$18.3 million.
That's how much each Southeastern Conference school received for being a member of a big-time college football/basketball playing conference that wins and is on television a lot.
Business is good - although morality and ethics clearly are not.
During the same meeting, conference brass decided to lower the number of football scholarships offered to high school athletes from 28 to 25. That was their way to deal with the problem of coaches offering 28 scholarships for 25 slots - called over-offering. The issue: you tell a high school kid who wants to come to your place to play a sport and go to school (probably more to play than to study) only to go back at the last minute to say, "You know, we don't really have a place for you. Wait a semester or a year and we'll call you." It's called roster management.
Sounds very professional, doesn't it?
Well, SEC football coaches, each and everyone of them including the coach of my beloved Tennessee Volunteers, said "we believe over-offering is fine and if you limit us, then we'll be at a competitive disadvantage to other conferences around the country."
So let me get this straight. The most important thing is competitive edge, not the well-being of an 18-year-old? Or, to take it even further, the ability to win, keep your coaching job and bring in millions more to schools already rich beyond belief?
Got it.
Why should I be surprised by this stance? Just this week alone we watched that saint of a coach, Jim Tressel formerly of Ohio State, "resign" from his job because this Bible-toter has basically been a liar and hypocrite, all in the sake of winning. And it wasn't the first time. He did the same kind of stuff when he was Youngstown State. This is the same guy who rigged a contest for young, i.e, high school kids, to win OSU gear. He made sure the athletes who would actually have a chance to play college football would win stuff, not the guys who scraped their own money to go to his camp just to be around him and his staff.
On top of this, after the guy "resigned," college football coaches around the country PRAISED this dude as a great guy! I guess birds of a tainted feather, crawl together...
Anyway, I say all this to say that college athletics, particularly football, has gotten waaay out of control. Money, arrogance, television money, arrogance and more money has made a crooked scam even scummier. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE watching big time college football on Saturday afternoon (when television money doesn't move games to nights or other weird days). Being at a college football game, big time or not, is just one of the most exhilarating experiences one can ever have.
But with the completely shameful excesses of the Bowl Championship Series, more and more cheating and now over-offering, I say the Justice Department needs to come in and right this ship fast. The NCAA doesn't want to fool with their cash cow. College presidents want the money and exposure and college coaches and administrative types tend to be complete hypocrites. Somebody has to do something.
Until then, expect money to finish first, ahead of ethics.
