College Football’s Corporate Crisis

If you ever needed proof that college football has become America in a helmet, look no further than the current coaching carousel. The sport isn’t just a game anymore. It’s a boardroom meeting with mascots. It’s a quarterly earnings call with marching bands. It’s a corporate ladder climb disguised as a playoff race.

And just like real-life America, the folks at the top are doing great. Everybody else… well, enjoy your “valuable life lesson,” kids.

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When Coaches Become CEOs and Players Become Disposable Employees

Head coaches love to sell the dream. Stability. Culture. Brotherhood. All that warm, fuzzy motivational-poster nonsense that was legit four decades ago but evaporates in modern-day times the moment a bigger check slides across the metaphorical boardroom table.

Lane Kiffin looked the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) players in the eyes, talked long-term vision, and had fans believing he'd be building something for years. Then Louisiana State University (LSU) called, waved a fatter contract loaded with incentives, and suddenly the “future of the program” he sold to teenagers wasn’t his future anymore. And let's not forget some of his assistant coaches that he leaves behind who are suddenly unemployed. Unfortunately, there's no transfer portal for them and there are no relocation fees for their families like what Lane's family received.

He dipped out in the middle of a playoff run. A playoff run! That’s like a CEO announcing he’s leaving the company halfway through the biggest product launch in years because another corporation promised a better health plan and a corner office with windows.

But he’s hardly the only one handing out empty promises like breath mints.

Charles Huff turned Marshall into a 10–3 team… then packed his bags, recruited his favorite players to follow him to Southern Mississippi (USM), and left Marshall looking like someone turned off the lights and took the furniture. USM benefitted, sure… briefly. Then he did what CEOs do best: bounce for a “strategic opportunity” in Memphis and leave another program to sweep up the confetti from his exit. Now USM is looking like the side chick who was left for another side chick.

Programs are left scrambling. Players are left stranded. Fanbases are left confused. Meanwhile, coaches walk away with buyouts big enough to fund a small nation’s infrastructure.

Sound familiar?

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Welcome to Corporate America: The Football Edition!

In the real world, CEOs talk about loyalty and culture, too. They “value their employees” right up until it’s bonus season. Then suddenly half the staff is laid off to “streamline operations” and “ensure long-term growth,” which is corporate for: We needed this money for the executive suite’s annual yacht party.

Coaches are playing the same game.

Players commit to them, not the school. Coaches know it. They use it. And when they leave? They burn the place down on their way out, flipping the light switch off with one hand while grabbing their next signing bonus with the other.

The athletes — the ones juggling academics, pressure, expectations, and now the transfer portal tsunami — get stuck making last-minute decisions like employees waking up to that “This wasn’t an easy decision…” email from HR.

It’s not college sports. It’s capitalism in cleats.

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The Harsh Lesson They’re Learning Early

Are these even “student-athletes” anymore? Depends on who you ask. But one thing is crystal clear: they’re getting a masterclass in real-world power dynamics before they turn 21.

Lesson one:
People with power will promise you the moon right up until they find a shinier moon down the street.

Lesson two:
They’ll call it “opportunity.” You’ll call it “starting over again.”

Lesson three:
They will always — always — do what’s best for themselves, no matter how many people they leave scrambling in the aftermath.

Coaches preach commitment while practicing mobility. They demand loyalty while showing none. They condemn players who enter the portal but celebrate the “vision” of their own career moves. It’s a double standard dressed up in school colors.

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College Football Isn’t Broken. It’s Just Imitating Us.

The sport isn’t chaotic by accident. It’s chaotic because it reflects the country running it.

Corporations reward the people at the top.
College football rewards the people at the top.

Workers get squeezed.
Players get squeezed.

Promises get made. Promises get broken.
Careers get disrupted. Lives get reshuffled.

The scoreboard looks familiar because the game isn’t just football.
It’s America’s favorite pastime: benefitting the powerful while everyone else cleans up the mess.

And until the system changes, the lesson stays the same:

In this country — on the field or in the office — the people in charge will shake your hand, swear they’re committed, and then leave you on read when they see a better offer.

Welcome to the big leagues.

Roger Goodell (@nflcommish), What Are You Doing To Me?

First of all, if you're not an NFL fan then you may not understand (or care about) half of the things I'm talking about in this blog post.

