be on the line for losing but federal authorities should never be involved.

We have a possible FBI investigation for a college basketball player supposedly failing to score up to his average when in neither of the games cited was the Auburn team favored to win so shaving wouldn’t be an issue unless the underdog was supposed to cover the spread and the shave was to prevent it.

If there is this kind of attention paid to college sports because of gambling, take the incentive off the table by reinstituting the ban on betting!  The government shouldn’t have a reason to investigate college athletics, there are too many other places where they should be focusing their investigations.  Lets’ get them working on the important stuff.