Amidst all the change, with college football finally, officially, ready to take its place as a professional sport, the hubris of coaches and those in charge of the endeavor never fail to disappoint.
They always want more, and they’re rarely willing to be the ones who sacrifice anything to get it. Any super-rich coddled, entitled and spoiled entertainer, politician or trust fund baby you can imagine has nothing on a coach at college football’s top level.
At the same time, those who largely fund college football, the fans, remain unable to stop themselves from their supportive addiction.
Donation fees increasing? Ticket prices going up? No problem. Those renewal rates for Dear Old State will top 90 percent, and probably 95 percent, no matter what.
Oh, and now consortiums that pay players are raising funds too. That’s on top of the players’ scholarships, room and board, books and stipends. (Thanks to recent legal rulings consortiums will soon go away and schools will raise the money themselves.)
There are no specific plans for the money except “we need more,” though. Even worse, there’s no Fundraising 101 buy-in or storytelling. A head coach might be the face of a fundraising effort, but the message never comes with “Here’s how much I gave to the effort. Join me!”
Still, the fans barely flinch. They’ll find ways to support almost all of it.
They’ll ignore parking problems, travel costs and whatever else to support the team. After all, it’s the boys. It’s the alma mater. It’s the school colors. It’s tradition. It’s a feeling.
Honestly, it’s just silliness. By the coaches and the fans — the greedy and the gullible.
The latest example bubbled up among Southeastern Conference coaches earlier this week as they were discussing roster limits that could be forthcoming as part of a pay-for-play model officially moving into the sport. One idea floated in relation to that would eliminate walk-on players — and the millionaire coaches generally lost their minds when pondering that option.
Texas A&M coach Mike Elko told ESPN he was strongly against it, and it was really bad for the sport.
“I think it’s absolutely against college football, what it stands for and what it’s about. I think that would be a major problem, especially, when you look at legacies of Texas A&M kids that are going to get the opportunity to play football at Texas A&M potentially taken away from them.”
All his colleagues agreed — even though they know what college football is really about, the money. Georgia’s Kirby Smart said roster limits would hurt high school football because “kids can’t even dream [for the opportunity to walk on].” Texas’ Steve Sarkisian said the ability to walk on is “what college football is about.” His team had 35 walk-ons last season
Big Ten Conference coaches and administrators met last week on the West Coast and no news of discussions about this topic hit the media afterward. Still, the Big Ten’s football coaches will have something to say about it when asked, and it seems likely they’ll fight for walk-ons, probably framing it as fighting for the soul of the sport in the process.
After all, it’s just un-American and un-college football, right?
No, it’s unbecoming. It’s greedy.
So, coaches get paid players, increasing levels of administrative and on-field support (a separate proposal to allow cadres of “analysts” to coach recently passed as well), state-of-the-art facilities, first-class travel … and they want the free players as well? Seriously, how could they possibly survive with, say, just 85 paid players?
Maybe the poverty-stricken graduate assistant mindset some coaches needed out of necessity when they started their careers as lower-level assistants years ago just gets into their DNA and lives on forever. Maybe they’re just so competitive that they’re seeking any and every advantage. Maybe they just live in a different reality than many others.
Even so, and especially so with that last potential reason, all the people who live in a different reality still rarely hesitate to fork over their money, show up at games and support the multimillion-dollar endeavor — all while thinking it’s something else, something constructed in their memories that no longer exists.
They ignore the reality though and keep being gullible.
College football relies on them both — the greedy and the gullible — and it thrives as a result. You can expect that to keep happening this season and for years to come.
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