Every season the NFL tries to secure more and more television revenue and it's killing me as a fan.  At one time in my life, I could reach back and pull memories out of my mind of many games that most people had forgotten.  Not any more.  It's too much.  The NFL is overloading my senses and I'm starting to see a familiar pattern that I saw the NBA take 25 years ago.

The Schedule

I absolutely love football.  If it were up to me, I would attend a high school game on Friday nights, watch college games on Saturdays and the NFL on Sundays.  But, the NFL has made that next to impossible for me to do regularly.

I have a job as a PA announcer for a high school football team.  For at least six Friday nights out of the Fall, I'm calling their games.

I'm a Michigan Wolverines fan when it comes to college football.  Every Saturday I try to watch them play along with other major match-ups in the Top 25 and SEC.

My Sundays during the NFL season consist of me sitting in my man chair at 1 PM Eastern Time and pretty much remaining there until the night game ends around Midnight Eastern Time.  Then I watch the Monday Night game the next evening.  Now the Commissioner has installed another night (Thursdays) for the NFL and it's just too much for me.

If I were a college student with a ton of free time then this would be absolutely great!  But, as a grown man with a full-time job and a lady who has teen kids it's a problem.  I can't block off Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays for four months.  Very few people can.  But, that's what Roger Goodell is asking the die-hard fans to do.

Last year I missed more NFL games than I have ever missed since the invention of the NFL Sunday Ticket back in 1994.  I had to make decisions each week to either sacrifice the Monday game or the Thursday game because I just didn't have time to do both.  Then the worst feeling that a die-hard fan could have came over me towards the end of the season: I started to not care.

I would look to see who was playing and if it wasn't a premier team then I would find something else to do and miss the game entirely.  It's the same attitude that I developed when the NBA started coming on every single night thanks to TV money.  When the NBA was limited in its viewing I would bite, scratch and kick to see a game.  Now I won't even watch any more than a handful of games before the 2nd round of the playoffs because it's on every single night.

The saturation of the NBA did that to me over the course of just a few years and now the NFL is doing the same. A guy who could watch the two worst teams play because of his love of the game will now miss the first half of a divisional rivalry game because his life can't accommodate football four days a week.  There's just not enough time.

The Draft

Back in the day, the NFL Draft occurred in late April on a Saturday and Sunday morning.  The Draft consists of seven rounds (three rounds were on Saturday and four were on Sunday) and is completely boring to a casual fan, but an amazing event to a die-hard.  On April 20th, 2002 I had one of the best days of my life.  I was married at the time and on my honeymoon.  The NFL Draft came on that Saturday morning and my late wife gave me the entire day to watch it.  I sat in an over-sized chair and watched the first three rounds of the Draft within full-view of the ocean.  For a true football fan, it didn't get any better than that.

Fast-forward to today and what do we have?  The Draft now isn't until May (for May Sweeps) starts on Thursday night during primetime.  So, now I have to get home from work and get things done prior to the Draft starting instead of having a weekend day to relax and ease into it.  But, it gets worse: Thursday night is only for the 1st round of the Draft.  If I want to see the 2nd and 3rd rounds then I have to tune in on Friday night.

Seriously?  And then on Saturday you pick the 4th through the 7th rounds?  A three day event?  Then there's a headline today stating that Goodell wants to make it a four day event and get Sundays back in the mix?  Sorry, but I can't...

Conclusion

I've reached my limit.  Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks) was right.  The NFL will burn itself out in less than a decade at the rate they're going.  Guys like me will eventually start to pick and choose which games interest us and ignore the others.  It's not because we want to, but because there's just not enough time in a week to have a life and meet obligations with the NFL on three or more nights a week.

Eventually, the NFL will be on seven days a week like the NBA and MLB.  You're laughing right now, but don't say that I didn't warn you.  Just like an 18-game schedule, franchises in Canada and London, and more teams being allowed in the Playoffs, it's inevitable.  There's just too much money on the table for it not to be.

SMH.

For Once, #NFL Sunday Was Meaningless #BAMAvsAUB

I sat on my couch as I usually do on Sundays, but it felt different this time.  There was something missing.  I watched Arizona v. Philadelphia, New England v. Houston, Chicago v. Minnesota, and a few other games with close scores in the 4th quarter.  But, I still felt as if something was missing.  The DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket is way too expensive to not be satisfied, so what gives?  Why am I bored when watching my favorite sport of all-time?

