college football and basketball thoughts

as a new college football season, here are a few off the cuff non espn thoughts.

these guys who run these summer camps essentially deliver star recruits to the major teams for big bucks or big favors.

every major basketball star over the last 15 years has been a bigtime member of the aau since they were 10 years old.

several of these aau coaches or family relatives are hired as assistants as the recruits move into the system.

why arent these talented recruit-stars cashcows paid above the table, as they so need to be?

we are talking about a massive industry. you can see the economics at work.

when a talented megastar is recruited, the parents should be asking, "how much will my son be paid?"

a means needs to be found to benefit the recruit families, because they are worth so much economically. the money will always find its way to somewhere.

then, when the school gets penalized, the coaches and players go scot free.

when basketball star derrick rose was entering memphis, his scores werent high enough. he took the test, and probably without the players knowledge, someone took the test for him.

it's a culture of, if coach doesnt win, he will surely be fired, so why not bend the rules?

the notre dame and ohio state schedules, and many others, are full of chump teams and you wonder how the money is flowing.

there are a few very good games this weekend, but a lot more bad bad games.

here's a sample for this weekend:

university of tennessee at martin visits tennessee.

eastern illinois, a 1AA team goes to iowa.

mighty samford from birmingham visits florida state.

sacramento state visits stanford.

that juggernaut presbyterian plays wake forest.

everybody has a 12 game schedule. for years, it was 9 or 10.

if you travel to hawaii, you get a 13th game.

college schedules are getting almost as long as nfl schedules.

the ncaa now allows an unlimited number of home games.

i am concerned about the danger of these small school players in opposing the monsters from the major powers. is there any concern for the welfare of these overmatched players?

the ncaa needs to start doing something about these games. when they went to the 12 game schedule, most of the experts predicted that these mismatches would happen. last year, the ncaa instituted a rule that for some big teams with the weakest schedules who played 2 really bad teams, only 1 win would count in the bowl series.

duke was battling for a bowl game, but because they scheduled 2 division 1AA teams, only 1 win counted. duke did the same thing this year.

rankings always favor the record over strength of schedule, especially in the polls.

if you can schedule 8 home games like ohio state this year , and essentially notre dame, you get lots of extra revenue, like 5 million dollars of gate per game, and you only have to share 250,000 to perhaps a million with the visiting opponent, you are making out like a bandit.

last year, delaware state played at michigan last year for a paltry $550,000.

for that game, michigan sold out a 100 thousand plus seat stadium.

arkansas state got a million bucks to put in an appearance against powerful auburn squad..

penn state this year plays youngstown state. they are better than that.

at the end of the season, penn state will have their 10 wins and a top ten ranking.

a good team that you schedule will demand a home and home game. bad teams always take the money. when app state beat michigan a few years ago, they were paid a paltry $250,000.

tomorrow night's ohio state game is no sellout. they should be starting to realize that people dont have the bucks or desire to see these bad games.

ohio state's football sked is pretty bad, but nebraska, rated 8th, has the easiest for a big school.

their one road nonconference game is against a very down washingron.

their 3 hone nonconference games are western kentucky, idaho, and south dakota state(homecoming game). upon such schedules are national championships built.

miami florida, which plays at ohio state, has an excellent schedule, also plays at pitt, hosting usf, and their obligatory cupcake game against florida a&m.

the pac 10, which has a 9 league game schedule, seems generally to be scheduling much better opponents..

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