More Evidence of the Total Corruption of College Football

Like Nobody Knew

The NYT has a nice piece on SEC football which illustrates all that is wrong with it.

A two-year bowl ban for what the N.C.A.A. called a team’s “recurring culture of noncompliance” in recruiting.

An athletic director suspended eight months into his tenure after his fans effectively barred him from hiring a new head football coach.

A national championship-winning coach reportedly jumping into college football’s most competitive conference with a 10-year contract.

And what about that new coach at Tennessee Oh.

The news was capped Friday afternoon with the suspension of Tennessee’s athletic director, John Currie, who began the year in the comparatively calm setting of Manhattan, Kan., where he was Kansas State’s athletic director.

Currie’s reported sins were to have tried to hire Schiano, then failed to hire Oklahoma State Coach Mike Gundy, and finally to have tried to hire Washington State Coach Mike Leach, apparently without (or with? even the rumors conflicted) the consultation of the powerful Tennessee booster Jimmy Haslam. Haslam owns the Cleveland Browns and also has a brother who is Tennessee’s governor.

So why does a private citizen have any say over personnel at a state college: Oh, money. And speaking of money.

As if that were not enough, in Tallahassee, Fla., an intrepid reporter noticed a Christmas tree at the curb outside Florida State Coach Jimbo Fisher’s house. Since it was only early December, the disregarded evergreen appeared to prove true the suspicions that Fisher, who led the Seminoles of the Atlantic Coast Conference to the national title four seasons ago, had accepted an offer at Texas A&M, which joined the SEC five seasons ago. Subsequent reports have affirmed the news and specified that Fisher agreed to an impressive 10-year, $75 million contract, though neither university has announced it.

Now if those pesky students and faculty will just leave, think what a great university the SEC teams would have.