DDT

Keeping it real

DDT opinion 
By SAM•U•L

College football is the game we love and continue to attend, if not in actual presence, at least in spirit and vicariously through the electronic media. Even in Northern New Mexico, the world’s largest outdoor insane asylum, where football rates right down there with grits and the Grand Ol’ Opry, a few of us show up at the temple of the flickering tube each Saturday afternoon and pay close attention to the game.

Then Monday through Friday, like some secret cult or religious sect, we gather up in bars or coffee houses in small groups and exchange opinions and ideas, speaking our coded language, using terms and phrases like “O” and “D,” “fetching the rock” and “elevating the pod,” as our fellow patrons eye us suspiciously and wonder what the fascination is with a game played by college boys, coached by fanatics and financed by wealthy middle-aged fraternity brothers who never outgrew the passion they once felt around the campus on Saturday afternoons in the fall.

We try to explain that college football connects us to our fathers, who shared their traditions and enthusiasm for the game that became a right of passage for our generation, just as it had for theirs.

But theirs was a different game, at least compared to the modern bankrolled competitions we’ve created. It’s not the sins of the fathers that have changed the game, it is the sins of the sons—our generation!— that have allowed College football in the 21st Century to mutate into an arms race where the rich get richer and poor are falling behind. 

College football, today, is all about big budgets, big salaries, big winners, big losers. We’re a generation of quota mongers who equate big numbers with goodness and can justify any cause if the bottom line is in the black—and ever-growing.


The interviewers and interviewees talk about winning through hard work, dedication and overcoming adversity, but winning is no longer a dream or an admirable goal, it is a mandate. Win now! Win big! Win consistently!

As proof, an alarming trend we’re seeing in that past few years has been the shrinking job tenure at major Division One football programs. Coaches are being fired after only two years on the job because they didn’t show the progress that howling mobs of alumni demand. Examples: Turner Gill, Kansas, two years on the job and fired; Jon Embree, Colorado, two years on the job and fired. Ellis Johnson at Southern Mississippi was sacked after only one year as head coach. Unfortunately, his team lost all 12 games in the 2012 season. Gene Chizik won a national championship at Auburn in 2010. This year, his team went 3-9, 0-8 in SEC play. Fired. A national championship, five coach of the year awards and gone. Job tenure in his case, four years.

The old adage, great players make great coaches has been forgotten. Athletic directors can’t fire all those players, so they fire the coach and hope the new hire can bring in a higher caliber of performer quickly.

Complicating the process has been the success of Brian Kelley at Notre Dame, who, in his third year as head coach at Notre Dame, had the Irish playing for a national championship. That has become the “Win now, win big paradigm.” But Kelley is the fourth prelate to coach Notre Dame since they won their last national championship 25 years ago. Average tenure of the three who served in the interim—four years. All three had winning records, but none contended for the national championship.

 It has been DDT’s platform, editorial stance, and humble but deadly accurate opinion that there are some alarming trends in college football:
• Thumbs down on conference hopping. Texas A&M’s move to the SEC is a betrayal college football tradition. Traditional rivalries with Texas, Baylor, TCU and Texas Tech were traded for membership in a confederacy of southern teams that, with the exception of LSU, the Ags have nothing in common with. The Big 12’s new TV contracts will pay members on a par with other major conference contracts. TAMU, Missouri, Nebraska and Colorado could have stayed in the Big 12 and done no worse than where they are, now. 
    DDT sees little gain in Pitt and Syracuse’s moves to the ACC, and Rutger’s and Maryland’s moves to the Big 10.
    There were some sensible moves. After flirting with the Big East, TCU finally pulled back to their home turf and joined the Big 12. Boise State has realized that shifting to the Big East would be wrong and will stay in the Mountain West. It remains to be seen if San Diego State will stay west instead of going to the Big East (aka Big Least). They should stay west.

• Thumbs down on freshman and sophomores winning the Heisman Trophy. An award designed for the best all-around player is being given the player with the most impressive offensive stats and highest profile on T.V., late in the season.

• Thumbs down on long delays by the NCAA in investigating rules violations, delays that result in sanctions being imposed on teams with coaches who were not responsible for the infractions and on players who were still in high school at the time.

•Thumbs down on all the changing unis, most of which look like your pajamas. Football uniforms should stay with tradition. The best looking uni in college football is still Penn State’s. Two of the worst from the past season were the harequinesque configurations Nebraska and Wisconsin came up with for their game. The cluttered look Navy wore a couple of times looked like the parade uniforms of a banana republic.






DDT says:
• There should be a playoff in DivOne. It’s coming, but with only four teams involved in the bracket. An eight-team format would be more accurate. DivOneAA (FCS) has a 20-team playoff; DivTwo, 16 teams; DivThree, 32 teams. It can be done.
     
