College Football season is almost here!

[WinterBorn]

I am suspecting that the Thread Author is a Bama or Michigan fan.

Bama and Michigan fans love their use of paid professional Football players.

What else can I say?

I am the OP, and I am a Bama Fan(atic). And no, I do not love using paid professional players.

[WinterBorn]

Right, do we need to get back to the Mercedes again? The only thing your naivety is missing is the guarantee of a good college education

Back to the Mercedes again? There is nothing to get back to.

And any player on a scholarship has a quality education at his disposal. In fact, Coach Saban is adamant about the players attending class and working towards graduation.

[Geeko Sportivo]

I am the OP, and I am a Bama Fan(atic). And no, I do not love using paid professional players.

Thanks!

Alabama has only lost 15 games in the last 10 years.

But they have been busted a few times for rule violations before all that.

Texas has not beaten BAMA in 40 years. Of course the two teams have only played each other 9 times!

However, it’s interesting to note that the 2009 title game victory was Alabama’s first win against Texas in nine meetings between the two teams. Having first met 120 years ago, the Longhorns own a 7-1-1 series advantage and are certainly one of the few programs that can claim a winning record against the Tide. That game against Texas was the beginning of the Tide's modern day dynasty!

I am glad that the two teams are getting to play each other again to start this season off in a big way!

We'll have to see if Texas bothers to show up for this great opportunity!

[WinterBorn]

Thanks!

Alabama has only lost 15 games in the last 10 years.

But they have been busted a few times for rule violations before all that.

Texas has not beaten BAMA in 40 years. Of course the two teams have only played each other 9 times!

However, it’s interesting to note that the 2009 title game victory was Alabama’s first win against Texas in nine meetings between the two teams. Having first met 120 years ago, the Longhorns own a 7-1-1 series advantage and are certainly one of the few programs that can claim a winning record against the Tide. That game against Texas was the beginning of the Tide's modern day dynasty!

I am glad that the two teams are getting to play each other again to start this season off in a big way!

We'll have to see if Texas bothers to show up for this great opportunity!

I'm not sure which rule violations you are referring to. Yes, there were some many years ago.

Since Saban has been there I can recall only one. It was when a few players sold the textbooks they were given on their scholarships.

[Geeko Sportivo]

I'm not sure which rule violations you are referring to. Yes, there were some many years ago.

Since Saban has been there I can recall only one. It was when a few players sold the textbooks they were given on their scholarships.

They are old violations! The Tide was banned from several Bowl games as a result.

They would have more titles than they do now- had they been able to play them.

[archives]

Back to the Mercedes again? There is nothing to get back to.

And any player on a scholarship has a quality education at his disposal. In fact, Coach Saban is adamant about the players attending class and working towards graduation.

Yet I gave you several examples of the Mercedes and all you offered in rebuttal was you haven’t seen any, and that is “nothing?”

If I am not mistaken the vast majority of Alabama players who do graduate walk away with a degree in something called “sports management,” whatever the hell that is, and please, spare us the statistics put out by Alabama

[cawacko]

Back to the Mercedes again? There is nothing to get back to.

And any player on a scholarship has a quality education at his disposal. In fact, Coach Saban is adamant about the players attending class and working towards graduation.

This is more a general statement but we've heard plenty of stories throughout the years of coaches pushing players into easier majors (more time to focus on football, easier to stay elgible etc.) So on one hand coaches will give lip service to the importance of education and getting a degree but they don't get paid because a kid chooses to take a harder major.

Now the reality is not every kid in college football would qualify for their school strictly based on academic admissions (at least at the better academic institutions). So in that scenario they probably aren't ready to study STEM or Business. So someone like that taking a 'lessor' major and getting a degree is a big accomplishment. But based on the anecdotal stories I've heard from friends and acquittances who played big time D-1 ball, coaches aren't pushing you to achieve your academic best.

[Mott the Hoople]

Yeah, they add the tax, shipping and handling, college fund fee, substitution fee, my nuts itch fee, and THEN they start adding bigger charges.

It’s not just that. The ticket prices aren’t fixed at face value. Dynamic Pricing is just marketing language for “we are cutting out the middleman and scalping tickets by auctioning them off to the highest bidder.”.

I’ll give you an example of what they are doing.

I saw ads that Bruce Springsteen was coming to Columbus and my wife is a big Springsteen fan. So I logged on to Ticketmaster and saw some mid level tickets at $250 ea. Keep in mind that these were not after market tickets not did this include their BS fees. So I selected the two tickets and went to checkout to buy them only to get to check out and the dynamic pricing had kicked the tickets price to $500 because I had offered to pay $250 for them. I couldn’t believe my eyes so I refreshed the window and that fast the price had gone up to $700 per ticket. To which I said fuck ticket master and Bruce Springsteen.

I don’t which was worse, my outrage at Ticketmaster or my disappointment at Springsteen for being such a fucking hypocrite.

[Mott the Hoople]

This is more a general statement but we've heard plenty of stories throughout the years of coaches pushing players into easier majors (more time to focus on football, easier to stay elgible etc.) So on one hand coaches will give lip service to the importance of education and getting a degree but they don't get paid because a kid chooses to take a harder major.

Now the reality is not every kid in college football would qualify for their school strictly based on academic admissions (at least at the better academic institutions). So in that scenario they probably aren't ready to study STEM or Business. So someone like that taking a 'lessor' major and getting a degree is a big accomplishment. But based on the anecdotal stories I've heard from friends and acquittances who played big time D-1 ball, coaches aren't pushing you to achieve your academic best.

Oh there’s no doubt about that. I’ve talked to quite a few former D-1 players who were under constant pressure to change their majors to a Mickey Mouse major. Do you remember Bob Hoying who played QB for OSU in the 90’s? He told me he was under constant pressure from Coach Cooper to drop his Business major to an easier major to focus more on football. He refused to do it. Coach Cooper then decided to teach Bob a lesson by splitting time at starting QB to teach him a lesson even though the QB Bob was splitting time with was clearly not as good as Bob. Coach Coopers reasoning was the other QB was more dedicated to playing football. Bob held to his guns and did not change his major though he continued to get pressured by Coach Cooper and his staff to do so until his senior year. Ironically after Bob had a great senior season that one of the awards he won was a scholarship to OSU’s Fischer Business Schools MBA program.

Bob’s Uncle had a similar experience at Michigan where he was offered a football scholarship. He was a pre-med Major and his Freshman year was told by Coach Schembechler that if he didn’t change his major to focus on football he would lose his scholarship. He promptly quit the team, finished his Bio degree at Michigan and then matriculated to OSU’s School of Dentistry, became a DDS and had a very prosperous career as a dentist.

I know several other former Michigan players who had that experience. One was Mike Hammerstein from Wapakoneta, OH and he was pressured constantly to drop his pre med major. One of my co-workers was an offensive lineman at Michigan and he said he was constantly pressured to drop his business major.

Then who can forget the fiasco with Coach Cooper and Robert Smith back in the 90’s when Smith was constantly being hassled his sophomore year by his position coach for spending to much time studying organic chemistry. So Smith simply quit the football team to focus on his studies. Since Smith was already one of the best RB’s in college football Coach Cooper basically had to eat crow and ask Smith to rejoin the team. That was when the OSU fan base turned on Coach Cooper as we now understood that he was not liked by his players who struck back at him by not showing up for big games. Cooper made their lives so miserable that they just wanted to get the game over with and weren’t particularly concerned about the outcome. Coach Cooper would go back to two a day training for bowl games and the players would put up with it until they traveled to the game site and then the only thing they cared about was partying. This explains why Cooper had such a miserable record against good teams and bowl games. I have not met many former Cooper players who had a high opinion of them.

