NCAA - No Christians Allowed Anymore

Alleyesonchrist ^ | 4/21/2010 | Charles C. Matthews

[alleyesonCHRIST]

NCAA - No Christians Allowed Anymore? As a huge sports fan I found it interesting over the weekend when I discovered that without so much as a whisper the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) sucker punched the First Amendment of the Constitution. Among the proposed rule changes rolled out by the NCAA for the upcoming year is a ban on messages that appear on eye-black. Eye-black is the gummy black tape like stuff that football players wear beneath their eyes to eliminate glare from light. It goes without saying that the most notorious player who adorned himself with eye-black was former all-world Florida Gator quarterback Tim Tebow who would always put a Bible scripture verse on his eye-black in hopes that he would - gasp - make a positive influence in someone's life. In fact in the 2009 National Title Game Tebow sported the infamous John 3:16 Bible Verse on his eye-black. The result, 90 million Google searches for the verse the next day. In fact, the University of Tennessee's starting quarterback this past year Jonathon Crompton was saved after getting interested in the Bible when he saw Tebow's eye-black. In a day and age when football players bellyache about having to be role models, Tim Tebow has embraced the roll. He used his eye-black as a way to promote a positive message. Congratulations to the NCAA for getting yet another rule change wrong and in the process of removing messages from eye-black, giving itself a black-eye.

[mrmeyer]

Do it anyway. Then file suit against the NCAA for violating the 1st Amendment.

[rstrahan]

Problem is what else might be posted on eyeblack. Yes, that stops another Tim Tebow from posting John 3:16 under his eyes. But it also stops “Allah Akbar”, “Praise Gaia” or other more inflamatory things as well.

The NCAA has opted for a blanket prohibition as opposed to trying to legislate what is acceptable or not. I can understand their position. Just sad that it has come to this is all.

[Loud Mime]

Believe me, some of the powers and writers are anti-Christian. How do you think this became an issue?

[Sans-Culotte]

Eye-black is not just used for Christian messages. Some players put their area codes on the eye black, which is gangsta for the neighborhood they control. I remember Reggie Bush had his L.A. area code on his when he played @ USC.

[Melas]

While I understand and sympathize with your concern, calling it a violation of the 1st Amendment is disingenuous. The 1st Amendment does not, nor was it ever intended to regulate the rules and regulations of private organizations.

[Melas]

Umm...because it’s not a violation of the 1st Amendment?

[agere_contra]

The NCAA is not a branch of Government (or does it receive federal funding?)

[PermaRag]

You are correct, and lots of gangbanger “playas” still do it. No doubt the NCAA would never have instituted this ban just for the bangers however, it took an eeeeevil Christian such as Tim Tebow to bring this important issue to a head. /sarc

[camerongood210]

The NCAA instituted some questionable rules recently (including this one). The two others were that if a player is deemed to have celebrated before crossing the goal line then the TD doesn’t count. The other is that special teams can’t wedge block any more. From what I understand this essentially means no more than 2 players can be something like 2 yards apart when running down the field for kick/punt returns. Somebody needs to stick it to the NCAA soon or else crap like this will keep going on.

[camerongood210]

The NCAA is not a branch of Government (or does it receive federal funding?)

Without doing the research (and that might be stupid), I would imagine they get both state and federal funds indirectly. If I remember correctly, schools must pay a fee in order to be a part of the NCAA. Many schools get funding from the state and the state gets some sort of funding from the federal government. I don't imagine this money is earmarked in Congress to go to the NCAA but nevertheless, they receive funding from the government (in one way or another).

[massgopguy]

Boston College’s colors are Maroon and Gold. The colors of the Society of Jesus. Got a problem NCAA?

[arrdon]

I’m going to tattoo ‘allah akbar’ on my pet pigs’ ass.

[arrdon]

I’m going to tattoo ‘allah akbar’ on my pet pigs’ ass.

[camerongood210]

I’m a Florida State fan (say what you will) and a few years ago they came after the school because the mascot (Seminoles) wasn’t PC. I guess they thought it was offensive to the Seminole tribe. Eventually key leaders from the tribe stood up for FSU saying they thought it was an honor to be the school’s mascot. FSU-1 NCAA-0

[Scrambler Bob]

Then you might have to tattoo “CENSORED” on top of that.

[AmishDude]

If this were the NFL, I would yawn about this, but it’s pretty demanding to apply to a non-scholarship player.

[thackney]

How did the NCAA violate the rule that Congress shall make no law...

[Slyfox]

When a college accepts the endorsement of, say Russell or Nike, that company supplying their equipment does not like the players to wear anything that is not in their line. And the players are penalized if they wear something not in the company line. I think the restriction to not wear any messages on the eye-black is more to keep the players from any kind of advertising that might endorse a rival brand.

Personally, I find the messaged eye-black to be disrupting, much like when you see a player wearing big, old diamond earrings that look like they borrowed them from their grandmother.

Actions off the field speak louder than anything written under somebody's eyes during the game.

[aft_lizard]

I am not sure there is a membership fee per se. I believe the NCAA’s sole income is almost exclusively shared through contract negotiations between the NCAA and member schools and media networks as well as branding rights on apparel(ie “Offical NCAA”).