Category Archives: College Football

BCS, Bill Simmons, College Football, ESPN, Grantland.com, Jim Boeheim, NCAA, Syracuse, Texas Longhorns

The Dash for Cash Era

“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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College Football, Miami Hurricanes, NCAA, Nevin Shapiro, Ohio State

A House of Cards

Yet again, another sordid scandal plagues college football. Another powerhouse accused of non-compliance. Another messy saga for a sport that, as much as we seem to love it, is as warped and seedy as 1920s politics.
But instead of one Boss Tweed, we’ve got thousands.
On the heels of Ohio State’s players trading memorabilia for tattoos, and former coach Jim Tressel knowing about it all along, comes the predictable scandal at the University of Miami.
Predictable because if there’s trouble, The U can find it like it’s players can the NFL.
Basically, a booster with a money tree showered athletes with all kinds of gifts and lots of people knew about it.
By law, I think I’m required to restate the accusations in the Yahoo! Sports report just so you can be stunned at the sheer stupidity of it all. So here we go…
Former Miami booster, Nevin Shapiro, who surprisingly is serving a 20-year prison sentence for masterminding a $930 million Ponzi scheme, says he gave impermissible benefits to 72 of the university’s football players – as well as other athletes – between 2002 and 2010.
These impermissible benefits include: money (and lots of it), cars, yacht trips, jewelry, televisions, sex parties and meals. Shapiro says he paid for an abortion for one player and an engagement ring for another.
The list of players include a who’s who of Miami’s all-stars over the past decade: Vince Wilfork, Devin Hester, Willis McGahee, Antrel Rolle, Jon Beason, Jonathon Vilma, Tyrone Moss, current quarterback Jacory Harris and the late Sean Taylor.
Allegedly, at least six coaches and as many as 10 employees of the athletic department were aware of Shapiro and his salacious activities.
“Hell yeah, I recruited a lot of kids for Miami,” Shapiro said. “With access to the clubs, access to the strip joints. My house. My boat. We’re talking about high school football players. Not anybody can just get into the clubs or strip joints. Who is going to pay for it and make it happen? That was me.”
Don’t think you can believe a convicted Ponzi schemer? Fine. Perhaps you’ll believe the 100-plus hours of research and verification done by Yahoo! Sports on the report over 11 months.
“I did it because I could,” Shapiro said. “And because nobody stepped in to stop me.”
Granted, Shapiro comes off in the report like a pathetic wannabe, a jock sniffer who actually thought he was friends with these athletes, not because of the money and services he provided them, but because they liked him. So he’s mad that they’ve distanced themselves from him and it’s payback time.
But without question, there’s a bigger problem that yet another scumbag getting his hands on a major university and it’s football program.
There is a problem with the ethics and morals of the athletes, to some degree. And there’s certainly a problem with the morals and ethics of those in the athletic departments and coaching staffs.
I’m tired of people claiming you can’t blame an 18-year-old for taking money, cars and clothes. You can.
We need to come up with some sort of definitive answer on where we stand with 18-year-olds. They can vote. They can fight for our country and hold a gun. But they can’t know right from wrong and not take payments from boosters? How many times do we have to go over this?
Would I take the money? Even at 18, I honestly don’t think so. But I don’t really know. I’m not 18 anymore. I would have been terrified of getting caught. I would have been shamed beyond belief if my parents found out.
But that’s not fair. I’m not them. None of us are. We don’t know the circumstances or the pressures. So it doesn’t matter what we would do. What matters is what all these so called student-athletes are doing. It isn’t 1965. We can’t continue to sweep this under the rug. Because no matter who is to blame, it’s not OK.
There are rules and they are there for a reason. College athletics are not professional. You are not paid to play. You receive a free college education. There is a trade off.
We have rules to keep us all in check. We’re only as good as the honor we have in upholding them and the justice system that punishes for breaking them. For example, if I run a red light or speed, it’s a risk. Ten years ago, you could run a red light and without the police there at the time, you wouldn’t be caught or punished. Now, nearly every stoplight has a camera. They will find you. And you will pay.
Except the very people who set the rules, enforce them and support them don’t seem to see the hypocrisy of what they do.
A corrupt BCS system has followed a corrupt bowl system. Athletes are given bags of “swag” with tons of valuable goodies for going to bowl games, but can’t have a job in order to have gas money. Schools are jumping conferences all in the name of exposure and money, but don’t let Tim Tebow see a dime of millions earned from selling his No. 15 Florida Gators jersey or having his likeness appear on the cover of a video game.
The University of Texas can threaten to bolt the Big XII only to stay because they are given their own TV channel, but student-athletes don’t have negotiating rights, of any kind. 

