TBF I don't think the car was GIVEN to MC, but rather he was allowed the use of it, which I think would skirt the rules.
That's kinda why i put if someone just kinda left you the keys too it no one's really gonna do anything.
You just can't have it be a gift under NCAA regulations. Even petty gifts like Candy are technically against the regulations for a D1 and D2 athlete.
I mean...I could always not, but surprising the least reality breaking thing in the game is the setting. It's just harder for people to believe who haven't seen how absolutely crazy US college sports are.
I appreciate that people are now having a discussion/debate about something like this, which is actually interesting, as opposed to to the same nonsense about incest and/or the update schedule.
That said, there are a lot of really bad takes here regarding the realism of MC's situation as a star athlete. I was a college athlete (baseball) at a mid-sized university, and later worked for a short time in a major D1 athletic department, so I have a decent amount of experience in this area. There is no way in hell that an athlete could get the sort of benefits that MC receives in the game without the NCAA coming down on the university with a vengeance. Yes, college athletes can be provided housing, but it is basically dorm housing. The athlete dorms are often slightly nicer than other dorms, but they are still dorms. They sure as hell aren't mansions with a dozen bedrooms and a pool. Similarly, college athletes absolutely cannot be provided with a car, even if it is a loan, as several people have suggested.
Here are a couple examples of things for which college basketball players have received lengthy suspensions from the NCAA:
1) A player was suspended six games because his mother, without the player's knowledge, took a loan from the player's former AAU coach (who had no affiliation with the university) totaling $4,500. The mom had severe health issues requiring extensive hospital bills, and the bank had foreclosed on the family's home. The mom had taken the loans, which she had paid back within weeks, to be able to keep her family off the streets. Even though the player, who was away at school, had no knowledge of any of this, he was still ruled ineligible.
2) A UNLV player was suspended for buying a used mattress and box spring from an assistant coach, and for using a moving truck provided by the coach to move the mattress.
3) Only 2 years ago, James Wiseman, who was arguably the top college player in the nation, was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for impermissible benefits his family had received his junior year of high school, when his coach paid for the Wiseman family's moving expenses, which allowed them to move so that he could attend a better school.
With all this said, MC, being the most hyped recruit in college basketball, would be under a microscope at WVM, and there is zero chance the school could have provided him a mansion and luxury vehicle without the NCAA banning him and/or the basketball team.
