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Let there be no mistake about it, college football is a business. It's a business in which the principles, the players, have little say about what happens and in which they are not paid for their efforts or for putting their bodies and future health on the line.
Big winners in this exploitation, up to a point, are the coaches who are paid outlandish salaries to win games and fill stadiums with money spending fans. However, as soon as the win / loss ratio takes a turn for the worse or seats in the stadium remain empty coaches heads are going to roll.
As a case in point let's look at what happened at the University of Maryland in the last few days. After a winning season, with seats for many of the home games empty, the team received a bid to play in the Military Bowl. The game will be played next Wednesday afternoon. Who cares and who will watch it? I believe this is one of those meaningless Bowl games, played to bring in more money to the colleges. In a move that clearly illustrates that business comes first the head coach of Maryland and an alum, Ralph Fridgen, was fired. Not only was he fired, his firing was announced by the press before the coach was told he was fired.
The University of Maryland and their Athletic Director ought to be ashamed of themselves for this no-class move. If college football wasn't a business this probably wouldn't have happened. In this case there's a "coach in waiting" that they think they "just have to hire" before someone else makes him an offer. It's business as usual.
Write it down, so we won't forget. The next coach will be lucky if he can hold his job for half as long as Coach Fridgen did.
Mr. Dickie
23/Dec/2010 8:17
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