Sports

With the recent Yahoo! Sports article all but destroying the Miami Hurricane football program, it is again time to look at the inept body that runs college football.

The NCAA. An organization that says all the right things that give people the illusion that it’s doing the world a great thing, but doesn’t know what’s actually happening in the world of college football.

I could spend weeks and weeks discussing the problems with the NCAA, but the main one I want to focus on is the absurd notion that major college football and basketball players are student-athletes.

Much like the whole “level-playing field” that is mentioned with recruiting, the student-athlete name is nothing other than an illusion.

According to ESPN in 2008, “The SEC signed a 15-year deal with ESPN reportedly worth more than $2 billion to televise sporting events, including football and men’s and women’s basketball.”

Also is 2008, CBS and the SEC reached a 15-year deal, where CBS will pay $50-65 million dollars every year to televise football and basketball.

Recently, the Texas Longhorns reached a 20 year, $300 million dollar deal with ESPN.

According to Kristi Dosh of BusinessofCollege Sports.com, from the 2008-2009 school year, the University of Texas football program brought in revenues of $93.94 million dollars, expenses were $25.1 million, which lead to a profit margin of $68.8 million.

Georgia finished second on this list bringing in profits of $70.8 million, expenses of $18.3 million, which lead to profits of $52.5 million.

I could go on and on with these numbers, it really doesn’t end.

Yes, I know that most of this money goes to fund the other sports at the respected Universities to comply with Title IX, but there is nothing “amateur” about these numbers.

The student-athlete name along with the NCAA rulebook allows for professional sports team to be run, administrators and athletic directors to make millions and millions of dollars, while saying, “We give the student athlete a free education and that’s enough.”

It’s a lie. It’s an absolute joke

College football is a game that is more popular and more profitable than ever, and in this day and age of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, the NCAA is still gathering around the radio to get there news.

The college rulebook rivals that of the length of the IRS tax codes, but it contains useless information, like this next proposal.

I say the rulebook is huge, but apparently it isn’t as big as I thought. Among items to be voted on for the first time next January is Proposal 2011-78, which will, “Permit an institution to provide spreads (e.g butter, peanut butter, jelly, cream cheese) with the bagels it provides”

In the words of Seth Meyers of SNL, “Really, NCAA, Really?”

I aplaud you for really getting down to the bottom of what is wrong with college athletics. What a joke.

While I will never say that college football players should be paid, they should be able to market themselves and make money off of their ability — just like any other person in America can do.

If you have a talent, and other people want to see you perform that talent, the fact that you are a collegiate football players shouldn’t change that fact.

If a player wants to go to a book store and sign autographs for an hour and get paid for it, he should be able to.

If a player wants to sell his jersey or championship rings or game worn equipment, he should be able to.

There are so many things wrong, I could go on for days, but here is where you start to solve the problem.

The fundamental problem with what’s going on is that the NCAA is completely blind and inconsistent with things once they do see them.

Regardless of how screwed up the college football world is, led by the NCAA, it doesn’t change the great entertainment and passion that happens on a Saturday in the fall.

College football starts two weeks from today, and none of this nonsense will make me pay attention to college football any less.

It is just so frustrating to see something so great, run so poorly.

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Follow me on Twitter @Mike_Reiter and check out my website SportswithMike.com