• With the bigs getting bigger and the others dropping back in the financial arms race, there should be two divisions within DivOne—a major conference division and a mid-major division. Each should have its own playoff. Then if mids want to play majors on the road in “play-for-pay” arrangements during the regular they can. But their won/lost records against majors should not affect their playoff position on their level.
    The recent Orange Bowl pitting Florida State of the ACC, considered a major conference, against Northern Illinois of MAC, a mid-major, shows the disparity between the majors and the mids. Florida State was a two-TD favorite and dominated the game winning 31-10. Not surprising.
    According to recent stats published by USA Today, Northern Illinois athletics take in just over $24 million per annum in revenue. Florida State takes in $78 million.
     The $18 mil that Northern Illinois received for playing in the Orange Bowl will help their program immensely, but it still won’t bring them—or any other program in the MAC—up to the major conference level in budget and facilities, long term.

Footnote: Notre Dame’s poor performance against Alabama makes Northern Illinois look good. And we have to remember that Utah and Boise State, playing as mid-majors, beat majors in BCS bowls in the last ten years. But those games are rare, and in the case of Northern Illinois they really weren’t much of a factor in the recent Orange Bowl. 

• To help level the playing field, DDT has proposed caps: budget caps, salary caps for coaches. It may be too late for that, at least for the time being. With some of the glittering Mahals the big programs have built, the operating budgets just to keep the lights on are probably bigger than the total budgets of some small programs. But budgets could be frozen to curtail the arms race.
    Slow down, let the others catch up a little.
    And how much money does a coach have to make?

Footnote: Chris Ault, recently retired at Nevada, voluntarily took a cut in pay to help keep expenditures in that athletic department in line. He was making close to but just a little less than a mil a year, not bad wages even with a cut. Compare that to DivOne major conference coaches who make as much as $5.5 mil per annum. 

• Cap player weights. The human frame in not designed to weigh 350 pounds and take the impact of collisions with 350-pounders. And now the elephant in the room, steroids, is beginning to make itself known. That will be the next scandal in the college game.
    We’ll see if the NCAA handles it in an even-handed manner by an amnesty and creating meaningful legislation, or whether they’ll continue with their policies of scape goating a program here and there, as they do with other problems.

• Play-for-pay arrangements are one thing—mids playing majors on the road, early in the season—but playing those type games late in the season is poor sportsmanship. Examples: Nov. 17, 2012, Alabama 49, Western Carolina 0; Florida 23, Jacksonville State 0; South Carolina 24, Wofford 7. All three routs could have been worse. The three losers are DivOneAA programs, strong within their division in some cases, but still members of a lower division with smaller, slower players.
    If the bigs must have a break late in the season, they should take a week off. Playing no-contest contests proves nothing.

• Coaches whose teams are invited to a bowl game, but who have taken other jobs, should be required to coach their present team in the post-season game. If they don’t, the team should not play in the bowl. Playing in a bowl game with an interim coaching staff that is usually getting ready to move to other jobs themselves is like getting a divorce, then trying to go on a honeymoon.
    And schools that fire their coaches should not play in bowl games.

• Many mid-major programs should look at dropping back to DivOneAA (FCS). Three salients are the service academies. Given the size limitations of academy players, especially Army who is looking for smaller, scrappy, muscle, blood and bone ranger types, none of the three service schools will ever be what they were during the days of Davis and Blanchard or Staubach. To paraphrase what Lou Holz once said, “If discipline was all that was required to win in college football, Army, Navy, and Air Force would be one, two, three.” But size and speed are the thing these days and the academies don’t recruit size.
    DDT supports the military academies in all endeavors, applauds the success they’ve enjoyed, but doesn’t think they can ever compete with the major conference powers year-in, year-out, if for no other reason than the size of cadets. There will never be 350-pound fighter pilots, ship captains, tank or infantry commanders.
    Many other programs, if for no other reason than budget limitations, should drop back to DivOneAA, where they’ll have better chance to win. A good example is Eastern Michigan: Expenses, $25 mil, 82% subsidized. Average attendance for home games: 4,000. Average finish in the MAC: last. Question: What are they thinking?

• One solution DDT has proposed is an academic conference, one where some of the better, private academic schools, most with lower football budgets and who aren’t football factories, would just play each other.

• Players proven to be culpable in NCAA violations that lead to sanctions, but who move on to the NFL and begin earning large salaries made possible by their college careers, should be sued by their alma maters and made to pay some sort of restitution. Example: Reggie Bush, USC.
    On the other hand, if the institution is involved in the cheating, let the punishment fit the crime. However, the punishment should be related to recruiting and player violations. The recent sanctions handed down to Penn State in what is a criminal matter should not have been imposed on the sports teams.

• Domed stadiums don’t get it. College football was meant to be played outside on grass no matter what the weather, the colder and rainier and nastier the better. The players tough it out on the field. The fans tough it out in the stands. Everybody suffers. Everybody happy.

