Michigan Football: Why the cheating won’t end and how it impacts UM

Michigan football may be on the cusp of joining the elite, but will it ever get there as long as the NCAA turns a blind eye to rampant cheating? Probably not.

A bag man isn’t some made-up figure that you tell your kids about in ghost stories. They’re real people that spend countless hours supporting their favorite college program by paying athletes – in more ways than one – for their services. This isn’t a new recruiting model. Winning is everything in college athletics. You don’t win; you don’t have a job next season.

You could always do it the right way. Hiring recruiters with an unwavering moral compass that, through film, chats, and meetings, woos young high school stars.

But what happens when the talented young man sitting across from the eager assistant coach, hoping to land his first star, has scholarship offers from programs that also offer hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash, cars, etc. The winner of the recruiting lottery is the highest bidder, and few are willing to shy away from the practice for fear of losing their exorbitant paycheck.

This used to occur in an unspoken, inconspicuous manner. A prospect would get a visit from a person not affiliated, officially, with the university offering large sums of money to go here or there. That is until the explosion of social media. Between Facebook, Twitter, and the evidence-riddled Instagram, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who’s on the take and who isn’t.

Families who once lived on one side of town somehow, magically, move into some massive mansion with brand spanking new cars and endless amounts of cash in their pockets.

It’s not always that simple, but then again, it’s not always that complicated, either. When Odell Beckham Jr. walked across the field and began handing out fresh 100 dollar bills to the student-athletes of LSU, immediately after they won the National Championship and while the cameras were still rolling, you realize that things are to the point where no one cares anymore. The rampant cheating is happening right in front of the faces of the leadership of the NCAA and no one is going to do anything about it.

Who is it really hurting, though?