What’s Wrong With Hiring Prostitutes For College Recruits?

By Professor Doom

Me, recently: “Excuse me, I’m a bit lost. Can you tell me where the library is?”

Student: “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…”

Me (realizing my foolishness): “Never mind that. Can you tell me where the stadium is?”

Student: “Sure, it’s that way.”

Me (now oriented): “Thanks.”

--I was lost on campus, and made a gaffe when asking for directions. I’m hard pressed to decide which is more depressing about higher education. Is it A) That every student knows where the stadium is, but not the library? Or B) That campuses are so overbuilt that you can’t even see a nearby stadium large enough to hold over a hundred thousand (I’m serious) people?

     It really is nuts, just nuts, how enthusiastic people are about college sportsball. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a few games on my TV, even attended one around 30 years ago…but I just don’t understand why all rules, all concepts of integrity, go out the window in the name of sportsball. The gentle reader really should understand that Penn State might be extreme in the  lengths it’ll go for sportsball, but it’s only a little extreme.

      A recent book reveals yet another sex scandal in sportsball:

The University of Louisville is facing allegations in an upcoming book that Andre McGee, a former member of the basketball staff, paid escorts to have sex with recruits and players on the roster

     Now, please understand, our sportsball candidates and players are already showered with inducements to come to campus…as long as they can play, they get whatever they want. Of course, if they’re injured to the point of not being able to play, they’re kicked off the team as well as thrown out of school (sportsball players rightfully complain about this treatment), but that’s for another day.

      I’ve written before of the wide open conspiracies on our campuses, and, like so many other unpleasant acts on campus, you can’t find out about today’s scandal from anyone on campus. Instead, it comes from someone outside the system:

“…the book is titled Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen and is written by "self-described madam" Katina Powell, who resides in Louisville, and Indianapolis-based journalist Dick Cady.”

     So, a journalist got a madam to “fess up” to who her clients were. Gosh I wish I could get a journalist to talk to me about some of the frauds I know about…admittedly, what I have to say isn’t as “sexy” as this.

      Now, granted, just because it’s in a book, or on the internet, or even (especially?) distributed by a mainstream news site, doesn’t mean it’s true, but it’s clear someone thinks the allegations might have some substance:

 Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney in Jefferson County, Kentucky, has started the process of issuing the subpoenas, citing a "source familiar with the proceedings."

      What really strikes me as so interesting about these scandals is how it takes years before it finally makes it to the news. Even though dozens, if not hundreds, of people knew about completely obvious whoremongering…it still takes years.

     Part of the reason is because is only a few people have integrity, especially in higher education…the lone whistleblower can’t get any back up, ever. The media is, as always, clueless about this:

How can it be going on for four years, that many people be involved and that many people see what's going on and Rick Pitino doesn't know anything about it? You have players that are very, very loyal to Pitino. And if they thought anything was wrong or anyone was going to get in trouble, I'm pretty sure they would have gone back to report to Pitino. When I would ask Andre, "Does Pitino know about this?" he would laugh and say, "Rick knows about everything."

      Rick Pitino is the sportsball coach for the school. He knows, of course he knows. As I’ve written before, wide open conspiracies are common on campus, so I’m not surprised many people would have to know what’s going on and yet nothing was done.

     The madam Powell, of course, explains that these assertions of ignorance are complete crap:

She also insists McGee told her Louisville head coach Rick Pitino was aware of the situation. While she never saw evidence that Pitino knew what was happening, she finds it hard to believe he wouldn't have, according to Barr and Goodman: "Four years, a boatload of recruits, a boatload of dancers, loud music, alcohol, security, cameras, basketball players who came in [to the dorm] at will ... " Powell said.

     Much like with other people that had to have known what was going on, I’m sure when it’s time for an interview, the witnesses will all be “no longer with the company” or “on sabbatical” or the like. Not like we haven’t seen that before.

     Again, it’s all just “allegations” at this point, but a number of players, former players of course and thus out of reach of the system, have come forward to say that, yeah, they went to parties with prostitutes provided, and they were even given money to procure the prostitutes.

In terms of finding out what is or isn't true, Pitino said, according to Hamilton, "I can't find anybody at all that knew anything about this."

--cover up.

McGee has resigned as an assistant at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, per Jeff Goodman of ESPN.
He was previously placed on administrative leave.

--retaliate. Get rid of everyone that knew about it, and gee whiz, you can’t find anyone that knows anything about it.

      All of this behavior is par for the course in higher education…cover up and retaliate; I’ve seen it, even been on the business end of it, enough times to know how it goes. 

     Still, I don’t really see the problem, at least when you put things in perspective.

     These athletes are provided all sorts of other perks—they get free tutoring, on a level no “normal” student could dream of (while UNC’s tutors were writing papers for the athletes, other places give “only slightly less aggressive” tutoring)…and this is fine. These athletes are upheld as godlike heroes, and the university does nothing to challenge that status…I can’t help but suspect many a student athlete has used his position to get sex with relative ease, so it’s not like the recruiters were offering all that much, really. Spending $10,000 on prostitutes (the kind of money we’re talking here) is chump change compared to the free tuition the student athlete gets…as long as he can play. Seriously, athletes get so many benefits (as long as they can play!) for their entertainment that I’m hard pressed to really care about the addition of prostitutes.

    We have huge, major crimes going on every day in higher education; not just “against the law” crimes, but serious issues of integrity that, even if the written law says nothing, still qualify as crimes against humanity. Compared to this I just don’t see hiring prostitutes to attract sportsball players as a big deal. Nevertheless, this is what higher education is fixated on, to the point that huge academic scandals merit absolutely nothing at all. Maybe I could hire some prostitutes to help me a write a book on much of the fraud of higher education today.

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