So let’s be real – we lost the whole student-athlete part a long time ago.

Even though 90 percent of athletes won’t play professional sports, it’s the 10 percent who do that get all the attention. Even though the BCS only affects 10 percent of college football teams, it gets all our attention.
The NCAA can have all the corporate partners it wants, get money for exploiting college athletics, but it won’t allow for a per diem larger than a McDonald’s happy meal. Schools can have corporate partners, conferences get TV deals and coaches can earn a million dollars per year, yet they all say it’s about growing young men and women and working with student-athletes.
No, no it’s not. It’s about wins. It’s about championships. It’s about your school’s brand. It’s about money.
The NCAA is the very definition of hypocrisy. From university presidents to coaches, boosters to athletes, the entire college football system is about as shady as an oak tree. And it’s everywhere.
Miami is just the latest school in a long line of NCAA investigations involving college football and some of its most successful programs. In just the past 18 months, USC, Ohio State, Auburn, Oregon, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and LSU have either been investigated or sanctioned for infractions. There are too many to list over just the past decade.
So if you think this is going away, keep telling yourself that. Keep that oblivious attitude. Stick your head in the sand, join the crowd. Join the NCAA in it’s ridiculous attempt and revisionism. Crack jokes about them making schools vacate wins and championships.
Or, for once, everyone could grow a spine and do what’s needed.
We need to blow up the NCAA and it’s rule book.
Figuratively, of course.
The NCAA is a house of cards, built by revisionists who stick their heads in the sand, investigate when someone blows a whistle and hand out death penalties. A death penalty for Miami won’t teach the next school a lesson – because it’s already happening somewhere else.
We have rules to check us all in check. We’re only as good as the honor we have in upholding them and the justice system. If I run a red light or speed, it’s a risk. Ten years ago, you could run a red light and without the police there at the time, you wouldn’t be caught or punished. Now, nearly every stoplight has a camera. They will find you. And you will pay the ticket. Do it too many times, you lose your license.
So blow it up. All of it. Rewrite the rules for modern times.
I don’t want them to pay student-athletes and I don’t think that will fix the larger issue. But maybe it’s worth a shot to really look into it.
Get the agents out of college athletics. I don’t care how, but do it. Make it a federal offense to give money to a student-athlete. Make it a jailable offense to take money from a booster or an agent or anyone as a student-athlete. We have to start making them feel it, too. Just because you are now in the NFL doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be punished. Perhaps schools who get hit three times have to give up all college athletics for five years.
It’s time to wash the system clean, a baptism of sorts. Hit restart and build the NCAA around what’s real, what works and still manages to build integrity, honor and reward the talented, hard-working student-athletes the right way.
Maybe these are terrible ideas. But they are at least ideas. What does it take to make sweeping changes, because my head isn’t buried in the sand.  
Is yours?
Better yet, is the NCAAs?

If so, let the cards fall where they may.

