OK, so we love college football. But WHY do we still love it?
Caleb King: No longer a Bulldog. Tech: No longer the '09 ACC champ. (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
The SEC’s annual Media Days — the biggest football conference needs three calendar days just to accommodate all the blather — convene Wednesday in Hoover, Ala. The ACC stages its (two-day) convocation this weekend in Pinehurst, N.C. This means we’re not that far from actually getting to watch the One True Sport, the game we Southerners know and love.
One question, though. Should we love it?
For college football, 2011 has already been an annus horribilis, which is Latin for “lousy year.” And yes, it’s only July. We’ve still got the 2011 season to go. Maybe things will get better. They could scarcely get worse. In calendar 2011 we’ve seen:
• The 2004 BCS titlist (Southern Cal) stripped of its crown, largely because of an investigation into the financial arrangements of Reggie Bush, the 2005 Heisman winner.
• The 2002 BCS titlist (Ohio State) stripped of iconic head coach Jim Tressel, who resigned after it was revealed he hadn’t reported allegations of players trading memorabilia for tattoos and had been less than forthcoming in statements to the NCAA.
• The 1998 BCS titlist (Tennessee) stripped of athletic director Mike Hamilton, who quit ahead of an NCAA hearing into basketball and baseball, yes, but also football. Which can happen when you hire Lane Kiffin.
• The 2009 ACC champion (Georgia Tech) stripped of its title because it used an ineligible player and stripped of $100,000 because its administration ticked off the NCAA.
• One of the three 2010 Big East co-champions (West Virginia) placed on two years’ NCAA probation because of a failure to monitor its coaches.
• The 2010 Music City Bowl champion (North Carolina) informed that the NCAA has levied nine violations, ranging from impermissible benefits to academic misconduct, against it.
• Both teams that played for the 2010 BCS title fall under scrutiny: Auburn because of the presence of Cam Newton, the 2010 Heisman winner whose recruitment is still apparently the center of an ongoing NCAA investigation, and Oregon because it paid a Texas man named Willie Lyles $25,000 for what it contends were “scouting services” but what Lyles says were something else.
• The Fiesta Bowl, one of the BCS flagships, lose its president and nearly lose its exalted status after it was revealed staffers had been (illegally) reimbursed for contributions to political campaigns.
• One of the 2010 Big East co-champions (West Virginia again) accepting the resignation of head coach Bill Stewart, who had become implicated in the attempt to smear Dana Holgorsen, whom the Mountaineers had just hired as Stewart’s successor-in-waiting. Quick succession, huh?
The NFL and the NBA are locked out because of money. After such a run of regrettable news, we who follow college football should be asking if this sport mightn’t be better served locking its doors and disbanding its programs. Even those among us who have long known of the seamier side to the Color & Pageantry are wondering if color and pageantry are worth all this.
College football has long been a dirty business, but it’s bigger and dirtier than ever. The strange spectacle of recruiting has become a sport unto itself. (Esteemed colleague Michael Carvell offers the best description I’ve heard: “A lot of fans would rather see their team get a big commitment than score a touchdown on Saturday.”) Assistant coaches now make more than Hall of Fame head coaches did a quarter-century ago. At least one father — an ordained minister, of all things — has been accused of trying to sell his son’s services.
And yet: For all the grime, college football is the one game for which our passion is never diminished. Look around the SEC. Notice many empty seats in those massive stadiums? Even college basketball has seen its regular season diluted because nobody can remember who’s playing from year to year, but never college football. There’s big money to be made. (Except if you’re a player and you’re looking to sell your Independence Bowl jersey. That’ll cost you four games.)
Back to the SEC. It’s the biggest, and its five consecutive BCS titles brand it as the best. It’s also, as Brett McMurphy of CBS Sports noted, the slimiest. Since 1987, no conference can match the SEC’s 13 major NCAA violations. Every SEC football program save two — LSU, which saw its last major violation in 1986, and Vanderbilt, which has never been hit with one — has been docked over that span. The (im)moral of our story: To be the best, cheat the hardest.
And yet: We know all this stuff and we love it anyway. And, cognitively dissonant though we are, we’re about to get excited all over again. Heaven help us all.
By Mark Bradley
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
245 comments Add your comment
black sheep
July 18th, 2011
6:39 pm
Old Blind Dawg And you are worse!!
Bulldog Joe
July 18th, 2011
6:39 pm
Like NCAA basketball is any better…
Bulldog Joe
July 18th, 2011
6:48 pm
@Big Money,
If you pay $22.29 for Tech’s opener, you are paying way above market price.
http://www.stubhub.com/georgia-tech-football-tickets/georgia-tech-vs-western-carolina-9-1-2011-1054798/
tech Fan
July 18th, 2011
6:54 pm
bamaguy: Keith Jackson is my all-time favorite…..
Bear was the “MAN”, any money left over today would get carried out the back door…
Truly amazing how this NCAA system punishes players for their transgressions, then turns around and punishes the players again for coaches and staff transgressions, its the perfect system for coaches and administrators, the player is the only one with skin in the game…..WOW
Supersize that order, mutt
July 18th, 2011
7:02 pm
Old Blind Dawg, you and I are definitely in agreement on your last post.
Old Blind Dawg
July 18th, 2011
7:02 pm
Say what black sheep?
What on my list is incorrect?
Why ?
July 18th, 2011
7:03 pm
Why do people say nc double a when it is easier and faster to say ncaa ?
Why add another vowel as an abbreviation ?
Stupidy rules.
Old Blind Dawg
July 18th, 2011
7:04 pm
Super size as bad as college football has gotten it still offers an escape from all that is Washington D.C.