Because Rivalry Week in college football ruined it for me.

It didn't ruin it in a bad way.  It actually was a good thing.  This weekend was the best weekend of college football that I've ever seen in my life.  So, after experiencing game-after-game of heated, long-standing, NCAA Football rivalries going down to the wire, I could only come down off of that high when NFL Sunday arrived.  The feeling of elation that I felt for some NCAA teams and depression that I felt for others could not be matched by the NFL.

Look at these scores from the games that I watched:

Duke over North Carolina, 27-25

* Mississippi State over Mississippi, 17-10, Overtime

Oregon over Oregon State, 36-35 

Georgia over Georgia, 41-34, Double Overtime 

* Ohio State over Michigan, 42-41

* Auburn over Alabama, 34-28

(*-came down to the last play of the game)

If you have a chance to catch the ending of any of these games, then treat yourself!  Even if you only watch the last five minutes of each one, then that will be enough to satisfy you.  And if you watch the 4th quarter of the Alabama / Auburn game, then you may see the most exciting 4th quarter in the history of football (pro or college).

Last weekend was the last full schedule of college football games for the season and it did not disappoint!

Ri5e to the Occasion

I'm on the fence when it comes to exploitation.  I rarely feel as if a consenting adult can be exploited.  An easy example of this is a porn star.  If he/she decides to do the horizontal mambo for cash, then how can I say that the director of the film is exploiting them if they're grown?

However, I hate to see kids exploited.  This include college kids who get the shaft every year by the NCAA and other companies.

Kevin Ware is a 20 year old basketball player for the University of Louisville.  Last week during a game, he jumped out on defense and landed awkwardly on his feet.

This resulted in his leg collapsing and him experiencing one of the most gruesome injuries I've seen in all of my years of sports viewing.  You can view it here if you have the stomach for it.

Along comes Adidas with a dollar an inspirational idea in mind: why not create a shirt with a motivational quote using Kevin Ware's number? People will feel sympathetic towards him and will buy this shirt despite the fact that Kevin won't see a dime of it.

It's nothing new.  College kids in athletics have been exploited since the first TV contract was signed.  Sure, some people say, "well, they get scholarships, so that's their payment."

That's an understandable, but ignorant statement.  The scholarship would be an even trade-off if these kids were able to lead normal college lives like other students.  However, they can't.  Football and basketball players aren't allowed to work.  So, if they can't have jobs when playing, then how can they have money to do things that college kids do?  A Criminal Justice major isn't prevented from having a job, so why should a linebacker be?

These big schools pluck these college kids from inner cities and basically imprison them inside of a weight room.  The fact that these kids can't make any money is why you hear of so many scandals of boosters paying players.  And who gets punished when these kids take the money offered to them?  The kids.  Even if the coach gets caught up in the scandal, they can easily resign and find another school to coach.  The kids are levied stiff penalties that are even inherited by incoming freshmen who had nothing to do with the incident.

And people wonder why kids leave college early to go pro.

Football and basketball bring in millions to colleges each year in ticket sales and merchandising.  They could easily place some of that money into an account and hold it until the players graduate.  That would encourage the players to get their degree and be rewarded after graduation for their service to the school.  The players who decide that they want to go pro instead and not graduate waive their right to the fund.  Besides, they won't need the allotted funds anyway since they're now able to earn their own money.

The fund would be for kids like Kevin Ware.  Kevin may not get a chance to play professionally after suffering such a tragic injury, so having a savings waiting on him after graduation could be a huge boost for him.  He would get some of the money from the shirts that Adidas wants to make.  It would be a win-win except for the fact that those old men wearing the brightly-colored suits at the bowl games want all of the money for themselves.

After the controversy started swirling around the shirts, Adidas offered to donate the money to the Louisville scholarship fund.  A nice offer that would undoubtedly benefit a needy kid, but still not Kevin.

That "fictional" player looks just like Blake Griffin when he was in college.  Hmmmm...

Former UCLA basketball player, Ed O'Bannon, is suing the NCAA and EA Sports for using his likeness in a video game.  I hope that he is granted class action status so that it opens the door for student-athletes to finally be rewarded for the sacrifices they give to their schools.  They need to stick it to the NCAA and other companies that exploit them since they all refuse to "Ri5e to the Occasion."

Do you think these kids are being exploited or you think that everything is fair as-is?