Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
College football is troubled, but - like in Monty Python’s “bring out your dead” scene in Holy Grail - it’s “not quite dead yet.”
The University of Michigan moved to the front of the headline news queue with the firing of Sherrone Moore, its in-house bump-up to head coach after Jim Harbaugh left the maize and blue.
All I’ll say about “(Sherrone Moore) and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” this past Wednesday is this. There is a certain temperament required for sustainability among the highest profiles of leadership.
“Moore saw his world meeting the oncoming avalanche” one could say in his defense.
The broad availability of footage featuring coaches who unravel in press conferences season after season is easy to search and to watch. The events following Moore’s dismissal in Washtenaw County, however, are somewhat different due to the unwelcome, heated visit he made to a private residence.
Michigan was lazy two seasons ago - too lazy to vet in its own house. But… hey… they found their “Michigan Man” didn’t they. This is an important thing for them.
Their best Michigan Man to this day was Bo Schembechler (R.I.P.). Although I’m an ardent Buckeye football fan, I admired his true friendship with legendary Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes: much love and respect off the field for “The General” and his one-time assistant, Bo.
Let’s discuss one institution. I promise to move toward the institutional collective of college football.
The net one should have cast for the Wolverines’ head football coaching job following the inevitable exit of Jim Harbaugh was not as broad as it should have been because there were quality coaches either with or without jobs who would have successfully led the prestigious program.
College football should look to the NFL for a centralized system for infractions, dismissal-worthy situations, and many of the other recent developments that have turned college football into something similar to the United States’ gilded age (circa CE 1870s – 1900).
Roger Grossman shared astute, very valid concerns in his Penalty Box column, mentioning the lack of centralized college football leadership.
I can’t get the gilded age out of my OCD brain, though, so… the obsession… ummm… compels me to… anyway, here we go.
Similar to the gilded age, college football is run by its most powerful conferences wielding influences hand-in-hand with television networks due to economies of scale (Big Ten).
Massive wealth, more rapid technological developments, and a widening rich vs. poor gap are taking place in college football as they had during the aforementioned era. This was, for what it’s worth, leading to food purity and trust-busting that started to take place further in the early 20th century.
It’s time for some college football trust-busting while the sport is, “…not quite dead yet.”
There is a valid take already stated earlier this week: SEC influence and ESPN had something to do with the swap of Notre Dame and Alabama in the College Football Playoff (CFP) selection process.
“Chip, you mean the swap between Notre Dame and the University of Miami (Florida), correct?”
No.
I believe Notre Dame’s losses to ranked teams (one being Miami) in first two contests followed by a surge in quality of play thereafter is the epitome of what college football fans want in a CFP field selection.
Ohio State lost to Oregon in the 2024 regular season and avenged same en route to the inaugural expanded CFP final.
“You know the rest,” the author remarked, smugly.
Instead, the SEC, the conference who spent years paying its athletes before the NCAA made it legal for everyone else, will be represented by a three-loss team convincingly beaten last week in its conference title game: the Alabama Crimson Tide.
There is a strong negative correlation between a notable – but not exponential YET – decline in SEC national influence with the legalization of paying athletes.
Several states have college athletes among their highest paid employees in the new world order.
Do you expect universities – who gouge students with tuition cost increases far greater than their relative operating costs – nor the affected state governments – several of whom cannot pave roads very well – to establish internal controls?
No.
I remember one time I had to attend training at Michigan State University in East Lansing (U.S. Route 127 is the primary venue as the destination draws nearer) in an era where maps were not part of your phone’s operating system, and I also forgot to bring my printed step-by-step “Interwebs” map.
Guess what I did.
I just proceeded North into the general direction of Lansing/East Lansing until I could see tall cranes. In fact, if you want to find ANY major university – especially a Big Ten institution and you have no compass nor phone app, just proceed to its approximate area until you see the cranes.
I digress.
Notre Dame… hmmm… another geographically Northern school among others who recently re-emerged as a power in college football’s new landscape, swapped with Alabama reeks of SEC-ESPN influence. It also sets a lousy precedent: a three-loss team (who was not playing well late in the regular season) entering the CFP field.
“…not quite dead yet,” unless the NCAA continues to flog it to death by letting the power conference rats run it cheese factories.
