Petrino's Priorities
Chris Low of ESPN's SEC blog prolly doesn't have many friends around here, but I'm glad to read his latest entry.
I'm a huge fan of NCAA sports, but the practices of the organization already border on exploitation, and adding a month to the season is a very big deal. I've taught athletes at the college level, and among the best of them were the hardest-working students I've ever met. During the season, these men and women work 16 hour days, six or seven days a week, in the classroom and on the playing field.
For free.
While old men in suits make oodles off of their sweat.
And because of the fragile promise of their professional careers, because their athletic advisers hover outside the classroom and urge them to drop classes at the first sign of a setback, because they're surrounded by people who are willing to let them skate by, because they've been allowed to do so since they were old enough to show such potential, they've been given very little incentive to excel.
And many don't.
And then they attend combines and maybe they're drafted or maybe picked up for a few peanuts. Maybe a team needs a player with just the right characteristics. Maybe they get singled out by a good coach who knows how to develop professional athletes. Maybe they manage not to fuck up their knees or their shoulders. Maybe they get that big fat check. Maybe they're that lucky.
Be careful when people talk about extending seasons because many of them look to benefit monetarily from it. Be careful not to cross some imaginary line of decency that maybe we've already crossed. Be careful not to overextend a young person's abilities for some sense that a national championship means more than more money.
Athletes used to want to play college ball so they'd have a chance at an education. Don't make NCAA sports a de-facto farm system for a bunch of people who don't give a damn for those athletes. Don't get blinded by a sense of fairness that doesn't take their futures into account.
Some seasons it most definitely does not seem fair that a certain team fails to make the championship. Maybe they're the best team and one Saturday didn't go their way and they have to watch from the sidelines.
They'll get over it.
What they won't get over is having their lives peak at 22 years of age.
President-elect Barack Obama's proposed plan for an eight-team playoff in college football was welcomed by many coaches around the country.
But not everybody is on board with Obama's plan.
"I think he ought to call us so the head coaches can figure out how to get the price of gas down," said Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino, adding that he was kidding.
Petrino is serious, though, about not wanting to see a college playoff.
"I think it's a good system now," Petrino said. "We play a lot of games and miss a lot of school and do a lot of extra things to make sure we keep our players eligible. It's not something I believe in."
For free.
While old men in suits make oodles off of their sweat.
And because of the fragile promise of their professional careers, because their athletic advisers hover outside the classroom and urge them to drop classes at the first sign of a setback, because they're surrounded by people who are willing to let them skate by, because they've been allowed to do so since they were old enough to show such potential, they've been given very little incentive to excel.
And many don't.
And then they attend combines and maybe they're drafted or maybe picked up for a few peanuts. Maybe a team needs a player with just the right characteristics. Maybe they get singled out by a good coach who knows how to develop professional athletes. Maybe they manage not to fuck up their knees or their shoulders. Maybe they get that big fat check. Maybe they're that lucky.
Be careful when people talk about extending seasons because many of them look to benefit monetarily from it. Be careful not to cross some imaginary line of decency that maybe we've already crossed. Be careful not to overextend a young person's abilities for some sense that a national championship means more than more money.
Athletes used to want to play college ball so they'd have a chance at an education. Don't make NCAA sports a de-facto farm system for a bunch of people who don't give a damn for those athletes. Don't get blinded by a sense of fairness that doesn't take their futures into account.
Some seasons it most definitely does not seem fair that a certain team fails to make the championship. Maybe they're the best team and one Saturday didn't go their way and they have to watch from the sidelines.
They'll get over it.
What they won't get over is having their lives peak at 22 years of age.
