Is it time for the NCAA to start rewarding college athletes for their contribution to collegiate sports?
The Fab Five documentary chronicling the journey of the University of Michigan's famed freshman class will air on ESPN in the United States on Sunday night. Canadians will have to keep their eyes open for its airing north of the border, but regardless it will provide a window into a very polarizing team.
There was rarely a gray area with Michigan's group of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson. You either cheered for them or wanted to see them beaten down.
While some fans were not impressed with the perceived show boating attitude of the group, there is no denying that in the grand scope of college basketball, they were successful in reaching two Final Fours when the group was intact, not to mention the social impact they had as well.
You can hear what former Raptor and member of the Fab Five, Jimmy King, had to say about the group as he spoke with my broadcast partner Eric Smith and me on Thursday night.
And while many will point to other issues that occurred at Michigan and records being expunged from the books because of NCAA violations, nobody seems to highlight the philanthropic endeavours that these players have undertaken.
How many people know that after entering the NBA following his junior season, Juwan Howard completed his course work while going through the NBA rigours as a rookie and graduated on time with his class the following season. Nah, that's positive so nobody wants to talk about that, let's just hammer the negative.
True there is a negative side where wrong doing has occurred but only Webber, who declined to be part of the documentary, has been centred out for punishment.
Howard's foundation has helped underprivileged youth in Washington DC and Chicago areas by becoming partners with major corporations and Rose has built reading centres and continues to support inner city youth in a positive manner.
But it's only happened at Michigan right?
Please don't start me on the NCAA, where they make huge dollars thanks to these kids. Where they are ostensibly amateurs, the truth is they are akin to a semi-pro farm system for the NBA and NFL and to a lesser extent the NHL and MLB.
If a coach comes in and doesn't like a player or his game, he's traded or I mean encouraged to transfer to another institution. Yes, coaches make six figure salaries and hop from job to job, but if you buy a kid a t-shirt or a piece of pizza, it's a rules violation.
Selection Sunday is squarely in the cross hairs but I'm waiting for the day that the kids have enough nerve to say on Final Four Saturday, the best day in sports, if we don't get a cut of the gate, we're not going out in front of that dome full of people and putting on a show.
It is money making because once the NCAA realized how big the Final Four had become, they couldn't find arenas that could hold it, with the last being in 1996 at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey.
