1. What is the job description of a university or college president?
2. What is the purpose of a university or college president?
3. What is the job description of a multi-million dollar coach at a university or college?
More on this soon. In the meantime, discuss.
It seems that the public does not invent anything new today; they just recreate the old and put it into new terms. The new little Ceasars are the owners of the NFL teams. The players are gladiators and the college football players take their cue from gladiators in the arena.
The American public feeds on it by purchasing the paraphernalia and worshipping the wrong things in society. The little Caesars know how to reap the profit from it. So wake up, America.
These new helmets will not solve any problems of greed, which is the first goal of the owner Caesars. Leaders of universities and colleges should pay attention to what their first purpose is and not fall into the pattern of the little Caesars.
For the old argument that professional football creates opportunities for people who wouldn’t otherwise have them, what kind of livelihood is it that by the time these players are 35 they have irreparable damage to their bodies and minds? What were they taught in universities, just to be a gladiator? I don’t know of a gladiator in history who stood up and made mankind better. (Spartacus was fiction.)
And the little sub-Caesars are the coaches and their pay, from the pros to the college level. Good sports games are fun to watch and cheer for, but we need to make it look like it doesn’t belong in the Coliseum.
Lately, I see so many bad calls by the refs on the basketball court, I have come to the conclusion that basketball should copy the practice adopted by football. They should stop the game so the refs can look at the play over and over so they can make a better guess as to who did what to who, or who smacked the ball out, or broke his mother’s spine when he stepped on the line, etc.
Everyone would benefit! More time for commercials (the networks), more time to go grab another beer (fans) or – during a very difficult one – more time for a potty break! This would go a long way toward keeping the fans in the arena and fans at home from singing the old nursery rhyme about several blind mice.
I know they do this to decide the degree of flagrancy for flagrant files, but I would like to see this done for other calls and missed calls as well. This would not be a logistical nightmare. One possibility would be for the coaches to wave, shout and/or whistle the refs when they think the replay rule should be invoked. I can help them work out the details if they can’t figure it out.
If this seems to be a bad idea, how about a simpler solution: more time in referee school.
Memo to Universities, athletic directors, coaches, and players, and… Reporters: “Watch how you make your beds, for you will lay in it.” There is yet another appropriate adage: “The grass is no greener on the other side of the street.” U of L, Jurich (the U of L Athletic Director), Pitino, and all other coaches and ADs who are looking for changes: pay attention to the latter adage.
What is the university’s job? It’s not to make coaches and ADs rich; it’s to educate men and women.
And as for Charlie Strong, he said this after he left, in Texas: “This is the best of the best.” Now does he know what the best is? Some upstate college in NY could be best of the best. A little college in North Dakota might be the best of the best. Who knows what the best of the best is?
Next week, we’ll see how things play out. I’ll have more to say soon.
The U of L football coach has been in interviewed by the University of Texas. Right now, Charlie Strong gets paid $3 million a year. He’s not opened his mouth yet, so no one knows if he’s no going or going. Who knows? He might not even know yet. A year ago, he had all this talk going, too.
U of L gave him a chance. He was an assistant coach in Florida three years ago, and he’s taken them to a bowl game every year. He’s publicly lamented that he doesn’t get full fan support — empty seats at games (companies buy up so many seats) and all the fans leave at the third quarter (guilty as charged — sometimes the weather is horrible).
I contend he’s well paid for where he is. He SHOULD stay ten or fifteen years and really bring it up the line, consistently. At $3 million a year, you can’t tell me you can’t live on that. Saban at Alabama, the highest paid college football coach at $6 million, famously blew the Auburn game. Instead of getting someone down there to watch where that ball landed, he let Auburn run the touchdown. And that’s why he’s not worth $6 million. He is a good coach, but he’s not supreme. And, by the by, Oklahoma beat him the other night…
Which leads me back to Charlie. Louisville is a nice place to live. Texas is coming after him, and my whole theory is that there’s no reason he can’t stay, but if he thinks he needs more money or that it’s not enough money to live… I’d remind him people in Lousiville don’t just go out and hound a coach when they’re at a restaurant, or walking around. Pitino has said it: no one hounds him. If he goes to Texas, who knows what will happen with the fans there.
He’d better think twice if a couple more million is going to benefit him in the long run as to what he already has. If he goes, he’s only going for money. If he was only making $500,000 or under a million, I’d get it. But I’d remind him Pitino gets $3 million, and he’s not worth it either…
Stay where you are and really build a team. Common sense.
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