Just a minute: College Football is Full of Hypocrites
Let's call it what it is, hypocrisy.
On Wednesday, Stadium’s Brett McMurphy, an excellent journalist, reported the results of an anonymous survey he sent to 130 athletic directors overseeing Football Bowl Subdivision programs. He got back 112 responses.
A whopping 88 percent of those who responded supported expanding the playoff beyond the current four-team setup that debuted in 2015.
Most want an eight-team playoff.
It’s pretty easy to figure out why. With Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma dominating the selection process it’s the only way most of them can get in. Moreover, more games means more money.
These are the same people overseeing student-athletes, and who are supposed to have their best interest at heart.
Do they?
Remember in 2006 when the rallying call was we have to shorten the game for the sake of the players? Running the clock after changes of possession and upon contact with the ball on kickoffs did so by about 15 minutes.
It lasted one season.
Remember the whole thing about concussion awareness? Experts told us football accounted for more than 60 percent of concussions in sports, and reports showed an increasing number of former players developing memory and cognitive issues such as dementia, Alzheimer’s and depression?
Remember in 2014 when the NCAA considered rule changes to slow down college football including mandating a 10-second window to allow defensive substitution before offenses could snap the ball? It was stopped cold.
All three had one thing in mind, the well-being of the players.
Instead, we have more games, more plays, more players suffering major injuries.
Here’s hoping the schools and athletic directors still aren’t blinded by the money, and aren’t obsessed with their budgets, when making the decisions regarding when to bring football back following the coronavirus pandemic.
Right now it’s hard to believe that they will.
