Slurred Speech
“We will not cross that line and get onto the slippery slope — the professionalization of college football and a furthering of the arms race," he said. "We simply have to say no. If we don't say no to this, the horse has left the barn totally. I will vote against it under any circumstance.”
So Gordon Gee, the captain of the biggest and richest athletic ship in the college world, is worried about professionalizing the sport. And he’s worried that the horse might “totally” leave the barn? Is it possible for a horse to “partially” leave a barn?
Dr. Gee, are you kidding me?
Any president of a major college cannot wax poetic on the evils of selling out. Dr. Gee came from Vanderbilt. Vandy, an SEC school, is where he brazenly abolished the athletic department. He left there and came to OSU. Dr. Gee has been around.
Don’t tell me you’re afraid of making the players play too many games after you added a twelfth regular-season game to the schedule.
Don’t tell me that you don’t want to cut into the player’s classes after you’ve extended the BCS into the first week of school. Oh well, no one goes to the first week of class, right?
Don’t tell me that fans won’t travel to multiple neutral-site games. Ask the March Madness committee if they have trouble getting fans to drive around a little.
And especially don’t tell me that creating a home-game playoff system would destroy the bowl system, and the bowls are worth preserving. Why? Is it maybe because the bowls create a lot of money?
No one even cares about the other bowls. So two 6-6 teams get to go to some garbage bowl in Utica — great for them. That can still happen. We’re talking about modifying the BCS, not the entire bowl system.
What’s your real point, Dr. Gee? College football’s motto seems to be that anything and everything is for sale, so what level of professionalization are you afraid of, or even talking about?
You’ve done everything else under the sun to whore out these kids that play football for your school. I can buy, through the OSU Athletic Department, all kinds of Vernon Gholston merchandise, now that he’s a Top 10 draft pick.
So don’t tell me you don’t want to become the NFL. Millions of fans want a playoff system, so tell me something better than the crap you handed me last week. Tell me something that doesn’t make you look like a hypocrite. You could even try telling me the truth.
Originally Published: Issue 648 - May 14, 2008
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