SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said recent headlines across the country have laid bare the darker side of major college sports so much that they have "lost the benefit of the doubt." Read more:
Slive manages a conference that most agree is the strongest in the country. Most of the nation's highest paid coaches do battle here. The SEC teams play in the largest, most glamorous stadiums in the country. The SEC champion has been the National Champion for the past five years. I guess one could say the league "knows football". It has the largest TV football contract (see below) of any conference. Money is rolling in from everywhere. But the SEC schools can't stay totally within NCAA rules. Currently LSU was just slapped with a one-year probation for recruiting violations. Tennessee and Auburn are awaiting verdicts from the NCAA for the same reasons.
It seems that the only private university in the conference, Vanderbilt, is also the only squeaky clean school as per the NCAA. Vanderbilt also has the poorest won-lost record ever. Wonder why? Well, Vandy admits real students. Those students take real courses and they all graduate, unlike the situation at other schools. Isn't this the way it should at all colleges?
Some coaches disagree with Slive's suggestion that the score on the required sixteen high school core courses be raised from 2.0 to 2.5. Come on, man. Who needs to be able to read as long as he can catch a pass or sack a quarterback. Those academically challenged kids put fans in the stadiums and a check mark on the left of the won/loss column.
The bottom line is that college was never meant to be for everyone. The opportunity to attend should be there for everyone who works and maintains a high school average that warrants college admission. Athletes should meet the same admissions standards as every other applicant.
College should be for learning and preparation for life and a career. A college's name and its facilities (Sports Palaces) should not be used to promote or perpetuate professional sports teams. The only difference between SEC football and the NFL is that SEC players aren't paid obscene salaries. The obscene salaries in the SEC are paid to the coaches.
Does anyone recall an Ivy league school being sanctioned by the NCAA? How many FCS schools have been put on NCAA probation? Big money brings big pressures and big temptations.
And, Folks, money is what it is all about.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Things that piss me off
1. The NFL lockout. On one side there are multimillionaire owners who seek more millions. I guess that is a reasonable goal for a successful business person.
On the other sideline are the players who want more of everything. “Hey look at me and my gold chains” attitudes. Guys, some of who do not even have a college degree, making salaries of $20+ millions. There are presently 25 players making over $12 million. The average salary of a roster player ranges from $1,177,280 if you are a SF 49er to $560,000 as a Kansas City Chief. Hey most of us could live pretty well on half-a-mil.
It is true that the average career as an NFL player is not one that extends to normal retirement age of the rest of the working society. So get it while you can is a reasonable attitude. Let’s assume you are quarterback Philip Rivers of San Diego. Rivers’ annual salary in 2009-10 was $25,556,630. If his career lasts another five years, that’s $127,783,150. How can a man spend $127,000,000?
The owners have and are taking business risks as any business owner does. They make it possible for the players to command the kind of obscene salaries they are paid. Without the owners, the players have no stage on which to perform. Yet the owners are crazy as bedbugs. St. Louis made a deal with first round draft pick Sam Bradford paying him $78 million over six years, with $50 million guaranteed. If his career ends because of an injury in year 2 of his contract, he still gets $50 million. It sounds like a dumb deal to me.
Of course both sides are bickering over some $9 BILLION in cash that is on the table. People murder for that kind of money. Divide the money equally among the 32 NFL cities for the purpose of improving education in those cities. Heaven knows American education could stand some improving.
Salary data from http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/football/nfl/salaries/player/top-25
2. Politicians in general. The founding fathers never intended for members of Congress to be or become professional politicians. Their idea was of citizen senators and representatives. They never envisioned “pork barreling” as a tool of negotiation. They never dreamed of a Supreme Court that attempts to take God out of everything. We know this is true, because they had the early builders put In God We Trust on all our currency, and all public buildings in Washington, including the Supreme Court Building. Yeah I know, they also never dreamed of cars, planes or rockets either. Yet they were bargained that if this country stayed faithful to God, God would truly bless us. Right now, if you were God would you remain faithful to America? A country that has made it unlawful to display His Ten Commandments in/on public buildings. A country that has sunken to the depths of such indecent language in public,in print and in movies and television. A country that constantly tells our young people that having sex is ok if it makes you feel good.
