Find a shrink. Get out the couch. Emotional disorders are infecting the game.
Fans are obsessive compulsive. OSU partisans, despite last Saturday's drubbing by USC, are suffering a combination of amnesia and visionary fantasies -- forgetting the past and hoping for another BCS bowl with a different outcome.
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| Georgia's Mark Richt has a fan in Spencer Tillman. (US Presswire) |
Albeit an example from last season, my favorite is bipolar Mark Richt. He's a Clark Kent, a model of measured temperament. There's no slicked down hair here. But wait ... remember he did morph into General Patton at last year's Florida game. Except for Uga VI (now VII) he ordered his charges to the end zone to intimidate the Gators. This is the "charge of the dog brigade." Cue Richard Wagner's Charge of the Valkyrie. I love this guy -- Richt you're my hero.
There's another condition that's spreading like wildfire, "Sabanomics." Nick Saban is gracing the cover of Forbes, billed as college football's "most powerful coach."
The $32 million question is whether Saban is worth all this cash and a lot of perks to boot? This transaction is a staple of free enterprise -- what the market will bear. Saban is a successful coach but he has his work cut out for him. Every program wants to be a winner, but Alabama is no ordinary program.
Vince Lombardi said, "If winning isn't everything then why keep score?" Saban's pot of gold is winning games, conference championships, national titles and you can lay money on this one: taking Auburn to the woodshed. And, by the likes of what we saw in the Tigers baseball-score finish against Mississippi State (3-2), that's just what it'll be; a wood-shedding.
The Red Elephant in the room is coach Bear Bryant who is a trademark of successful college football coaching. His ghost haunts every part of the program. There never will be another Paul Bryant.
One reason is there's not enough time. Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno are the last vestiges of integrity and longevity. Coaching today is a revolving door. They either head for greener pastures or get axed for reasons on and off the field. So building a positive balance sheet more than ever is about getting the players.
That, too, has a sort of a Gross Domestic Product ring to it. There are no fat television contacts, or rich coaches, or runaway successful sports firms without the kids on the field.
For fans that are still in denial about athletes creating wealth take a gander at Michael Phelps -- decent job on SNL by the way. His agent hopes to bring in $100 million revenue from personal appearances and endorsements. That's a drop in the bucket.
There aren't enough super CPA's to measure the retail and wholesale value of college football players, not the least of which is demonstrated in the payback from weekly exposure to millions of fans. After all, we're talking about winning the power ball lottery, whether it's a conference or a BCS bowl.
The irony is money talks on both ends of the spectrum. UT Chattanooga came to Norman, Okla., expecting to get hammered. Chattanooga didn't count on 50-0 at halftime, but it made a deposit of $600,000 -- a nice return for a Division I Football Championship Subdivision school. The Mocs will also suit up to play FSU for a similar payday.
