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The question was asked on our message board and it got my attention: “Was the SEC more interesting and exciting before Nick Saban arrived at Alabama?” Obviously, no one can blame Saban for building the nation’s strongest program, but he’s not the reason it’s not exciting.
If you’re looking for culprits, start with the College Football Playoff and the way it is covered nationally. It has poured money into the five power conferences and Notre Dame, but it has changed the game in ways that make it much less intriguing.
Even before seasons begin, the focus is on who will make the playoffs. Every national pundit puts his top four teams out every week. Kirk Herbstreit’s opinion is treated as breaking news, even though he’s not part of the process. Everything else, on a national level, soon fades into obscurity.
To make it worse, choosing those four teams is a subjective exercise with no real rules. Thirteen people make decisions, often based on something called the “eye test.” College football should be about accomplishment, not how anybody looks.
A handful of programs start every season getting the most attention. We all know who they are. From time to time, another program will get into the mix. But it’s hard. College football, more than ever, is about recruiting. All those 17-year-olds glued to ESPN get are flooded with messages that if you’re really good and you want to play in the NFL, you go to one of those programs.
Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and Clemson get the lion’s share of the attention because they’ve been to the playoffs more than anybody. That’s OK. You can make the case they’ve earned it. But they also get the benefit of the doubt. Losses are often treated as accidents that are soon wiped out by the eye test. Others with similar accomplishments are dismissed as interlopers. Games with no playoff implications – which are most of them – are sideshows.
Auburn plays Northwestern in the Citrus Bowl on Friday, and outside of those two programs and their fans, it’s hardly considered worth talking about. Is it any wonder that some players decide it’s not worth it to play?
ESPN and other TV networks are in it for the money. They shower the Power 5 conferences with money because they make money in return. The aforementioned programs bring viewers. It’s a matter of economics.
There are others – including Auburn – that claim a share of that spotlight from time to time. LSU does, too. Michigan used to. So did USC. So did Florida.
But the playoff is far from the only issue. College football, often at the urging of lawyers who wring their hands about exploited athletes while trying to make money off that supposed exploitation, becomes more like the NFL with each passing year. It’s even going to have its own kind of free agency come January. Name, image and likeness legislation will be widely abused from the moment it is put into place.
Playing for a scholarship worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, a substantial stipend every month and an opportunity to get a college degree is dismissed as “free labor.” Playing for school, family and teammates is widely viewed as being old-fashioned.
How did we get to this point?
Start with coaches making salaries that would make a king blush. It was predictable that, when a coach making $2 million a year became viewed as being lowly paid, players would eventually start to say “What about us?”
Lawyers, recognizing opportunities to join the party and make millions for themselves, filed a flood of lawsuits. The NCAA all but stopped enforcing its own rules. Many coaches will tell you there is more money flowing in the recruiting process now than ever before.
College football is on its way to being a watered-down version of the NFL. The game I fell in love with as a child is no more. Maybe that’s for the best. Who am I to say?
But it isn’t nearly as much fun.
If you’re looking for culprits, start with the College Football Playoff and the way it is covered nationally. It has poured money into the five power conferences and Notre Dame, but it has changed the game in ways that make it much less intriguing.
Even before seasons begin, the focus is on who will make the playoffs. Every national pundit puts his top four teams out every week. Kirk Herbstreit’s opinion is treated as breaking news, even though he’s not part of the process. Everything else, on a national level, soon fades into obscurity.
To make it worse, choosing those four teams is a subjective exercise with no real rules. Thirteen people make decisions, often based on something called the “eye test.” College football should be about accomplishment, not how anybody looks.
A handful of programs start every season getting the most attention. We all know who they are. From time to time, another program will get into the mix. But it’s hard. College football, more than ever, is about recruiting. All those 17-year-olds glued to ESPN get are flooded with messages that if you’re really good and you want to play in the NFL, you go to one of those programs.
Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and Clemson get the lion’s share of the attention because they’ve been to the playoffs more than anybody. That’s OK. You can make the case they’ve earned it. But they also get the benefit of the doubt. Losses are often treated as accidents that are soon wiped out by the eye test. Others with similar accomplishments are dismissed as interlopers. Games with no playoff implications – which are most of them – are sideshows.
Auburn plays Northwestern in the Citrus Bowl on Friday, and outside of those two programs and their fans, it’s hardly considered worth talking about. Is it any wonder that some players decide it’s not worth it to play?
ESPN and other TV networks are in it for the money. They shower the Power 5 conferences with money because they make money in return. The aforementioned programs bring viewers. It’s a matter of economics.
There are others – including Auburn – that claim a share of that spotlight from time to time. LSU does, too. Michigan used to. So did USC. So did Florida.
But the playoff is far from the only issue. College football, often at the urging of lawyers who wring their hands about exploited athletes while trying to make money off that supposed exploitation, becomes more like the NFL with each passing year. It’s even going to have its own kind of free agency come January. Name, image and likeness legislation will be widely abused from the moment it is put into place.
Playing for a scholarship worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, a substantial stipend every month and an opportunity to get a college degree is dismissed as “free labor.” Playing for school, family and teammates is widely viewed as being old-fashioned.
How did we get to this point?
Start with coaches making salaries that would make a king blush. It was predictable that, when a coach making $2 million a year became viewed as being lowly paid, players would eventually start to say “What about us?”
Lawyers, recognizing opportunities to join the party and make millions for themselves, filed a flood of lawsuits. The NCAA all but stopped enforcing its own rules. Many coaches will tell you there is more money flowing in the recruiting process now than ever before.
College football is on its way to being a watered-down version of the NFL. The game I fell in love with as a child is no more. Maybe that’s for the best. Who am I to say?
But it isn’t nearly as much fun.