3. Political Correctness. I in no way advocate embarrassing or demeaning another person by verbal cruelty. But I do believe that a “Rose is a Rose by any other name” (William Shakespeare, I think). One cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. One does not make a school better by simply calling it an Academy. One does not make homosexuality more acceptable by calling it a Gay lifestyle. America is obsessed with sex and all perverted forms of it. So were the last Romans.
"Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don't seem to see this." - Doris Lessing, 2007 Nobel Prize for literature.
On the other sideline are the players who want more of everything. “Hey look at me and my gold chains” attitudes. Guys, some of who do not even have a college degree, making salaries of $20+ millions. There are presently 25 players making over $12 million. The average salary of a roster player ranges from $1,177,280 if you are a SF 49er to $560,000 as a Kansas City Chief. Hey most of us could live pretty well on half-a-mil.
It is true that the average career as an NFL player is not one that extends to normal retirement age of the rest of the working society. So get it while you can is a reasonable attitude. Let’s assume you are quarterback Philip Rivers of San Diego. Rivers’ annual salary in 2009-10 was $25,556,630. If his career lasts another five years, that’s $127,783,150. How can a man spend $127,000,000?
The owners have and are taking business risks as any business owner does. They make it possible for the players to command the kind of obscene salaries they are paid. Without the owners, the players have no stage on which to perform. Yet the owners are crazy as bedbugs. St. Louis made a deal with first round draft pick Sam Bradford paying him $78 million over six years, with $50 million guaranteed. If his career ends because of an injury in year 2 of his contract, he still gets $50 million. It sounds like a dumb deal to me.
Of course both sides are bickering over some $9 BILLION in cash that is on the table. People murder for that kind of money. Divide the money equally among the 32 NFL cities for the purpose of improving education in those cities. Heaven knows American education could stand some improving.
Salary data from http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/football/nfl/salaries/player/top-25
2. Politicians in general. The founding fathers never intended for members of Congress to be or become professional politicians. Their idea was of citizen senators and representatives. They never envisioned “pork barreling” as a tool of negotiation. They never dreamed of a Supreme Court that attempts to take God out of everything. We know this is true, because they had the early builders put In God We Trust on all our currency, and all public buildings in Washington, including the Supreme Court Building. Yeah I know, they also never dreamed of cars, planes or rockets either. Yet they were bargained that if this country stayed faithful to God, God would truly bless us. Right now, if you were God would you remain faithful to America? A country that has made it unlawful to display His Ten Commandments in/on public buildings. A country that has sunken to the depths of such indecent language in public,in print and in movies and television. A country that constantly tells our young people that having sex is ok if it makes you feel good.
3. Political Correctness. I in no way advocate embarrassing or demeaning another person by verbal cruelty. But I do believe that a “Rose is a Rose by any other name” (William Shakespeare, I think). One cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. One does not make a school better by simply calling it an Academy. One does not make homosexuality more acceptable by calling it a Gay lifestyle. America is obsessed with sex and all perverted forms of it. So were the last Romans.
"Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don't seem to see this." - Doris Lessing, 2007 Nobel Prize for literature.
Monday, July 4, 2011
July 4: Why Blondie Loves America
This article was published by my friend Bob Lee of bobleesays.com fame.
"Blondie wrote this piece back in 2007 for our pal Toronto talk show host Jerry Agar. It has held up well in the ensuing years. I’d like to say I helped her craft these powerful words but I didn’t. I was probably writing some dumb sports column while she was actually “saving Western Civilization”. Bless her heart!" - BobLee
Click for full article. It will make your day.
Thanks, BobLee
"Blondie wrote this piece back in 2007 for our pal Toronto talk show host Jerry Agar. It has held up well in the ensuing years. I’d like to say I helped her craft these powerful words but I didn’t. I was probably writing some dumb sports column while she was actually “saving Western Civilization”. Bless her heart!" - BobLee
Click for full article. It will make your day.
Thanks, BobLee
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