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The Absurdity of Money In College Football


After watching the bulk of college football’s National Championship game between number one-ranked Ohio State and number two-ranked Florida, I believe there are two major changes that need to be considered in college football.

First, there is no way in the world that the NCAA should make a number- one team wait 51 days to play for a championship. Second, it’s about time college athletes receive compensation for participating in these games.

As for having to wait 51 days to play the game, there’s no mystery as to why that happens — money. Schools fortunate enough to make it to these bowl games stand to earn millions — sometimes upwards of $15 million — if they win the bowl game.

Advertisers are willing to pay networks obscene amounts of money to promote anything from gas guzzling trucks to cell phones that can do everything but keep a charge for more than 12 hours. It’s truly unfortunate that after waiting 51 days to play, teams and players then have to deal with two to three minute delays for commercials following a touchdown, timeout or when a quarter comes to an end. After all, you must remember it’s all about making money.


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To show you just how absurd it is to make teams wait nearly two months after the end of the season to play a championship game, consider the following. Would the NFL wait until the middle of March to play the Super Bowl? Would the NCAA schedule the Final Four in basketball six weeks after the Elite Eight games were played? Would major league baseball wait six weeks following the league championship series to play the World Series? Of course not. And college football bowl participants shouldn’t have to wait that long, either. The bottom line is the NCAA is guilty of dragging out the inevitable as long as possible to extract every possible dollar it can from the event.

The second realization that I came to after watching the game was that if everyone from top to bottom that is involved with the game — i.e., the stadium owners, stadium personnel, venders, police, fire personnel, security, coaches, the universities involved and of course the NCAA — is making money, then why not the players? Yes, a vast majority of the players are scholarship recipients and that translates to a significant stipend for them. However, it still seems to me to be rather un-American not to reward or compensate the players for their efforts. After all, when a player receives a scholarship from a college or university, it translates to nothing more than being paid to play football. It has nothing to do with winning bowl games or championships. It also has very little to do with getting an education.

Of course it is the intent of every college team to win games and advance to bowl games but that’s not in the contract or scholarship language as a prerequisite for receiving a free ride. After all, 80 to 90 percent of all college football teams don’t go to bowls. When a school awards scholarships it should be clear to all involved that players are not signing a performance-enhanced contract when they receive a scholarship.


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When one team is fortunate enough to get to a bowl and receive extra revenues, what’s wrong with rewarding the players for their efforts? Let’s get real. To the victors go the spoils.

In the end, however, what college football doesn’t need are more games. What they should consider doing is scheduling the bowl games to start two weeks after the end of the regular season, crown a national champion before the NFL playoffs begin and play the bowl games on weeknights if necessary. Either way, when the games are over, cut up the pie in a manner in which each of the combatants can enjoy a piece.

Just remember, not everyone makes it to the NFL. For most players, they get to out into the real world after their final game is played and tackle it with a battered body.

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