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College Football, Florida, Joe Paterno, Tony Dungy, Urban Meyer

An Urban Legend

Hear the one about Urban Meyer retiring from Florida for the second time in 12 months? Legend says it was for his family, but some say they see him walking the sidelines in a pullover from time to time.
Urban Meyer has retired from the University of Florida and college football.
Again.
Meyer resigned on Wednesday, stepping down for the second time in less than a year. His first crack at retirement, which lasted just a day, was for health reasons. This time it’s to be a better husband and father.
So he says.
If we make it to around 4:00PM today, it will be the longest of the two retirements. And he’s 46. That’s two more retirements than Joe Paterno’s ever had and he’s turning 84 in roughly two weeks. Apparently, Meyer didn’t take to shuffleboard very well after last year’s press conference.

“At the end of the day, I’m very convinced that you’re going to be judged on how you are as a husband and as a father and not on how many bowl games we won,” Meyer said at yesterday’s news conference. “I’ve not seen my two girls play high school sports. They’re both very talented Division I-A volleyball players, so I missed those four years. I missed two already, with one away at college. I can’t get that time back,” he said.

“Last year was a knee-jerk reaction,” Meyer said. “This year was just completely different.”

Wait, what? Did Pat Riley write his speech notes? How is this any different?

No, Urban you can’t get that time back. And no offense (well, perhaps a little), but should you have thought about that for say the last 15-20 years? It seems as though this is nothing more than a bad case of regret. And the thing about regret is you can’t get back the time lost.
Can he step away and become a better husband and father? Of course. It just begs the question: what the hell was the last year for? Why didn’t he just stay retired? After a 7-5 season and endless promises to recruits at Florida, they are in worse shape than when he left.
As for the family he’s leaving to get closer with, how can they trust that this time he’ll be a man of his word after the one day fiasco last year?
Meyer is doing his best impression of Robert Duvall’s character in “The Apostle.” At least, that’s my best guess. His once perfect life has been cracking recently and he’s trying to reclaim it boldly. Is it out of line to suggest that perhaps he could do both?
There is apparently an unwritten rule where coaches must work 18-20 hour days and sleep in their office to gain every edge to win games. It’s like a teenager getting busted for drinking.
Because everybody else is doing it, right?
“He’s worked his tail off,” Foley said. “You think of what he’s rebuilt. He built one at Bowling Green, he built one at Utah, he built one here. It’s not just sacrifices here the last six years.”
Rarely do you here someone talk about how they don’t work hard. Everyone works hard, so they tell war stories of late nights, sleeping in their office and missing birthdays.
Parcells, Gibbs, Vermeil, Magini, Belichick. They’ve all talked about burning the candle at both ends. Jon Gruden was notorious for going on three hours sleep.
If this is Meyer leaving to recharge his batteries or secretly go after an NFL job, he’s a gutless individual, preying on the hearts and minds of his family that he says he loves. They will know where they stand if he takes another job within the next two or three years. 
There’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone is entitled to live their life and pursue what makes them happy. But there is something wrong with duping your own family into believing you care more about them than yourself.
There is another side to this, of course. Meyer could leave and become what his press conference clips said – a better husband and father. 
Maybe Meyer never returns to coaching, or he comes back in seven or eight years. He’d still be relatively young and could give some school or team a decade of work after having given his family a decade of repayment for all he’s missed. 
The guilt would at least be gone.
Bill Cowher left coaching to be with his family and it’s stuck far longer than anyone anticipated. Dean Smith retired and that was it, he was gone. Same for athletes like Barry Sanders. Not everyone has to be Brett Favre. So maybe there is hope for Urban Meyer. Maybe this last year was just the sign he needed to know that his heart wasn’t in it any longer.
Now, a 7-5 record in the SEC, rumors about Cam Newton’s departure and no Tim Tebow might help nudge that process along, but still.
Of course, there is another option. Maybe not for Meyer, but for others. 
You could take the Tony Dungy route. Dungy always walked around to all his coaches and told them when it was time to call it a day. It can wait until tomorrow. Go home to your family. Be a father and a husband. Then, come back and get to work on film and schemes tomorrow.
There is a tomorrow.
Unless you burn yourself out and retire today, get a good night’s sleep and find a new job next Tuesday.
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