The Two Sides of College Football

There is a duality to college football, and it is not a perfect fit. The two sides do not complete each other. And yet, with one comes the acceptance of the other…and people like me keep looking for a parlay to make a big score. To wit:

The football team is generally the largest revenue generator for the athletic department. With television contracts getting larger, and exposure easier and easier for schools, the likelihood for all schools to be on TV at least once is nearly guaranteed. At worst, it is a regional audience – normally, it is a national audience. And yet…the players receive no compensation. That is, unless you consider a free education compensation. And if you believe that is equal, you believe that the players were brought there and chose to go there ONLY because of the education. We both know that isn’t true. But that’s how those two go together.

“Boosters” are involved in the sport, as if football needed more attention at these schools. As stated, this is the generally the biggest cash cow for a school. And yet…there are plenty of folks who went to that school and are still in town ready to help. They want to see State U get better and better, so “fundraisers” (for, in some cases, PUBLIC SCHOOLS) happen so that cash is around. Local businessmen are also involved, with cash and promises, helping with “summer jobs.” Agents are there, for the bigger players, and their arrival brings riches…now, and in the future.

Players commit acts that, if it were a “regular” student, would have them suspended or, worse, kicked off campus. And yet…a coach protects his players as long as his job isn’t on the line. Read this week about Urban Meyer at Florida, reinstating Chris Rainey. Chris threatened to kill his “girlfriend” and was arrested for stalking. Chris was suspended. But then, the Gators lost two games in a row. That means it’s time for someone to magically “learn their lesson” and come back to help the team, right, Coach? It’s only been over two-dozen players arrested since Urban became a coach for Florida.

Does that make him a bad coach? Or is he simply delusional, as college football is with the rest of the country? And, further, how the country can brush it aside and believe what it wants to believe? That as long as State U wins, all is right with the world?

Reading about Urban and Chris brought to mind the biggest load of “he learned his lesson” shit to EVER come down the college sports pipe: Tom Osborne and Lawrence Phillips at the University of Nebraska in the mid-90s. Lawrence was a good football player and a colossal fuck-up in life. Lawrence beat up his “girlfriend,” pulled her down 3 flights of stairs by her hair, choked her, and threatened to shoot her in the knees. (That’s a summary, by the way) He was suspended…NOT kicked off the team.

And yet…

Coach needed that big win. It was the national championship game. He spoke with him…Lawrence apologized. Tom said "It's not as though Lawrence is an angry young man all the time and a threat to society. I don't believe that. But there are occasions every four to five months when he becomes a little explosive." Read that again and see if you can tell me what the FUCK that means. By January, there was Lawrence, dominating in the title game. Tom gets another title. Go Huskers! All is right in Nebraska.

We’ll have to assume the mentoring stopped the moment the clock ended. Since that game, Lawrence has plead no contest to beating up a woman in a bar, stole a car and ran over 3 teens after a pick-up game, picked up 3 additional domestic violence charges, and a list of other charges. He’s got roughly 30 years left in California prison.

And yet…

The Cornhuskers won the national title! Remember?! Funny how, when Phillips was charged with driving over the teens, Osborne (now a senator, which shows you what the public in Nebraska thinks of all this, and Coach) had no comment. Of course he didn’t.

This is a sport that is filled with schools breaking rules (whether you agree with the rules or not), schools with nearly every athletic team on probation. You’d think all this shadiness would keep me away – to look at it as criminal. I’d be painting a broad brush, sure, but it looks that way from the top down. And yet…is that nutty parlay going to come in to bring instant riches?! Hmm…North Carolina just suspended more players…probably shouldn’t bet them this week, huh?