USC's Mayo might have broken NCAA rule

USC's Mayo might have broken NCAA rule by accepting Lakers tickets

In most cases I believe that rules are an important foundation of sports that ensure fairness. Other times, rules can come off as nitpicky and can unnecessarily punish the players. On this occasion mentioned in the article, I think the rule may need to be reconsidered. Rules like this unfairly pry into the lives of college students rather than assure the fairness of the sports they play. Its one thing if a college athlete were to accept something like a car as a gift, but it’s a fairly different situation when they are invited to watch a basketball game by a friend. College athletes already make someone else money while collecting none of it for themselves, so to even consider basketball tickets as a violation of the rule seems ridiculous to me. Of course, players like this will eventually make plenty of their own money when they reach the professional leagues, but they shouldn’t be punished for receiving a harmless gift until that time comes. Hopefully, the NCAA will consider the tickets as a gift from a friend and not a representative of a sports franchise, and situations from college players’ private lives won’t be considered news in the future.

I agree with this post. I think it would be dumb to punish the player for going to a basketball game when the tickets were from a friend. Basketball players stick together and help each other out. All he did was go to a basketball game and watched the teams play. The tickets were only good for one game so its not like the tickets have any value after the game where a car or truck would last a lo longer then one little basketball game. The NCAA hasn't stepped in yet and i dont think they will but the school was going to make Mayo pay for the tickets values at 420 dollars a piece.

Man USC keeps popping up all the time with rules violations. First Bush now this? I do agree this is kind of a dumb thing to get hyped about. Tickets are no biggie. Its not like those guys from OU that were getting paid by a car dealership and they wernt even working. I think its pretty easy to tell if kids are getting paid to play. Him being friends with Anthony should prove that he wasnt getting them just cause he's good. At least he didnt miss any game time over this.