The SEC (Southeastern Conference) is a group of schools in the southeastern part of the nation that makes up an athletic conference similar in many ways to the Big Ten. For the past 10+ years, the SEC has been by far the most dominant team in college football. Winning 7 of the last 8 National Championships, and currently holding 5 out of the top 10 spots in the weekly AP poll of top teams. Very few people would argue about the strength of the SEC in recent memory, but where the controversy starts is in how they came to be so great at college football – and that’s where Machiavellianism comes in.
For a long time, fans outside of the SEC have been claiming that SEC schools cheat in the recruiting process, allowing them to land top recruits year after year. One case in particular that hits close to home involved top WR recruit Laquan Treadwell in 2012. At one point, Treadwell was thought to be a sure commit to Michigan. Shortly after he visited Ole Miss he posted an Instragam photo (as seen below) of several hundred dollar bills. The picture was deleted 5 minutes after being posted.
Eventually Treadwell did choose Ole Miss. While one Instagram photo doesn’t prove anything, it does make people wonder if Ole Miss did in fact cheat in recruiting him. The truth is, the SEC does consistently get more top recruits than other conferences, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily cheating. There have been a handful of allegations regarding illegal benefits being provided to players and recruits, and while the NCAA has given sanctions to several schools recently, most fans feel the sanctions given haven’t been even close to severe enough.
Let’s say, hypothetically, that schools in the SEC like Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, and other successful football teams have in fact been cheating in the recruiting process, allowing them to get the top players every year. Many college football fans, including myself, would call that unjust and wrong. If Machiavelli were alive today, however, I think he would have no problem with the methods of the SEC teams in their quest to be atop the college football world. Machiavelli believed that you have to do whats necessary to gain power, even if it isn’t always the morally correct thing by society’s standards. In his most famous work, The Prince, he argued, “Hence it is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity,” and while college football teams today aren’t exactly the same as a prince in the time of Machiavelli, the same logic can still be applied. Successful football teams mean more tickets sold, more jerseys bought, and more money for the universities. Machiavelli would take no issue with taking whatever means necessary to get an advantage of other teams around the country.
The issue of illegally paying high school recruits to get them to come to your school to play football brings up another interesting point – the growing professionalism and competitiveness of sports in today’s world. The fact that schools are potentially willing to cheat and pay kids loads of money to come to a certain college to play football says a lot about the importance of sports in todays world. This goes along with the argument Eric Dunning makes in The Dynamics of Modern Sport, in which he says sports are becoming much more serious. He says of sports, “it has become one of the central, if not the most central, sources of identification, meaning, and gratification,” and I think the whole issue of cheating in recruiting college athletes is a great of example of that point.
While Machiavelli may not take issue with the means potentially used by Ole Miss and other SEC schools to land top recruits, I, and most fans, would. Its frustrating as a fan knowing that there may be cheating going on that gives certain schools an unfair advantage. As I watched Treadwell make this amazing catch (one of several that game) to help Ole Miss take down #1 ranked Alabama two Saturdays ago, it made me cringe. I don’t like going there in hindsight, but could he have been playing in the Big House wearing maize and blue if Ole Miss hadn’t offered money or other benefits? Or perhaps he would be if we had offered him illegal benefits? Maybe Machiavellian ways are the key to success in today’s world of college football.
Touchdown Theory 
This is a good post because it’s interesting to see Machiavelli’s ideals put into practice in the real world. I think it’s easy to say that, yeah, the ends do justify the means and that’s just how the world works, but when you put that mindset into practice such as you have done here, it makes Machiavelli’s ideas seem a little more controversial and questionable. I agree with you that I think it would be unjust to offer players money or other illegal benefits in order to get them to come play football at a particular university because then it would be less about the actual football and more about who has the most resources to offer a player to come play. If that were the case, I think it would take a lot of the fun in college football because it would make it more about the money/perks and less about the actual game. With the SEC allegations, though, it makes me wonder if large institutions already play by Machiavelli’s idea of the ends justify the means. Though it seems unjust and morally wrong, the SEC like you’ve shown is the best conference in the NCAA, so clearly whatever they’re doing is working and paying off. Overall, it was a very thought-provoking post; good work!
LikeLike
It is interesting you bring that up because the case of Laquan Treadwell highlights how certain athletes like him don’t get investigated while for Heisman winners/candidates such as Jameis Winston and Todd Gurley, it seems like people are looking for any possible way that they could be breaking the rules. It is very Machiavellian to do the wrong thing in order to achieve good rewards but it is also very important to make the outside think you are moral and good. For Laquan Treadwell, people are not suspecting something is off-putting and Ole Miss is benefiting illegally, yet Georgia and Florida State now face serious questions for their on and off the field success due to Gurley and Winston’s actions respectively. Perhaps in the the college football world, only those who are not highly publicized can get away with being Machiavellian.
LikeLike
Interesting post here – as an avid follower of recruiting, I think it has been widely accepted that some shady stuff goes down in getting top high-school athletes to come to a school. I absolutely agree that this serves as a great example for Dunning’s argument. College sports, which are supposed to be the highest level of amateurism, has gradually shifted away towards professionalism. Some top recruits will without question choose the school that gives them the most benefits or gives them the best chance to make money in the professional ranks. Additionally, with it becoming more and more likely than college athletes will receive some sort of financial compensation, amateurism in college sports is dying. As far as Machiavelli is concerned – I agree with you partly. I think Machiavelli would agree that cheating in recruiting is acceptable; but only as long as you get away with it. I think of the example of USC, which was severely disciplined for athletic department misconduct. Their football team has suffered greatly because of it and has only recently begun to climb back towards regaining status as a top program. In that case – the ends certainly did not justify the means. As for Laquan Treadwell, nobody can truly know if he went to Ole Miss over Michigan because they gave him some cash or if he just genuinely loved the program when he visited. And, as long as no one ever knows, it will never really matter.
LikeLike