• Neutral site games are a cop-out. LSU and Oregon, Texas A&M and Arkansas at JerryWorld last year were just venues for tourism. Alabama and VaTech at the Georgia Dome and Notre Dame and Arizona State at JerryWorld next season are the same. All those schools have good, big home stadiums where their games should be played.      
    Texas/OU at the Cotton Bowl and Georgia/Florida (“The Cocktail Party”) are grandfathered in. All these other one-shot games just serve tourism interests in the big markets. Why does college football allow itself to be used?

• Conference playoffs are redundant and rarely prove anything.

• Two OTs after regulation play is plenty. A tie is not the end of the world. Anything beyond two OTs is dangerous for the players. And teams must go for two after all TDs in OT.

 • JumboTrons. They’ve damaged the atmosphere at college games. People just sit around and watch Jumbo like they are home watching T.V. The game and the bands are enough! Ya wanna watch TV, stay home. How many times have we been sitting there trying to hear a college band play a fight song after a big play, and Jumbo cuts in with bad loud rock music and a commercial and steps on it. And at a much greater level of volume.
    Solution: Mic up the bands. If loudness is the thing, then let the bands be loud, not an electronic monster TV screen. Instant replay is nice but, hey, pay attention. Watch the game, and if you miss a big play it’s your own fault.

DDT remains old school, out of touch, idealistic, and basically unrepentant. But with a fighting spirit, hopefully tempered by humor.

And, may we add, something the late great Molly Ivins said: “When you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”

It’s still fun. When it ceases to be, we’re outta here.

Addendum: There have been 28 coaching changes in DivOne college football since the conclusion of 2012 regular season play.Three coaches retired, 13 were fired and 12 moved on to other, usually better, positions.

Of the 28 schools that had coaching changes, 11 played in bowls without the head man who guided them in 2012. Five of those teams won their bowl game, six lost. The two whose coaches were fired, NCState and Purdue, lost—badly in Purdue’s case (58-14 to Oklahoma State).

Among the coaching changes, three schools replaced a black coach with a white coach; three replaced a white coach with a black coach. There are currently 13 black head coaches in DivOne college football, with the best known and, to date, most successful being: David Shaw, Stanford; Charlie Strong, Louisville; Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M; and James Franklin, Vanderbilt.

There are two head coaches who were born in Hawaii: Ken Niumatulolo, Navy; and Norm Chow, Hawaii.

Two head coaches have Hispanic surnames: Justin Fuente, Memphis; and Rich Rodriguez, Arizona. The BCA (Black Coaches Association), as of last year, did not list Rodriguez as a “minority coach,” which was, in the view of some, a way of questioning his “mestizaje.”

Longest tenure as a head coach at the same school in DivOne: Frank Beamer, VaTech, 25 years. 

Salaries of coaches whose teams were ranked in the Top Ten at the end of regular season play in 2012, or, Why coaches want to move up and join the big crap shoot in the Top 25: Nick Saban, Alabama, $5,500,00
Les Miles, LSU, $4,000,000
Steve Spurrier, South Carolina, $3,600,00
Chip Kelly, Oregon, $3,500,00
Mark Richt, Georgia, $3,000,000
Brian Kelly, Notre Dame, $2,600,00
Will Muschamp, Florida, $2,500,000
Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M, $2,500,000
Bill Snyder, KState, $2,200,000
David Shaw, Stanford, $1,500,000

Among the country club set who are missing in the Top Ten at the conclusion of the 2012 season: 
Mack Brown, Texas, $5,400,000
Bob Stoops, OU, $4,500,00
Kirk Ferentz, Iowa, $3,900,000
Gary Patterson, TCU, $3,500,000
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State, $3,600,000

Most are not far away from getting back to the elite group. All understand that if they don’t, early retirement may be imposed. 

Salaries of coaches whose teams are the bottom five, 120-124, in DivOne: 
Charley Molnar, UMass, $400,000
Dwayne Walker, New Mexico State, $400,000
Bobby Hauck, UNLV, $525,000
Ron English, Eastern Michigan, $375,000
Terry Bowden, Akron, $400,000

The bottom group may make a tenth-or-less of the big dogs, but they pay more taxes than the average citizen since they are in the “over $250,000 in annual earnings per annum grouping,” which is defined as “wealthy” by the government.

Why it’s important to play in the big bowl games: 
The BCS Bowls, the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange and the BCS championship game paid each participating team $18 million. The Cotton, Chick-a-Fil, Outback, Buffalo Wild Wings, Holiday and Alamo Bowls pay between $2.5 and $4.5 mil per team.

The rest fall far below those numbers, with the bottom of the barrel being the New Orleans Bowl, that pays just $500K per squad, which, in some cases, hasn’t covered travel expenses.

There were 54 DivOne squads who got no bowl and no post-season money. Nine of the 11 coaches who were fired coached at those schools.

How the conferences did in the bowls:
Conference USA, 4-1
ACC, 4-2
SEC, 6-3
Big East, 3-2
MAC, 3-3
Big 12, 4-4
PAC 12, 3-4
Sunbelt, 1-2
Big 10, 2-5
Mountain West, 1-4
Indies, 1-2