South Carolina is a program that seems to be stuck in eternal mediocrity when it comes to football and men’s basketball.

The reason I point out these two sports specifically is because these are the two sports that bring in the most money for universities. When you look at the dynasties in each of these sports, they always win because they have the best recruits.

Like a lot of things, college athletics and recruiting is a business. When you look at men’s basketball, it’s clear that top programs like Kentucky, Duke or UNC are recruiting well because they are giving the most to recruits. The same goes for Alabama or Clemson in football.

Let’s look at some examples of cheating that have gone public.

UNC Athletic-Academic Scandal

Although this involves North Carolina’s football program, it’s still an example of how UNC used the failure of the NCAA to get away with cheating.

When the university investigated the 200 classes that were complete bullsh*t, they essentially received a slap on the wrist by the NCAA. The problem was the NCAA couldn’t prove that the classes were designed for the football players despite over a third of the students in those classes being football players.

This scandal also included some UNC men’s basketball players. The point is UNC cheated and got caught, but they essentially received no punishment.

Zion Williamson

Everyone knows how important of an athlete Zion Williamson is. He was easily the most electric basketball recruit in years.

The Spartanburg product was so big that he had Colonial Life Arena chanting his name when Williamson visited. He eventually chose Duke over other schools like Kansas, South Carolina and Clemson.

Last year, details emerged of allegations over Zion’s recruitment and commitment to Duke. This included a near million dollar house paid for by Duke and money received by Nike and Adidas. Kansas was also involved with the allegations.

However, the NCAA has yet to launch an investigation into any of these programs despite tons of evidence.

Clemson Football

This is one of the most overlooked and frustrating scandals, especially for South Carolina fans.

In 2019, Clemson’s assistant basketball coach Steve Smith essentially admitted to and undercover FBI agent that the football program was paying recruits. The most frustrating part was that NOTHING came out of this. He literally admitted the football program cheated their way to a national championship, and the NCAA did nothing.

Not to mention this gem from when Tee Higgins supposedly didn’t buy a McLaren.

Conclusion

So what do all these scandals and allegations have in common? Common sense.

If you think any of these schools didn’t cheat to win, you haven’t been paying attention. There is so much evidence of these schools cheating to win that it’s probably good that collegiate athletes will soon be paid.

South Carolina isn’t innocent of this either. The men’s basketball program is currently on probation for former assistant Lamont Evans accepting bribes and illegally recruiting. Even South Carolina’s historic Final Four run was shrouded in corruption. Sindarius Thornwell and P.J. Dozier were both recruited by Evans.

South Carolina has always been proud of taking the “moral high ground” by not cheating. The truth is, that collegiate athletics is a business, and success in major programs leads to upgrades for the university.

As much as it hurts to accept that, it’s unfortunately how the college athletics world is today.