College Football’s Cash Grab Begins

After twelve games and countless practices, the winners and losers of the 2011 college football season are finally falling into line. Not only are the leading schools preparing for this weekend's conference championships, but the coaching carousel has gotten into full swing. Peering through the cloud of anticipation or disappointment, however, reveals that there is more to the story. This is when the financial windfalls of the concluding season are divvied up and distributed to those with outstretched hands.

The recent "conference realignment" crusade marks a turning point in college football, altering the dynamics of possibly all of NCAA athletics. The Big Ten and the Pac-10, desperate for the 12 conference teams required to have a lucrative conference championship game, set the ball rolling at the conclusion of the 2010 season, disrupting the balance that was created under the BCS system. As the powerhouse schools began migrating to the Big Ten, Pac-12, and the SEC, the legitimacy of the BCS automatic qualifier system began to fade and the remaining schools have been left scrambling, trying desperately to ensure they have a piece of the BCS pie.

While some degree of order has been temporarily restored, one can be assured that the off-season will be marked by further horse trading and back room deals. The most profitable, and thereby powerful, schools will continue to jockey for position and dictate the terms of the agreements. The millions in profits generated by schools such as Ohio State ($18.2 million) and the University of Texas ($70.1 million) are a powerful driver of behavior that distorts the incentives and redistributes power from the university presidents to the athletic departments. This enables coaches, for example, to be paid multiples of the highest paid researchers and administrators as exemplified by the disparity between the $4 million per year guarantee of Ohio State's Urban Meyer and the school president's $1.3 million salary.

People will argue that successful football programs contribute greatly to athletic departments and subsidize many non-revenue programs. Ohio State, for instance, posted only a $434,000 profit in the year ended June 30, 2010 after accounting for the entirety of its 36 sports. Sports like swimming or lacrosse certainly benefit from and perhaps exist as a result of the profits of Ohio State's successful football program, but only after millions are doled out to coaches like Jim Tressel, who chose to ignore repeated NCAA infractions by his star players to perpetuate the gravy train.

College football, it seems, is not that different than the subject of outrage that has engendered the Occupy Wall Street movement and the wave of populism. The players that ultimately affect the success on the field are offered little more than the precious gift of an education at one of the nation's elite universities while the coaches secure multi-million dollar guarantees. How many coaches and how many millions have gone through Notre Dame in its perpetual "Return to Glory"? Or perhaps we should ask the Michigan faithful how the Rich Rodriguez experiment worked after the dismissal of Lloyd Carr, who had a 122-40 career record? However you shouldn't cry for Rich Rodriguez who, despite five major rules violations while at Michigan, just signed a five year, $9.55 million contract with the University of Arizona just one year after cashing his $2.5 million buyout check from Michigan.

The taint of money clouds the integrity and mission of college athletics. According to the NCAA, the collegiate model of athletics is one "in which students participate as an avocation, balancing their academic, social and athletics experiences." Additionally, intercollegiate athletics contribute to the higher education mission by "enhancing the sense of community and strengthening the identity of member institutions." With the principals of a well rounded higher education and the model of "student-athlete" quickly fading from college football, one is left to wonder why these profit-making intuitions should even be affiliated with institutions of higher learning.

The college football profit machine is once again in full swing, and the schools desperate for a piece of the pie are mesmerized by the promises of championships and eternal glory proffered by the charlatans and profiteers of what was once a great embodiment of amateur athletics. Buckle that chin strap, because now is when the heavy hitting begins.