By Jamari Jordan

My heart aches when I see players that couldn’t achieve their dreams. My blood boils when I see athletes throw it all away because they couldn’t stop smoking weed, control their temper, or stay out of the night clubs.

I am amazed at the amount of arrests in college football. I attend the University of Georgia, and it feels like half of those arrests came from us. These are 17-21 year olds who make a series of mistakes that land them in trouble.

It’s not just in Athens, GA, but these are the facts of life in Baton Rouge, LA, Tuscaloosa, AL, Columbus, OH, and many other D1-schools. The biggest teams in the biggest conferences main concern aren’t inside the stadium but outside of it.

Coaches and athletic directors can’t wait for the regular season. If their players are on the field practicing, there’s no marquee arrest headline in tomorrow’s local newspaper.

In a story from NOLA.com in 2013, they lay out the record in the SEC, the arrest record in the three previous seasons.

In between is Florida (17), Georgia (15), Arkansas (12), Ole Miss (11), Auburn and Kentucky (nine each), Alabama (seven), LSU (six) and Mississippi State, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Tennessee (five each). 

In 2013, Butr.net gave its awards for its champions of the arrest field for the calendar year (Aug. 2012-Aug 2013).

ACC (12)| Big East/AAC (16)| B1G Ten (12)

Big 12 (28)| PAC 12 (21)| SEC (37)

I’m all for second chances, but there still has to be discipline. For example, if a player is kicked off of a SEC team, they should be kicked out of the conference. It’s unfair to be kicked off a Mississippi state team only to transfer to Florida.

I hate ranking recruits. It’s near impossible to compare and rank over 100,000 high school senior football and basketball players. Players are supposed to fit your system, not a make a new system.

Coaches recruit five star athletes just because of what they can do on their field, not their attitude, work ethic, or leadership capabilities. When you look at the numbers, most of the arrests are from five and four star recruits.

They walk onto campus as if they own it. It is almost like they expect us RAS (regular a** students) to thank them every day for choosing our university. What’s even worse, students on these D1 campuses massage their ego and gravel at their feet as if they are a deity. Below is a look at arrests in 2014 alone:

By no means am I calling every student-athlete this. In fact, the vast majority are the exact opposite. They are humble, gracious, and selfless. It’s a shame that a few rotten apples ruin the batch.

Looking through arrests, there are two common denominators in all these arrest are bad decision-making and controlled substances. These arrests are DUIs, DWIs, and possession. These athletes have been afforded an opportunity most can only dream of.

These athletes attend the flagship programs of college athletics. They are making 20-foot jumpshots in Cameron Indoor Stadium to defeat North Carolina. They are scoring 40-yard touchdowns in the Horseshoe to down rival Michigan.

NFL and NBA GM’s are drooling over them. Owners are ready to guarantee $20M+ in rookie contracts. Is it really too much to ask to put down the weed and Ciroc shots?