“A university is a college with a stadium seating over 40,000.” – Leonard Levinson
Not long ago, I wrote this little piece about the state of our priorities and how often sports blur the line between common sense and nonsense.
Turns out, I didn’t dig nearly deep enough.
The unequivocal fact is that it’s all about the money – in everything, everywhere, at all times.
Look at the recent events in college sports – from the scandals at Ohio State, Miami, Oregon and North Carolina to the conference carousel playing out amongst the major football schools.
It’s all about the money. It probably always has been. Just look at out own history, starting with the American Revolution – a bunch of people upset about being taxed, in essence.
Pink Floyd once told us it was about money and so did Gordon Gekko. We’re not listening very well. The only people who tell you money doesn’t buy happiness and that money is the root of all evil are poor people.
You think I’m being glib? You think money doesn’t swallow us up whole and we’re too blind to see it?
The film “Jerry Maguire” was a mega-money maker in 1996, for Cameron Crowe, for Tom Cruise, the studio and for Bruce Springsteen and his little secret garden song.
And when you really look at it, the plot wasn’t a love story or a budding relationship between a forgotten receiver and his agent – it was about money.
Maguire lost it and got all touchy feely with his manifesto – and then lost his job. Immediately, he regretted this decision and wanted all his clients and Bob Sugar’s. Rod Tidwell was out for more money, the fictional Arizona Cardinals were out to save money. In some ways, Dorothy Boyd was even out for money, in order to protect her son and give him a better life.
That’s sports now and it’s not fictionalized. It’s defined by money.
It’s why Notre Dame is still an independent in football, because they have a ridiculous contract with NBC for all home games worth more than the Rockefeller’s probably gave in philanthropic endeavors.
It’s why Nebraska jumped to the Big Ten, why Colorado went to the Pac-10. And since college football makes the most money, it’s why college basketball has taken a backseat.
Don’t believe me? Then why are Syracuse and Pittsburgh joining the ACC? Hearing Jim Boeheim lament the end of the Big East Tournament and Madison Square Garden is just plain sad.
“We’re going to end up with mega-conferences and 10 years from now, either I’m going to be dead wrong – and I’ll be the first to admit it – or everybody is going to be like, why did we do this again?” Boeheim pondered during a speaking engagement in Alabama, according to the Birmingham News.
“Why is Alabama playing Texas A&M this week…why is Syracuse going to Miami?” he said.
As for Boeheim’s thoughts on why conference expansion is running rampant, he had a simple answer:
“If conference commissioners were the founding fathers of this country, we would have Guatemala, Uruguay and Argentina in the United States,” he said. “This audience knows why we are doing this. There’s two reasons: Money and football.”
Boeheim overstated it – it’s simply about the money. It just so happens that college football produces that money. And just to point this out, I’m wondering if Boeheim was speaking at an engagement that he was paid for.
I get the conferences pining over Texas, I really do. A recruiting hotbed, a traditional power and good at many other sports. The Longhorns are the belle of the conference shuffle ball.
But who on earth would want Texas A&M in any sport other than football? No one even cares about the Aggies until two months ago, suddenly, they put on a little make-up and broke up with their conference and now everyone’s lusting over them like they have Texas’ mega TV deal.
Colorado became a step-child in the Big XII, so they move to the Pac-10, bringing happy-go-lucky mid-major Utah (who’ve complained about the BCS for years) with them. How about an SEC with Texas A&M? How about a Pac-16 with Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech? Sure, why not.
We can’t get a college football playoff because of money.
Just understand this now: we will not get rid of the bowl system – too many schools make too such coin from bowl games. You will get the Weedeater.com Dip-o-Salsa Bowl and you will like it. Because that’s worth $5 million to the school.
Can we just hire former WWF star Ted DiBiase to run around and throw money at everyone and laugh? Can the Million Dollar Belt be the true championship trophy? Can we stop pretending we care about student-athletes and their educations?
We can’t bemoan their actions and deride them for taking cash from agents, selling merchandise or getting free tattoos when university presidents are doing this – making a dash for the cash.
Or apparently we can.
Do the schools use their money “earned” from bowl games on other things? Probably. Why do you think the presidents and professors even care about college football? Maybe it’s means to an end for them. They use a payout from a BCS bowl (since every team from an auto-qualifier conference gets a share) and use it to build a new library or academic hall or purchase beakers for science labs.
Then why haven’t we thrown out this question: maybe getting paid from an agent when in college is means to an end for the student-athlete. They have families in need, wants and desires, too.
Just like Texas probably doesn’t need another dorm or a new set of beakers for the science lab, a 19-year-old doesn’t need new rims on his Lincoln Navigator. But in both situations, each party is thinking: “Wouldn’t that be sweet to have, though?”
This is why money rules all: because of what it allows you to do. You have more choices and options. When all you can afford is Boone’s Farm, you don’t know how good the Henri Jayer Cros Parantoux is. Yet the result is still the same with both wines.
Professional sports, which are undeniably businesses and all about money, even make it more obvious it’s about the money.
The NFL’s owners wanted more money in the recent labor negotiations, got it, then got more of it with their recent TV deal with ESPN (conveniently finalized after the lockout).
The NBA owners just want their money back in the current labor negotiations after overspending on mediocre players for the last decade. When Samuel Dalembert is making $58 million over six years, I don’t blame him for signing that contract. I blame you and your moronic general manager.
What is a guy like Dalembert supposed to say, “No, no…that’s too much. I can’t accept. I’ve been less than mediocre and don’t deserve such a large sum of money”? If he didn’t have a pen when they offered that, I’m sure he cut his finger to sign it in his own blood.
And where does the “Dash for Cash” leave us, the fans?
Truth is, I don’t know. We really only have ourselves to blame. We play into it, just as much as anyone. We buy the tickets, the jerseys, the cups, hats and video games.
But we’re the only ones not getting paid in this.
We go to our “normal” jobs, try to earn raises so that we can afford tickets to the Super Bowl or an All-Star Game just to basically say we were there. We buy flatscreens the width of our living room walls so we can see better since we can’t afford the games in person. Yet the more money we feed the system, the more it messes with our traditions.
Rivalries die, uniforms change, winning means everything. And then we pretend to care when we found out you were cheating when you won. And we buy the hype. We’re drones, taking what they give us.
We’re feeding the beast and it’s swallowing us whole.
Maybe right now, you’re shaking your head in agreement. Maybe you think I’m full of it – and there is still pride in sports, that honor and integrity exist above the checks.
But if I offered you a $100 to come back and read this blog next week, most of you would do it.
If I offered you $1,000 to comment, you’d do it.
And if I offered you $10,000 to write 10 e-mails, tweets or Facebook messages to Bill Simmons begging him to give me a job at Grantland.com, you’d do it. Whether you thought I was a decent writer or not.
All because I showed you the money.
Now who is being glib?
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