THE QATSPY® Quapaw Aviation Tactical Sportswear Performance, Your Outfitter Company
By: Charles W. Boatright, President of THE Quapaw®
The New York Post article: Cavinder twins saga shows silliness of NCAA’s NIL rules
How much More can the NCAA become Irrelevant? NIL Happened Because the NCAA Didn’t Address the Issue that any other College Student Can Do. For decades, the NCAA never adequately addressed the issues with athletes being compensated.
Yesterday (Tuesday 28Mar2023), Paul Finebaum interviewed Mr. Gordan Whitener on his show about the state of college athletes. One of the issues that has caused the Wild, Wild West in College athletics is that the NCAA has ignored the issue of compensation of athletes. The NCAA for decades has buried their heads in the sand of time and didn’t lead by offering guidelines that could have averted what is now the Wild, Wild West in college sports.
One thing about sports, it reflects life in so many ways that sports are actually an extension of our lives. Here how- If you don’t take care of your business, then there will be someone or something that will take care of your business for you and it initially starts out as chaos. Thus what we have now in College Sports. We have rules in order and guidelines to make the field that everyone is playing one level. Right now there isn’t a standard in regard to Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). If the NCAA doesn’t provide guidelines and rules in a short period of time concerning NIL, they will be relegated to an organization in name only.
The Cavinder Twins’ Case
The NCAA has made themselves even more irrelevant, if that could be possible, with the Miami Women’s Basketball team in Miami with a booster trying to attract the Cavinder Twins (Haley and Hanna) from Fresno State to Miami. For decades, the NCAA never adequately addressed the issues with athletes being compensated for what has become Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) in some of the most petty cases of compensations of athletes.
You can become so stubborn that you become irrelevant and lose your ability to adjust and function by dying on the very hill you’re trying to defend. If the NCAA adequately addressed what any other college student can pursue, they would have gotten ahead of this and developed standards and governance for colleges. We could have avoided what has become the Wild, Wild, West that we have now in a sport that is a part of our lives. By the way, Wild, Wild West, was a great TV show from the 60’s to watch, especially for a kid 9 years old. The Wild, Wild West aired on Friday, up to 1969 when it ended. It is still in syndication on retro channels.
New York Post Article- If You Understand NCAA Violation, You are in an Exclusive Club, Especially in this NIL Environment
Like the New York Post article stated, If you understand what is and what is not an NCAA violation in the era of the Wild, Wild West, you’re in an exclusive club. The NCAA issued sanctions against THE ‘U’, or The University of Miami, for a booster having the Cavinder twins over to his house for a gourmet dinner. Shame on that booster for putting on such decadence with dinner for recruits. This is exactly what made the NCAA so irrelevant that it has become.
Like my law professor stated about regulations and the law- Regulations and the law need to fit the situation like a nice jacket fits to protect a person, but also to allow the person to have room to maneuver. The law can’t bind the person from their normal function in life and restrict them. Don’t mind that in light of this NCAA sanction of Miami, other players with other institutions are receiving NIL endorsements to attract them to certain schools from what are known as collectives, in some colleges.
The Cavinder Twins have my Respect & Admiration
Athletes, especially the Cavinder twins, that are listed as 5-ft 6-inch as Guards for University of Miami, were heavily recruited from Fresno State. Based on last night’s game, I can understand their impact on and off the court. That alone earned my entire respect and admiration. I should know, as I’m 5- ft 6-in and know the challenges that height has on the court and in other sports, except for weight lifting, competing against players that are 5- 11 and plus.
Last night (20Mar2023), the Miami Women’s Basketball team went up against a very good, top- seeded Indiana team on Indiana’s home court in the 2nd Round of the NCAA Tournament. Miami faced a packed house that heavily favored Indiana, understandably. Miami came away with a narrow win, a 70 to 68, win. I don’t want to single out the Cavinder Twins, but the entire Women’s Miami and Indiana Basketball teams played what I would call putting their Hearts, Minds, and Souls on the floor in this game.
I was riveted to the game the entire time, watching how the 5-ft- 6- inch Cavinder Twins handled the ball and shooting not just from outside the perimeter, but in the paint, and even under the basket to rebound. The Cavinder Twins learned to adjust by compensating for their height by developing speed to make up for what they didn’t have in height. We all have to make adjustments in life to overcome obstacles. But obstacles we face allow for success to be obtained.
Why Sports Should Remain Important to all Us
What the Cavinder Twins are able to do at an elite level, despite being 5-6, is another example why sports is so important in all our lives, not just as spectators, but more important, as participants. Like the Cavinder Twins, they compensated for the height with speed. Being able to adjust and compensate is an important skill to develop, especially as we age.
I have discovered that at age 65, I had to make adjustments to my exercising and training to retain an active lifestyle. Like switching from jogging to bicycling and switching to elastic resistance tubing from some free weights to supplement my strength training and for toning.
It isn’t so much that I focus on what I can’t do, as much as figuring alternative options to maintain my exercise routine for my health, fitness, and still avoid injuries and excessive wear and tear on my joints. As any athlete knowns, exercising and training are essential to staying in shape physically, and more importantly, mentally. Trust me, exercise and training are even more essential over the age of 50. You never want to stop exercising and training. You don’t want to not participate in the biggest game of your LIFE!
We’re the biggest benefactor and the biggest limitation in regard to our health and fitness, based our diet and exercise. Just because we are faced with physical limitations in life, we don’t ever want to settle for not having an active, healthy lifestyle as we age. Why work 30- odd years doing the things we have to do; to only retire and not be able to enjoy the things we want to do?
The Cavinder twins proved even at 5- 6 that your only limitation is your aspirations. At 5-6, they were able to run-and-gun with ladies that are 5-11 and plus. Indiana Ladies Hoosiers gave it all that they had that came down to just 2.4 seconds on the game clock to try to tie the game. It came down to who had the last possession in the ball game. The Miami and Indiana women’s basketball game was every bit the competition of the Men’s Miami versus Indiana game that was played the night before, on Sunday (19Mar2023).
I still do a lot of cooking and baking from the days that I used to work in my Grandfather’s Bakery, and one spice that we used for all our meats was Cavender’s. I would recommend anyone who enjoys cooking to get Cavender’s, produced from my hometown, Harrison Arkansas, I purchase this in a 5 Lb. bucket, great on salads, as well:
