2012-10-04 07:02

Let's talk about money.

Running a FBS-Football-Program is for many schools a money printing machine.

Some may say it is done on the back of the hopes of young students, not seeing much of a share of this big pile of money. That's true. In some kind.

These players do get not much in return for their playing time, except a full college education worth thousands of dollars.

You might argue that those players often skip classes and even exams, but as far as I know that's THEIR decision.
Fine, the schools often make it very comfortable for sport students to ... let’s say ... concentrate on playing and keep the attending classes low, but still ... THEIR decision.

Of cause there is room for payments to those players but in reality this would only lead to deeper “rich get rich and poor stay poor” structures.

That’s because there are also schools losing money every season for their great football program.

Don't think so?

Here is an article on the 2009 spendings and income of all teams in 2009.
You might miss some schools, but these teams are the newcomers in the FBS in 2012 and were not part of the FBS at that time..

College football elite spend to win

There is also an article analysing the same for 2010.

In college football, money buys championships

There you can see: what's the difference between a program of Florida and Florida Atlantic?

It's not the Coaches and Assistants, the facilities and the students.
It's basically 20 million dollars in expenses MORE ANNUALLY! And much more in Income!

With this kind of money you can lift a school from the bottom of the Sun Belt Conference to the Top of the SEC.

And Florida Atlantic is barely even in numbers regarding income and expenses.
Look at Florida and you see millions of dollars more on income than expenses.

Those two schools are just examples.

But they show exactly the reality of college football.
Be in the big conferences and get more money than needed, be in the smaller ones and live of the leftovers.

That's also a reason why I love seeing small schools winning over the big dollar programs. In that moment it shows, that money can’t buy everything.

These teams are still run by humans and those games are played by humans.

You can buy supposed to be good coaches and can recruit supposed to be good players, but still some of those leftovers are tough enough to come into your shiny football temple and crash the 25 million dollar party with one single game.

Economically, those big dollar schools can't lose. They are well settled and it doesn't happen very often, that a school gets fired from a conference, because the team plays weak, year over year over year.
No Sir, they can play in that conference as long as they want, so the money flush doesn't stop, once you made it.

But on the field the rules are different and that's what I like.

Of cause, over a season, money helps big time.
Better medical services? Better practice facilities? Deeper bench with talented players?
All that and more.
Some assistants on these big dollar schools do earn more than head coaches on smaller schools.
The reason for that is that many of those assistants would be (probably) very good head coaches.
But if you want to keep them on your big dollar campus to get big dollar coaching lessons on your big dollar recruiting classes, you have to pay them good. Sometimes better than head coaches.
Of cause you can't keep everyone.
Some would love to do the next step and become someday the next head coach of one of the big dollar schools, earning several times more money than they would do staying an assistant.
Some just like to run their own team.
And some others ... well, there are a lot of reasons to stay or to move on, but in total the chance to have a better coaching staff is of cause better if you have a deep pocket.

College Football is not much different to a pro football league, except most players don't see much of that money, the schools earn.
But you know ... I like it that way, because it is still a fair deal. Education for Playing.
The only thing I don't like is, that the schools pamper their sport students until their view of reality is totally twisted.

Have I ever mentioned, that 2 of 3 pro players getting bankrupt once their playing time in the NFL is over?
One of the reasons for this is the college football system, fuelled by greedy athletic directors, greedy coaches and of cause greedy students.

I wonder if this will ever change ...

I hope you liked the topic and now let’s move over to the BLOCK OF GRANITE TOP GAMES FOR WEEK 6

A lot of good games this week; I decided to pick the heavy weight games, since there are so many this week.

#4 LSU @ #10 Florida
THIS will be interesting.
Florida did play very good in the last games. LSU has to prove it can beat a contender.
This can easily go both ways.
If this would be in the swamp in Louisiana, I would easily pick the tigers, but the Gators play at home and they have shown some great passion.
I think as few people do favour the Tigers more than the Gators, so I pick the Upset and go with the Gators.

#8 West Virginia @ #11 Texas
OK, we know now that Texas might have won by a blown call last week against Oklahoma State.
That RB did very likely fumbled the ball BEFORE the endzone was reached ...
It does not bring back the win, even when the Big 12 do apologize to the HC of the Cowboys.
Because of the monster performance of WV, they are favour in this game against Texas.
Does this fit?
Remember, they won by one score against Baylor, so the defense was away.
Texas did also won in a close, high scoring game ...
So .. who's firepower is bigger? Who's defense is better prepared?
I'm not sold on the QB of the Longhorns, that's why I pick the Mountaineers.

#5 Georgia @ #6 South Carolina
And another great game.
Yesterday, we had a day off in Germany and I asked myself, of this whole SEC-Teams are ranked high is a self fuelling machine.
People THINK they are good, so they are ranked high. Then they play against each other and win and lose, but because those teams are so high ranked, they don't drop much.
Until the season ends and they start ranked high in the next season ....
Could be, if not those damn Bowls and those non-conference games were there ....
OK, most of the teams are very tough and here two of them do meet ...
If this would be in Athens, Georgia ... Uga would eat that gamecock alive ... (even Uga is a very nice Bulldog and only bits when Georgia is losing ... lol)
But they play in South Carolina and have doubts.
I think Georgia is the better team, but THAT much better ...
Ah damn it, yes.
I think they are more balanced and Uga WILL eat that gamecock Cocky alive.

#21 Nebraska @ #12 Ohio State
I say Ohio State will win this.
Not that Nebraska is a bad team, but I'm sold on the Urban-Meyer-Buckeyes after that win over the Spartans.
I would love to see the Huskers win this, but this is played in Ohio, not Nebraska and it's not easy to win at that sight.
So, quick and easy: Buckeyes win.

#23 Washington @ #2 Oregon
The Huskies did win big against Stanford and can dream over a better ranking.
Well ... this week they will fall from the TOP 25, since the Ducks will chop them into pieces.
THERE IS NO WAY THE DUCKS WILL LOSE THIS.
So why is it on the list?
Because I wanted you so see this.
Because you should either see the Ducks win against a ranked opponent or see them fall.
Because if they will win those upcoming games, they will probably play in th ebCS-Bowl.

‘Til next time
Jack6 on BLOCK OF GRANITE

Tags: Block of Granite