If you can show me one person who doesn’t like college football, I will show you 94,729 who do. That’s how many folks will fit inside Sanford Stadium in Athens, and that’s how many will get up early on any of a number of Saturday mornings in the Fall and pack themselves and maybe the whole family into the car and head out from Swainsboro or Cordele or Brushy Creek or Hog Wallow, Georgia and drive to Athens. That’s the easy part. Once you’re there, the rest of the day includes fighting through Clarke County traffic, fighting for a parking spot near the game, walking a couple of miles to the stadium, fighting through the crowds to get to your seat, then doing your part to scream unkind and embarrassing but totally justified things at the visiting team and fans from Auburn, Tennessee, Mississippi, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Missouri, South Carolina or anybody else we might be playing. That’s terrible, right? Yessir it is, and I do love it! I love it, and I did it for over 30 years, as long as my foolish, old broken-down body could take me. I did, and so did a whole bunch of others before me and after me. We loved it better than General Patton loved shooting Germans. (Now, your preacher or your Mama might say that kind of language is entirely unnecessary, but I’m just trying to bring a little emphasis to my point.) College football might not be the national past time, but let’s face it, it’s a lot more exciting and fun than baseball, and the cheerleaders are prettier too. But besides all that, college football is downright essential to a full and meaningful life in the South.
So, right now, is a special time. We have lived all year waiting for this season to start, only to find out that the lawyers, agents, sport syndicates, TV networks, and the ESPNs and Lane Kiffens of the world have wormed their way into the heart of the sport to upset everything, rewrite the rules and declare their way to be the right way. And for what? Come on, let’s all say it together, now,
M O N E Y”. Yes mam, the only thing missing in this tale is the serpent in the garden.
I don’t mind one bit if we work out a sensible plan to compensate college athletes in a rational, even-handed fashion. The world is changing. We should be realistic about adapting. I know that, and I confess freely to being from an archaic age, but in my humble opinion it seems like this whole mess got started when the “Name, Image and Likeness” business got way out ahead of itself. Pandora’s box then flipped open revealing a whole bushel basket of new shiny toys and skewed, dangerous ideas. The whole idea of football recruitment involving scholarships and the value of an academic experience has sort of dropped out of the picture. With the advent of new ransfer portals that can be utilized over and over during four years of college, along with exorbitant new negotiated contract deals that come along with every transfer, a four-year college degree has now become a minor footnote with many highly sought-after athletes. That is not a good thing. Let’s not forget, the whole idea of going to college is to get an education. Athletic scholarships opened that door for many who would not otherwise have a shot at a college education. But now, the conversation has changed and become less about earning a college degree and more about chasing a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or maybe just across the goal line.
You can call me crazy or naive, or both, but the institution of college football has always seemed capable of keeping things in proper perspective, and holding the line on the rules, regulations, and standards of the game and policies of administration. Now, it appears that a growing trend is moving closer and closer to the idea of just turning it all into another purely commercial operation and leaving the heritage, tradition and honor of amateur competition far behind. That would rip the heart right out of college sports and that would be a bad, bad day for this country. The NCAA would become little more than a Walmart of amateur athletic sports and the almighty dollar would run an open market for young athletic talent. That would be the rule of the day, and the soul of the game and the integrity of the sport would most likely never recover. There are some things that need change, and some things that need to resist. Sometimes when the ground gets too shaky, you just need to stop, stand still, and hold onto what you’ve got.
