As college football moves toward more autonomy and increased benefits for power 5 conference athletes, it’s worth asking if we’re moving towards a college football that we actually want?
With hundreds of millions in television contracts being negotiated, the stakes are bigger than ever for power college football programs.
As such, coaches are canned quickly if on-field results aren’t visible. Programs like Michigan initiate a “Harbaugh or Bust” mentality for pursuing a head football coach.
It’s not just the coaches that are in demand. The University of Florida – on top of the college football world just a few years ago – is finding itself on the negative end of the “facilities” conversation. The program is struggling to get back to its championship ways, and the logical response apparently is calling boosters together to initiate a massive capital campaign to build new buildings that are needed to attract 17-year old high school football players.
Yesterday’s championship coach is on next year’s hot seat, and those killer facilities built a few years ago are now outdated. It’s an endless cycle that seems to dominate much of the conversation in college football today.
The call to pay athletes in recent years is another example of college football becoming, well, something else.
With a recent decision, athletes will now get “full cost of attendance” scholarships – a term created to basically say athletes need some more cash.
Unfortunately between the nonstop call to pay athletes, the endlessly swirling coaching carousel and facilities arms races (not to mention nonsensical noise like Phyllis phone calls on ESPN radio), the things that make college football great are often shoved aside.
Need an example? College football fans are familiar with Oregon’s Marcus Mariota talents and even his character, but we could stand to give more air time to the great stories that were recently reported at the Daily Emerald. In the report, fans wrote in special memories of Oregon’s Heisman quarterback, and they represent everything great about college football:
Mariota made time for kids who looked up to him:
It was December of 2012. The Ducks were getting ready to play in the Fiesta Bowl and my wife was at Valley River Center with my 6 year old doing some Christmas shopping. Outside the Duck Store my wife realized that Marcus Mariota and several other players are walking toward them. My son is a huge Duck fan and recognized Mariota. He sheepishly waved and muttered hello to one of his “top two” favorite players (De’Anthony Thomas was, at the time, probably his favorite). Mariota stopped walking, got down on one knee and asked my son how he was doing. Mariota noticed my son’s ninja t-shirt, said he really liked ninjas and asked my son why he liked ninjas. They proceeded to have a conversation about ninjas. Not about football, the Ducks, or how great Mariota was, but about ninjas.
He also served at a local Boys and Girls Club:
The kids would invariably flock to him and ask him to sign things. He would greet them with high fives and smiles. He always played in the gym with them. The kids like to play a game called “octopus,” which involved throwing, running, and catching. One day, a boy rushed out of the gym angry and close to tears. A professional staff member followed after him and I continued my work.
Moments later, I looked out the window to see that Marcus had joined the boy on a bench outside. The two sat there talking while a staff member looked on from inside. The boy had obviously calmed down and was soon smiling. His mother even arrived to pick him up and brought their dog along. The three remained outside talking and playing with dog before the boy went home with a smile on his face.
Kudos to the report from the Daily Emerald. Check it out to read more of the stories about Mariota.
As college football moves closer to a minor professional football, let’s not forget about guys like Mariota.
Let’s not forget that college football can still be great even when your team fails to win ten games.
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
