Another great season of college football wraps up and it's time for me to go into blog hibernation until the spring games or, more likely, summer pre-season poll discussions. But here is a quick run down of some of the seasons high and low-lights.
We saw it all in this season of changes, scandals, continued
BCS whining, etc. etc. From the late summer conference shifts to...
...BYU going independent
...VaTech high-tech unis on labor day (but lost)
...AJ Green 4-game suspension for selling jersey
...VaTech losing again in Week #2 to James-Madison
...Top 25 newbies Nevada and Mississippi State and UCF
...the grass-eating Mad Hatter
...Boise or TCU
...the little sisters of the poor
...the Nevada win over Boise
...the pay-for-play Newton scandal
...Meyer retirement (Part II)
...un-ranked UConn going to a BCS bowl
...VaTech going to a BCS bowl after loss to FCS
...the Tattoo U (Ohio State) non-suspension for bowl game
...two C-USA teams in the Top 25
...the championship game match-up
...the unprecedented five consecutive championships by the SEC
...and back-to-back champions who also had the Heisman winners
...and back-to-back champions from the same state
...and the championship game being the most watched cable show in history. Whew!
PS: Hey...did anyone really miss USC in the post-season? (Well, I missed seeing the cheerleaders).
EndZone: The College Football Scam
You've heard be whine before about the face of college football moving away from tradition and closer to money, money, money for the BCS, schools, coaches, etc. The Cam Newton saga showed the player side of that this past season. Cam has been amazing on and off the field and it is sad that he has had to deal with so much the last few months that has taken away from his amazing athletic ability. Rules are there for a reason...for protection. But I'll be the first to say the the NCAA has quite the scam when it comes to college football: high-priced tickets, willing sponsors, huge audience and your stars don't get paid...much. Dan Wetzel's
article said it well.
"What are all these rules? Who made them? Who agreed to them? Who is the NCAA? And if the NCAA doesn’t care to enforce its own rules, then what are they really worth?
Exactly why should Cam Newton, who is worth millions to a university, whose jersey is being sold all over the school website, who fills stadiums and boosts television ratings, be asked to play football for just room, board and tuition – an amount far below his market value?
Why? Because the NCAA says he should.
They say it, in part, because it protects college athletics’ tax-free status and tradition of non-compensation for its meal-ticket athletes. It funds their salaries, their private jets, their six-figure bonuses.
Big-time college sports are too often like pro wrestling. There are times everyone has to pretend that things are what they aren’t.
They have to agree that this billion-dollar industry is just an extracurricular activity of an institute of higher learning. They have to claim the game is pure in the face of wealthy boosters, eager sports agents and all-encompassing academic tutors. They have to nod approval at multimillion-dollar coach and athletic director contracts.
They have to contend that administrators are concerned with the best interests of the players – the same players they deny professional representation, do not provide lifetime health care for after serious injury and claim ownership of their likeness even decades after leaving campus.
To assist in the illusion, the NCAA creates rules, even if, at times, they don’t appear to believe in them. It determined Cecil violated its bylaw 12.3.3. It then determined that it merited essentially no penalty.
