The following column was written by senior writer Jason Grodsky.

Usually this end of the year column is reserved for graduating seniors to say there farewell and thank yous, but the senior class here in the sports department at the Daily Illini is a little thin and as the longest employed person in sports and someone who is moving on I’m going to do the honors.

I feel very grateful to have worked at the DI for the three years I’ve been here and to have had the opportunity to a side of Illinois athletics that few get to see. But it’s my time to step down and move on to bigger and better things and let some of the up-and-coming writers take the reigns and lead the way.

I’ve bled Orange and Blue since the day I was born and grew up watching Illini sports and sitting in the crowds at Memorial Stadium and the Assembly Hall. When I first started working at the paper as a freshman who came a whole two miles away from his house to go to college, I never thought it would take me to the places I’ve been and allow to meet some of the most interesting characters this campus has to offer.

This year alone I’ve gotten to travel to Maui and sit five feet away from the greatest basketball player of all time. The football team’s magical run took me to Pasadena to chat it up with some of the best sports journalists in the world today (even if getting there took a 54-hour Greyhound bus trip from hell). And the best part of all of those trips and the countless others I’ve taken to cover games: I was getting paid to do it. Well, if you call what gets deposited into my bank account every two weeks getting paid.

Getting to where I am couldn’t have been possible without the help from certain people along the way, so I’d like to take the chance to thank them.

First off I’d like to thank former sports editors Erin Foley, Mike Rodriguez, Dave Just and Steve Contorno, all of whom have helped me refine my writing. Erin you taught me the ins and outs and took a chance on a kid who loved sports and gave me my big break. Mike and Dave, you two were probably the most entertaining guys to work under, and Steve, we may not have seen eye-to-eye on everything but I know you’ll make a great Editor-In-Chief.

To my partners in crime: Dan Johnson, Mike Theodore, Alex Symonds, Adam Harris and Jermey Werner. Thanks for making this past year one all never forget. From football practices, to the list of questions we came up with at the Western Illinois game, to the trip on Route 666, to the “bucket o’ beers” in Indianapolis, to not remembering the DI Sports Desk bar crawls, it’s been a great ride and I know you’ll keep up the quality of the sports section and surpass what I’ve done.

A special thank you the Illinois Division I Hockey team and head coach Chad Cassel. Covering you guys was probably the best time I had covering a team. Congratulations on a well deserved ACHA National Championship this year. Figures, I come in after you guys win a national title the year before and then the year I stop covering you guys you win another one. Guess I was the bad luck charm.

A big shout out to all the guys on the Illinois Division II Hockey team (yes, there are two teams). Playing with you guys the last two years has been indescribable and I’m looking forward to another year of late night practices and bus trips next year. I told all of you guys I would eventually get you into the paper.

To men of Alpha Sigma Phi, you’ve made the studying part of college bearable. You truly are gentlemen and scholars, with hearts beneath your vests. My times at the Ole Gal will never be forgotten.

A lot of credit has to be given to a group of guys that I’ve spent a very large portion of the last five-plus years with talking sports and getting into all sorts of shenanigans with. You know who you are and there are too many memories and moments to even start mentioning. I know we have another summer to remember ahead of us, even if Fat City is gone. Lets just all try to stay out of the hospital this year when August rolls around.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank my family. You all have supported me over the years and helped me reach my goals. I’m still convinced that you guys are the only people who even read my articles. A special thanks to my mom who has pulled my all my clips of the things I’ve written to make me an organized portfolio.

The biggest thank you is reserved for my grandpa, John Maurer. You’ve been my inspiration. Without you I wouldn’t be where I am today and I would be clueless in the world of sports, you’ve taught me pretty much all I know and I love you for that.

Finally, thank you to anyone who read any of the things I’ve written. It’s been a pleasure and trust me, I leave you in good hands.

When I went to ESPN.com this morning, it was somewhat vindicating to see some support for what I wrote about last week. NCAA lists five major violations against Sampson, Indiana Staff The NCAA alleges Sampson broke five more recruiting rules. This includes breaking rules during which he was already under sanction.

As I wrote last week, I do not think that Kelvin Sampson should be allowed to coach in the NCAA at least for a given period of time. There needs to be stricter penalties for those who cheat so that they don’t think its ok to do so.

When I went on to espn.com this morning the two big stories were about steroids in baseball and this. What happened to going on to ESPN.com to see highlights from a baseball game, or a preview of a good basketball matchup.

Some may counter that ESPN is sensationalizing this news. I on the other hand think that its cheating that has gotten out of hand and that leagues and organizations should clear house of anyone who knowingly cheats the rules.

The Poinsettia Bowl.

It all starts with the Poinsettia Bowl.  A clash between the Utah Utes and the Navy Midshipmen.  Tonight’s clash starts the best time of the year, sans March Madness, in sports–the college football season.  I will get to see two or more good college football teams clash at a neutral site for all but three days from now until January 7 of the New Year.  Obviously, the highlight for all of those in the great state of Illinois will be the New Year’s Day matchup between the beloved Orange and Blue and the number six USC Trojans at the Rose Bowl.  And regardless of the outcome, the pageantry and atmosphere in Pasadena should be enough to sustain the recently win-starved and now nourished Illini fans.

