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It was quite a head-turning news event with Tony Bennett’s sudden announcement last week that he was retiring from his job as the head basketball coach at the University of Virginia.
In his tear-filled press conference, he talked about the new world of college athletics and that he decided he was not the right person to lead the program with so many radical changes, most importantly that players can be paid unlimited amounts of money and transfer to other schools without having to sit out a year.
Another revelation came out this week. Wake Forest football coach Dave Clawson said one of his players was offered last week a half million dollars to leave Wake and play for another college team next season. You can be sure these types of behind-the-scenes offers are going on among hundreds or possibly thousands of other college football programs last week, this week, next week, and year-round.
In this Wild West world, coaches have less control over their players and players have more control of where they want to play, when, and can make a lot of money that they weren’t getting before this new system took place.
Bennett’s decision adds to the building story about the rapidly growing list of college coaches who stepped away suddenly and at least in part for similar reasons: Jay Wright of Villanova, Roy Williams of North Carolina, Coach K at Duke, and others.
We would be naive to think this trend is not going to continue when we consider how intensely college coaches crave management of their teams from end to end.
Over the next three years, it’s likely dozens more coaches will resign to pursue other ways of making a living such as becoming assistant coaches in pro sports.
When that happens, where will we be? Players and their agents will become much wealthier.
The quality of coaching will likely be weakened because most of the better coaches will be the ones who leave as we’ve already seen. Lower quality coaching will lead to teams that don’t play quite as well, are less organized, and be littered with more players focused on making money than winning games and being loyal teammates.
Everyone involved will be looking out for themselves more overtly than ever. The well-being of their teams will become less important to them. Players will be less motivated to go to class and study because that won’t sound like as worthwhile an investment to make because they’ll already be making more money than many of the non-student athletes will make for the first ten or twenty years of their professional careers – or ever.
Fewer teams will be really good and even those teams with the most talented players won’t be as well-coached because less talented and inexperienced coaches will be leading them.
Yet I have to admit. I’ll probably keep watching at least for a few years just to watch how this whole new college football full-on business money fest plays out. Also because I like the excitement of college football.
But if the play starts to decline, the teams strike me as less cohesive, and the players become more selfish about getting their money, I’ll probably become less interested.
My hunch is the play will become less entertaining, and the quality of football not be as beautiful to witness. It will feel more like watching NFL games which I don’t even do anymore because there are so many commercials, too many tediously long replay reviews, and too little captivating football action.
The NFL feels to me like nothing more than a sophisticated money grab algorithm-powered machine luring in people who can’t control their gambling habits and like to drink away their Sundays because they dread going to work on Monday.
Is anyone honestly interested in seeing the Chiefs win another Super Bowl or Tom Brady commentate about mundane games or Travis Kelsey blowing kisses to Taylor Swift? I doubt it. Fantasy Football is keeping them tuned in.
Is college football going to end up the same way?
I think it’s possible.
And if it happens, more people turn away from it because it’s just no longer worth spending time watching because it’s not entertaining, because the people playing and coaching don’t connect with us or make us want to root for them anymore. All the greed will become too much of a turn-off. We’ll like the people less for being so preoccupied with making money.
The way things are going I believe this scenario is probably inevitable.
Unless changes are made.
There are a few that may help stop the madness, strengthen team loyalty, and slow down all the underhanded recruiting of players from other teams.
These are just ideas and, granted, probably not definitive answers. But at least something we can consider as no one else seems to be bringing forth other solutions of any kind.
For starters, I think each team should be allowed a maximum amount to spend on their college football players, say $10 million. And every team has to be transparent in how the money is being divided up among players.
Capping the amount will bring some stability to the whole money-grab situation. And making the amounts paid to each player transparent would take all the secrecy off the table. Let everybody know what each player on every team is getting paid so the negotiations on all teams are more straightforward and don’t pressure alumni to continually fork over their retirement savings to pay players endlessly and at spiraling upward amounts.
I know. This isn’t legal. Well, change the law. Or suggest a better solution. This problem needs enlightened ideas.
Second, I believe what may also help slow down this unhinged freight train would be for one major university to announce they would not pay any players to join their program beyond offering a scholarship. And if that means they’ll lose every game for the next several years then so be it. This university might motivate others to do the same, and that would be a positive stabilizing trend.
Simple rule from that brave school: We’re not paying you any extra money. We’re here to offer you a great education and to play football on scholarship. We want you. We believe in you. And we will work hard to win but we will not change our policy even if we lose every game for the next 10 years.
Universities that announced this plan would be viewed by many as heroic and uncommonly principled. So others would follow suit to get those positive branding points.
Third, there needs to be some entity in charge of all this to enforce these rules. There’s no clear entity stepping up right now but this situation is out of control and headed for structural damage on a more widespread scale than ever unless enforcement of these rules is allowed.
When systems are out of control in this country – and everybody knows it – young and old people are potentially being negatively impacted for the rest of their lives. Money doesn’t bring happiness and we all know it.
Common sense is called for.
For the benefit of everyone involved.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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