Even Coach Hayes was guilty of that. At the end of the infamous 74 season when the OSU/Michigan game ended in a tie and both OSU and Michigan had identical records the Big 10 Commissioners chose OSU to play in the Rose Bowl. The OSU players were so mad at how Woody had treated them like Children and kept them under military style discipline with two a day work outs and strict curfews where they had to be either at their hotel room or at the training facility. The players had such a miserable time that the purposefully threw the game.

So when the Big 10 gave the Rose Bowl invite to OSU the next year the team went on strike and refused to play in the Rose Bowl unless Woody lightened up. Well Woody’s response was pretty typical. He threw a temper tantrum and threatened to kick all the players off the team. The players called his bluff as Woody couldn’t possibly do that. So Woody had to compromise and he did. He took it easy on the players the two weeks they were their with team trips to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. OSU won that Rosebowl.

So that crap in college football has been going on a very long time.

[cawacko]

Oh there’s no doubt about that. I’ve talked to quite a few former D-1 players who were under constant pressure to change their majors to a Mickey Mouse major. Do you remember Bob Hoying who played QB for OSU in the 90’s? He told me he was under constant pressure from Coach Cooper to drop his Business major to an easier major to focus more on football. He refused to do it. Coach Cooper then decided to teach Bob a lesson by splitting time at starting QB to teach him a lesson even though the QB Bob was splitting time with was clearly not as good as Bob. Coach Coopers reasoning was the other QB was more dedicated to playing football. Bob held to his guns and did not change his major though he continued to get pressured by Coach Cooper and his staff to do so until his senior year. Ironically after Bob had a great senior season that one of the awards he won was a scholarship to OSU’s Fischer Business Schools MBA program.

Bob’s Uncle had a similar experience at Michigan where he was offered a football scholarship. He was a pre-med Major and his Freshman year was told by Coach Schembechler that if he didn’t change his major to focus on football he would lose his scholarship. He promptly quit the team, finished his Bio degree at Michigan and then matriculated to OSU’s School of Dentistry, became a DDS and had a very prosperous career as a dentist.

I know several other former Michigan players who had that experience. One was Mike Hammerstein from Wapakoneta, OH and he was pressured constantly to drop his pre med major. One of my co-workers was an offensive lineman at Michigan and he said he was constantly pressured to drop his business major.

Then who can forget the fiasco with Coach Cooper and Robert Smith back in the 90’s when Smith was constantly being hassled his sophomore year by his position coach for spending to much time studying organic chemistry. So Smith simply quit the football team to focus on his studies. Since Smith was already one of the best RB’s in college football Coach Cooper basically had to eat crow and ask Smith to rejoin the team. That was when the OSU fan base turned on Coach Cooper as we now understood that he was not liked by his players who struck back at him by not showing up for big games. Cooper made their lives so miserable that they just wanted to get the game over with and weren’t particularly concerned about the outcome. Coach Cooper would go back to two a day training for bowl games and the players would put up with it until they traveled to the game site and then the only thing they cared about was partying. This explains why Cooper had such a miserable record against good teams and bowl games. I have not met many former Cooper players who had a high opinion of them.

Even Coach Hayes was guilty of that. At the end of the infamous 74 season when the OSU/Michigan game ended in a tie and both OSU and Michigan had identical records the Big 10 Commissioners chose OSU to play in the Rose Bowl. The OSU players were so mad at how Woody had treated them like Children and kept them under military style discipline with two a day work outs and strict curfews where they had to be either at their hotel room or at the training facility. The players had such a miserable time that the purposefully threw the game.

So when the Big 10 gave the Rose Bowl invite to OSU the next year the team went on strike and refused to play in the Rose Bowl unless Woody lightened up. Well Woody’s response was pretty typical. He threw a temper tantrum and threatened to kick all the players off the team. The players called his bluff as Woody couldn’t possibly do that. So Woody had to compromise and he did. He took it easy on the players the two weeks they were their with team trips to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. OSU won that Rosebowl.

So that crap in college football has been going on a very long time.

