The Most Important Part of SI's Oklahoma State Shamestravaganza

Beneath all of the handwringing and pearl clutching that is laced throughout Sports Illustrated's story on Oklahoma State's pay-for-play schemes is this, the final paragraph:

At Oklahoma State the bonus system, the booster and coach payouts, and the bogus jobs provided players with money that was seldom spent on extravagances. One or two standouts bought a new car or expensive jewelry, team members say, but the vast majority of the players used the extra cash to purchase everyday items — food, clothing, tickets to a movie. "There were some athletes who were almost starving," says Carter. "Wherever the money came from, they were like, Yeah, I'll take that."

After 3,000 words about wads of money being stuffed into envelopes and socks—after all that scandalous B-movie imagery—we are finally told the only thing that really matters about this story: All that money was going towards clothes and food for college kids who otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford either. Everything else is just useless muckraking on behalf of the exploiters at the NCAA.

[ SI]