College Football Is Decedant And Depraved

OK, we're less than two weeks away from the start of the best time of the year.  College Football.  If you didn't go to college, you watch the NFL, and that's OK.  But if you DID go to college, you root for your school.

It's more important than your hometown baseball team.  It's more important than the NFL.  It trumps any PRO franchise you ever gave your heart to.  Your college football team will be what you live and die with the rest of your life.

But it's time to set the record straight about college football.  It's fixed, it's rigged, and it's all about TV money, not winning or losing, and lets not kid ourselves that these guys are, "student athletes" any more.

Ohio State has been caught cheating.  USC was caught cheating.  Auburn was caught cheating.  Boise State is going to go down in flames soon.  Miami cheats. Always has, always will.  And now?  They are doing it again?  Big surprise.  Arizona State couldn't graduate an athlete at gun point.  Who's watching?  Well, EVERYONE, but no one is doing anything about it!

USC cheated so bad they had their national championship taken from them, had to give back, Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy (but he got to keep the Kardashian!) and they got TWO YEARS of probation in which they can't go to a Bowl Game. 

Big deal. They still get their share of the TV deal money!  They still get ranked in the AP Top 25!  Their linebacker is on the cover of the Sporting News College Football Issue this year.  They still get to sell t-shirts and tickets and recruit!  How is this a penalty?

You want to make it count?  Give em the, "Death Penalty" like they did to SMU.  Make them not be able to PLAY football for a year.  Or better yet. TWO years!  That will make a recruit think twice about going there.

And this year, when Boise State, Miami, Ohio State all get proven to have cheated?  Don't give em probation!  Give em two years without football!  THAT might make the big schools quit cheating!  But maybe not.

They can make more money winning a national championship and paying their players, like Auburn does in ONE year than they would lose in two of NOT playing.

You want to stop this?  Have a playoff.  So EVERY team, in every conference, has a shot at playing for a national championship.  This might keep some kids home in Utah, or Idaho, or other small markets, instead of having them sign their lives away for a shot at a glory with cheaters like USC or Miami.

And lets stop kidding ourselves, and pay our, "student athletes" a living wage to play for us.  The scholarship is great.  I hope my kid gets one.  But the truth is?  They don't use it.  Many, I would even say, MOST of them don't get a degree.

Luther Ellis was the best defensive lineman to ever play at Utah.  We got to know him and his wife, Rebbecca while they were students at the, "U".  Luther was a first round draft choice in the NFL.  He earned about $20 Million in his NFL career.  He and, Rebbecca adopted six kids and had six of their own while he was playing.  He had a huge house in Deer Valley and one in Michigan.

Now?  He has no college degree.  He has no money, and he's living in a borrowed house in Salt Lake while trying to finish his degree so he can get a college coaching job.  Did we really do him any favors?  Shouldn't we have done a better job of making sure he actually earned a degree when we gave him a scholarship?  I think so.

Just thinking out loud.