But my favorite part is not only getting to season my favorite team since birth in a BCS bowl, but getting to watch good college football for almost every day for almost three straight weeks.  This is where the proponents of a playoff in major college football miss out.  Granted, the bowl system is all about money and a playoff is not a likely scenario no matter how many dual titles are handed out by the pollsters, but the magic of the bowl system, is all about the experience, not so much the destination.  And I know that the BCS may have its flaws, but you can’t replace the unforgettable postseason encounter.

The experience a college football player gets from a bowl game, win or lose, is something they take with them forever.  It helps the players get real-time experience, helps for recruiting, it helps the fanbases and as seen in the C/U area already, helps stimulate the campustown economy.  The bowl season also rescues sports fans from the huge empty crater that is college sports on television during finals week, not to mention the meaningless NFL games that can force even the biggest die-hard to start sawing logs on the couch.  Gimme any of this season’s bowl games over Z-fests like this weekend’s Kansas City at Detroit or the Falcons visiting Arizona in Glendale.

But for all of you proponents of a playoff in college footall, I want you to watch some of the constant football action over the next couple of weeks and look at the tradition, along with the passion and wide eyes of the players and coaches involved, and think for a second if a playoff could make up for all of the pageantry and excitement brought on from the (second) best time of year.

Vince Young celebrating after perhaps the greatest bowl game of all time. Courtesy of www.austinist.com

The magical season for the Fighting Illini football team just keeps on rolling, and the awards have also started coming in. The Big Ten announced their slate of awards this evening and the results bode well for the Orange and Blue. Coach Ron Zook won the conference’s Coach of the year award (no surprise). Rashard Mendenhall won the offensive player of the year award, the first for a football player in Illini history. And one of the Dunbar sensations, Arrelious Benn, raked in the school’s first Freshman of the Year Award since Simeon Rice in 1992.

Big Ten coaches tabbed eleven Illini to All-Big Ten squads, with Mendenhall, J Leman, Martin O’Donnell and Vontae Davis all getting first-team honors. Offensive linemen Xavier Fulton and Ryan McDonald were named to the second team, and quarterback Juice Williams, safety Kevin Mitchell(the “other Juice”), kicker Jason Reda and defensive linemen Will Davis and Chris Norwell all received honorable mention.

In the media’s edition of the all-conference team’s, the only changes were Vontae Davis being apart of the second team, Xavier Fulton getting honorable mention and Will Davis getting second team honors. So the magical ride continues, and one can only wonder if these accolades are just the beginning for some of the Illini in this special season.

Also, the Illini gridders are getting national recognition and one SI writer is projecting them in the BCS

For those of you who read my column today and wanted to see exactly what play in the Louisville UConn game I was talking about you can watch it here

At the end of the video clip the announcers talk about playing through the whistle, as in Louisville should have kept playing until they actually heard a whistle. It is a split second decision to either hit the guy or not hit him. 99 times out of 100 you hit him and that’s a 15 yard penalty. On a fair catch especially, I don’t think that you can really play through a whistle, you need to assume that if he catches the ball he is down.

What the officials did was terrible and the fact that the play was not reviewable just proves to me that there are still issues in the instant replay system.

Around campus I have gotten some responses today about my column.

The most recurring comments have been:

1) But they’re amateur athletes

2) How are we supposed to pay them? Where is this money coming from

And it really makes me angry to hear this.

First off, the only reason they are amateur athletes is because the NCAA bestows them with the title amateur athlete. They put in all the work of a professional, but they receive little to no benefits.

But what about the free education they’re getting?

Well yes, some of them take advantage of that, and that’s great. I support student athletes. But official stats released from the NCAA say that 40% of the nation’s Division I football teams are graduating less than 60% of their players. To me that sounds like a decent percentage are being paid in an education that they don’t even want.

Now who pays whom? Well first off I think it all starts off with royalties. Currently college athletes are not allowed to make money off of their own talent and likeness. The NCAA doesn’t let them do it.

Take this scenario for instance. If you are to go out and buy a #42 Illini basketball jersey right now, are you buying just any Illini basketball jersey? No! You’re buying specifically a Brian Randle jersey, but Brian Randle is not allowed to make a cent off of his own jersey. Why is that fair?

The NCAA and its institutions are able to exploit an athlete’s likeness and give him absolutely nothing in return for his jersey sales under the guise that he’s an amateur athlete and are thus not allowed to get paid. But once again, they don’t have to be amateur athletes; the NCAA just says they are.

Now as far as actual programs paying their players I think the best way to do it is have a scale set up for all of Division I saying that a starter who has played or started for a certain amount of years is entitled to making a certain amount of money. In addition, if a player wins a special award he should get a bonus.

So, for instance, let’s say that Rashard Mendenhall wins the Heisman trophy this year; the NCAA pays him a bonus for winning that award.

The last argument I get that really gets me angry is that they are already earning stipends and getting free stuff thrown at them from boosters. These arguments come from the same people that are calling them amateur athletes! I’m sorry, I can’t accept the fact that because athletes are getting paid illegally by boosters that’s the reason that the NCAA shouldn’t pay them. I hope that under my plan by signing contracts and earning money these under the table deals involving boosters could be stopped once and for all. I think they’re despicable.

Last, I want to apologize to the women’s soccer team. Regardless of the fact that you really don’t earn a lot of money for the school, you are still a great group of people and wish you all the best of luck.

Cheers and go Illini!

Kevin Spitz