December 20, 2021
Get Used To …
Today’s BLSays is based on the premise that most of you reading this are “dismayed” that …
Big Time College Football that you have enjoyed for most of your life; and centered much of your social relationships around is no longer recognizable….
… and no one asked your opinion before they screwed it all up!
“No longer recognizable” and permanently altered so drastically that “going ostrich” and pretending “… but, but My Team is pure as the driven snow, at least when compared to those low-down cheatin’ SOBs at (insert Hated Rival)…” is pretty much impossible now.
It’s time to accept that it is NOT a morality play with well-defined heroes and villains … with Your Team, of course, in the white hats. College Football is simply well-choreographed ENTERTAINMENT resplendent in color and pageantry on Fall Saturdays.
The gladiators aren’t “student athletes” … The cheerleaders aren’t virgins … and, with Eeeevil Johnny Swofford no longer the ACC puppetmaster, the crooked refs aren’t all crooked.
Unlike the highly entertaining quality of professional wrestling, I do NOT believe the outcome of games is predetermined. The age-old premise of “crooked refs” always favoring “them” over “us” is simply a facet of human nature that separates sports fans from more rational advanced species.
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I proffered several years ago that the two teams of combatants could switch jerseys at halftime and few if any would notice … or much care. Fans cheer for “a jersey color”.
Approach it simplistically like Andy Griffith did in “What It Was Was Football” back in 1953.
“the awfullest fight that I have ever seen…in my life!” complete with convicts, pumpkins and a Big Orange …
FWIW … even under threat of losing my fishing license (NO!), I can not name ten players from this current season of college football… and I’m talking all across the fruited plain not just “around here”. A bunch of QBs named “Sam” … right?
That has not kept me from enjoying each Saturday Game Day. My perceived self-worth NOT being endangered by the outcome of a game is, of course, an advantage I evolved to that many of you haven’t. I hope someday that you will.
OK … enough zen philosophizing. Lets talk about all those Drastic Changes that are so obliterating the game you knew and loved …
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NIL … It took “them” almost 20 years to finally legalize “The $100 Handshake” that has been an integral part of college football since Red Grange was “gallopin’ and those Four Horsemen rode “under a blue-grey October sky”.
For the benefit of the dozen or so of you wondering “The $100 …” WHAT? It has been “a tradition like no other” for multi-decades for Fat Cat Boosters to go thru a winning locker room after a game to congratulate the victorious warriors … “and here’s a little something to get you and your girlfriend a nice dinner” and a Benjamin slid from booster hand to player hand … and so it went for many years.
The amount has increased with inflation of course but it’s still referred to as “The $100 Handshake”.
In partnership with “the handshake” was “the summer job on the loading dock”. Fat Cat Boosters would provide “summer jobs” to “the boys on the team”. Jobs that didn’t involve an HR Dept or even involve the player showing up … except maybe to play on the company’s softball team.
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Fast Forward to 2021 … schools that ARE SERIOUS about “Football” have now formed “Foundations” of those lovable Fat Cat Boosters to create a War Chest of Mega-$$$$ (a LOT more than $100) for NIL pay-outs to players.
Separate from traditional”booster clubs” these new NIL Foundations Univ Texas has the quintessential one … (UT’s Leverage Lineup already has a $200,000,000 War Chest for buying phenoms.) Other such slush funds are being formed across Power5 World as we speak i.e. The $100 Handshake on Steroids.
That’s NOT a typo … $200,000,000 for “Sark” to “go buy us a National Championship, ya hear…”. Wanna keep up with the Orangeblood Tea Sippers in Austin? Better ante up ASAP.
Sure, there ARE rules about NIL $$$; but there were rules about those old $100 Handshakes too … hehehehe.
This past week’s “early signing period” of recruiting saw a lot of transactions within those Foundations. Involving unmarked non-sequential bills of course.
I’m not implying Your Hallowed School is involved but you better believe Your Hated Rival certainly is. … hehehehe.
Power5 programs are working out all the work-arounds with these NIL Scams. Some clumsy programs will “get caught” but 95% of’em won’t.
That old “he can’t afford a bus ticket home for his granny’s funeral” will never be a problem again. Trust me. If he’s a 5-star phenom he can drive to granny’s funeral in a tricked-out BEMMER from Fat Cat Motors ‘R Us.
It’s “Pay To Play” for real now. If that bothers you … find something else to occupy your time on Fall Saturdays. Or simply “go ostrich” like so many have been doing for the past 50 years.
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The Transfer Portal: THIS will have more impact on College Football than legalizing “payin’em” will. They were already getting paid.
Upfront… I have Zero problem with unrestricted “free agency” in college football.
The “student athletes” (hehehehe) that are / will “transfer” are majoring in football … pursuing that as their occupation as much as for-real students pursue Dentistry, The Law, an MBA or becoming a Diversity/Gender Compliance Officer for a Fortune 500 Company run by Commie Libs.
NOTE: Speaking of “Diversity” … “Mack Is Back’s” super duper recruiting class scored a D- for its lack of “diversity”. Really, Mack ???
Pro Football is, of course, a totally unrealistic goal for 97% of them but hey …
Since I admittedly have no problem with teams trading jerseys at halftime why would I ever care who plays for who so long as “the game” I’m watching is exciting?
The days of a 4-star and above QB “holding a clipboard” are gone. If a “phenom” isn’t getting PT by the first of October his freshman year … he won’t be around come Thanksgiving. It’s His Life … let him make decisions … and accept the consequences.
I left a few jobs I probably shoulda stuck with. Haven’t you? I also took a few I never shoulda taken. Haven’t you? I accepted the consequences in every case.
So if your Heisman candidate QB, RB, WR, LB goes down early-mid season with a blown knee, shoulder or “lower extremity” injury … expect the football equivalent of a UNC-BB “biscuit boy” to take his place. Yee Haa … you just know the oddsmakers in Vegas LOVE that possibility.
Why should players be any more “loyal” than coaches are? Why indeed!
I have heard / read all the Yadda Yadda Blah Blah about “loyalty” from board monkeys as well as full-functioning adults.
“Loyal” to teammates? Nice concept in theory … but that hasn’t been a factor since “Crazy Legs” Hirsch left Wisconsin to play for Michigan.
“Loyal” to an academic institution ??? Gimme a break! The three most hypocritically corrupt institutions in America – in no particular order – are The United States Congress … Mainstream News Media … and High Academia.
High Academia with its sacred Tenure to insure “academic freedom of speech” then sets radical ideological guidelines for what “speech” it will permit on its campus from its students and faculty.
There will likely be some rules changes regarding “early signing periods” but no one can restrict a coach from changing jobs … nor should there be restrictions on players doing so.
Any rules about Fat Cat Boosters are always totally ignored. Just ask Sam Gilbert at UCLA during Wooden’s Glory Years. Or Bobby Lawing at Auburn.
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Some of you who normally agree with me may not on these issues. I expect that. It’s OK. Just don’t insult my mamma, please.
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