Commentary: Just Play Some Football

College football season is here, a time when most schools feel a strong sense of pride for their programs, players and coaches.

Unfortunately, college football has become the new breeding ground for NCAA violations. One by one, more schools are being investigated by the NCAA for breaking rules.

Michigan started their hearings, as the NCAA accused the school of practicing more than a team is allowed to practice. West Virginia was accused of having non-coaching staff assist with practices, analyze film, and attending meetings. North Carolina just hired a lawyer, as two of its players may have received gifts from agents. The NCAA was also looking into similar issues involving Florida and Alabama.

In early July, USC was forced to vacate a year of wins, lost scholarships and given a two year ban on playing in bowl games.

The sad thing is, this probably isn't the last of the violations by football programs.

If the coaches were doing their jobs, these violations shouldn't have occurred. No team should feel the need to practice more than the however-many-hours per week football programs are allowed to practice. Did that extra hour or so of workouts really help?

Losing isn't fun. Athletes and fans alike both know this. However, losses are forgotten. When a player on the Michigan team looks back at his season, he's not going to remember every detail of every loss. He might not even remember the specfifics of every win.

What he will see though, is a team that was shamed by the NCAA and people around the nation. A team that had to admit guilt and taint their program. For what? Michigan didn't do so great anyway.

As for those players who receive improper benefits from agents and whoever else, it's a sad situation when they can cost their entire team a season of wins, and affect future team members. A good part of USC's team wasn't even in college yet when Reggie Bush allegedly got money from his agent. But now, these college freshmen may have to pay for his mistakes. And unlike Reggie Bush, most of these guys won't play in the NFL and make millions upon millions of dollars.  College football is what they have looked forward to throughout high school. 

Most college football players only have those four or so years to play their sport to the best of their ability. Most will never see the professional sports world as an athlete. They want to look back on those four years, the ones that are supposed to be the best years of their lives, and know they played their hardest, and played fair.

This trend of violations in BCS schools is disturbing. Ideally, these programs wake up and realize that they are preventing their athletes from doing what they've wanted to do all along: just play some football.

Emily Nassi is the Managing Sports Editor at the Review.  Send questions, comments, and an NCAA handbook to enassi@udel.edu