Great post! The reality is there’s no incentive for coaches to push the kids academically. There’s definitely incentive to keep them eligible and I don’t have doubts they want to see them graduate (because those numbers get reported) but when it comes to athletes how many times have we heard the phrase “their degree isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”? Reason being, like we discussed, coaches push them to the easiest majors possible.

(I’ve talked to a couple of people who tutored USC football players in the ‘90’s and they shook their head and said several of them could barely read. Basically they had no business being at USC academically. And at that point you’re just relying on tutors to do their work for them and try to keep them eligible. But the opposite are the stories you described, those who are academically capable and want to push themselves and take ‘harder’ majors but get pushback from coaches.)

[archives]

Great post! The reality is there’s no incentive for coaches to push the kids academically. There’s definitely incentive to keep them eligible and I don’t have doubts they want to see them graduate (because those numbers get reported) but when it comes to athletes how many times have we heard the phrase “their degree isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”? Reason being, like we discussed, coaches push them to the easiest majors possible.

(I’ve talked to a couple of people who tutored USC football players in the ‘90’s and they shook their head and said several of them could barely read. Basically they had no business being at USC academically. And at that point you’re just relying on tutors to do their work for them and try to keep them eligible. But the opposite are the stories you described, those who are academically capable and want to push themselves and take ‘harder’ majors but get pushback from coaches.)

North Carolina even went beyond that, creating their own course of “study” for athletes, even their own curriculum, lot of “independent study (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univer...hletic_scandal). The slap on the wrist showed the unwillingness of the NCAA to even address the problem back then, too much money involved, and now, the NCAA is totally out of the picture

Question becomes what happen when the school conflicts with the NIL funding alumni over the academic question? If the high priced starting athlete decides he isn’t going to bother with school, why would he, he’s not there for an education, will the school step in with fear of alienating the alumni paying the athlete?

[WinterBorn]

North Carolina even went beyond that, creating their own course of “study” for athletes, even their own curriculum, lot of “independent study (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univer...hletic_scandal). The slap on the wrist showed the unwillingness of the NCAA to even address the problem back then, too much money involved, and now, the NCAA is totally out of the picture

Question becomes what happen when the school conflicts with the NIL funding alumni over the academic question? If the high priced starting athlete decides he isn’t going to bother with school, why would he, he’s not there for an education, will the school step in with fear of alienating the alumni paying the athlete?

If a high priced athlete decides he isn't going to class, he will eventually be dismissed from the team and the school. Whomever is paying for use of his likeness will probably not like it. But they are not part of the university, so their opinion matters not.

[cawacko]

North Carolina even went beyond that, creating their own course of “study” for athletes, even their own curriculum, lot of “independent study (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univer...hletic_scandal). The slap on the wrist showed the unwillingness of the NCAA to even address the problem back then, too much money involved, and now, the NCAA is totally out of the picture

Question becomes what happen when the school conflicts with the NIL funding alumni over the academic question? If the high priced starting athlete decides he isn’t going to bother with school, why would he, he’s not there for an education, will the school step in with fear of alienating the alumni paying the athlete?

There are still eligibility rules. Kids have to be eligible, they can’t just say I’m not going to class unless the school agrees to have someone do their work or fudge their grades but there are penalty’s for that. NIL changes nothing in regards to academics and requirements to be eligible.

[LurchAddams]

Texas hasn't done anything worthy of being in the top 5 since they lost to Alabama at the end of the 2009 season. Coach Sarkesian is a good coach. They will come back. But there is no sign they are back to elite levels yet.

Oregon is ranked #11. I don't think they could beat any of the current top 5 teams.

Washington State? If they are due we will see it. But nothing so far has shown they are a top 5 team.

Ahem! Who almost upset #1 Alabama today?

[Geeko Sportivo]

Texas got what they wanted out of the game today. They wanted to gain some respect. And they wanted to learn some things from the Pro's!

How to win the game!

All you gotta have is 1:29 on the clock, a professional quarterback that won't quit until he wins, and an offense that nobody can stop when it counts

I think Texas will benefit greatly from this lesson, and I believe they won some respect back that they damn well needed!