KING LEBRON
July 18th, 2011
7:05 pm
Mark Bradley,
LeBron Jams do not care for your question.
Axe me something else.
Supersize that order, mutt
July 18th, 2011
7:09 pm
Blind, I rarely find myself in agreement with a dawg, so this is a refreshing turn. lol
Heath
July 18th, 2011
7:20 pm
RiffRaff, my cousin Deborah was married to Jeff Pyburn when I was a kid. Wonder what he’s up to these days?
Really Mark
July 18th, 2011
7:25 pm
Mark,
How do you actually call yourself a journalist? With all the information at your finger tips, you accutally have the gall to write an article that is completely fiction in regards to Georgia Tech. Was Thomas ineligble or deemed ineligble by the NCAA? No they his was not. Georgia Tech was punished for the AD telling their Coach their player was going to interviewed? Does this acctually sound like outlandish behavior? The NCAA took this one way over board and you sir are adding false information. Please do you research, and head your next column “Sorry college football fans I was wrong”.
Old Blind Dawg
July 18th, 2011
7:48 pm
Super size I always try to stick to football and remain civil. The world is fooked enough without hurling insults at each other over a game. I will argue when innuendo or lies are stated as truth or fact – I get enough of that from politicians.
Oh yeah for the record I have 4 nephews and a brother in law that graduated GT and one niece that graduated UGA.
juvenal
July 18th, 2011
8:19 pm
something about your first love,,,in this country, very small % still with their college sweetheart……..never had a serious relationship with someone who wasn’t, or willing to be, a Techie-only mixed relationship i am opposed to……..(uneven yoking is tough, too)…..
juvenal
July 18th, 2011
8:24 pm
dauug tell–always hate it when someone turns to the darkside……..
Delbert D.
July 18th, 2011
8:34 pm
If nothing else, college football is a high-testosterone soap opera.
Alabama Jack
July 18th, 2011
9:05 pm
dumb ass sports writers are the underlying cause of all the problems.
George Stein
July 18th, 2011
9:22 pm
I’m pretty sure college football is a lot like pizza and sex – even it’s bad, it’s good.
Tired and Sick
July 18th, 2011
9:24 pm
Really Mark You better go read the report- Tech did more than that
GatormanATL
July 18th, 2011
9:52 pm
Let’s see … you select 9 instances. There are 110+ D1 teams, each playing 11-12 games last year. That’s 1200 games in 2010 not counting the 500 bowl games played in Dec-Jan.
You add Champ Games, you include the 3 years priors, and you have about 5,000 football games played total.
Of that, you get 9 instances of misconduct.
This year is but a blip on the radar. I submit that the body of work by SMU or scUM is far far worse than all nine instances you quote.
Oh by the way, no way in hell a commit means more than a TD. Especially one like the one where UF beats Bama in the SECCG 2 years ago.
Mobile Dawg
July 18th, 2011
9:55 pm
B.J. Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com Senior Editor
Simply put, it’s different down here – just ask
former Heisman trophy
winner Frank Sinkwich.
“I’m from Ohio,” the University of Georgia legend
once said, “but if I’d known what it was like down
south, I would have crawled down here
on my hands and knees.”
Football in the south is an interesting beast. It’s
not a game, it’s not a pastime…it’s a way of life.
It’s a mixed drink of family,religion, politics and
pageantry, spiked with shotsof antagonism, arrogance
and pride.
Critics label our view of college football as naive
and tendentious.
Our response? We couldn’t agree more. Southerners
revel in regional bias, and why shouldn’t we? In the
south, we transform a vast picnic area into The Grove.
We see a stadium on the river and bring a Navy.
We take a plain desert stone and make it magic.
We have The Chop, The Chomp and The Ramblin’ Wreck. We
root for the same team as our dad, the same team as
his dad and say “to heck” with the team of your dad’s
dad. We call players by their first names, anyone on
the
athletic staff coach, and to the chagrin of media
pundits and those who just don’t understand, we say
“! we”.
Southern football is why my grandmother spent fall
Saturday’s in orange capris, blue reebok classics and
alligator jewelry and had a football card of Danny
Wuerffel taped to her dresser. It’s the same
reason why my mom can’t watch the fourth quarter,
my dad won’t watch the first quarter and my uncle and
his two sons have walked around Valdosta, Georgia with
a little more pep in their step since December 7th,
2002.
Southern football isn’t tailgating, it’s all-nighting.
It’s not about painting your face, it’s about painting
your chest. It’s not about grills, it’s about cookers.
Inside the stadium, you don’t talk to your neighbors,
you yell at them. Those around you aren’t strangers,
they’re 80,000 of your closest friends. You don’t go
on the road when you travel to see your team
play…you go home.
Down here, you’re not born a boy or a girl, you’re
born a Gamecock or Tiger. Down here, football is just
as entrenched in our culture as Jesus, sweet tea and
barbeque sandwiches. We say “Yes Ma’m” and “No
Sir”, but we also say “Roll Tide”, “War Eagle” and
“Pig Sooey”. Down here two plus two equals third down
and six. Southern football is why you drive through
Wrightsville, Georgia and see “The Home of Herschel
Walker” on Highway 15.
It’s why hundreds of adults in the state of Alabama
are named “Bear”. Southern football is Billy Cannon,
Bo Jackson and Archie, Eli and Peyton Manning. It’s
Bobby Bowden, Vince Dooley and the Ole’ Ball Coach.
It’s detergent boxes under toilet paper, frat boys in
team-colored pants – it’s Lynard Skynard and Molly
Hat chet in button-down shirts, Southern
Living with a cowboy hat; it’s a clash of styles
that produces a scene often imitated but never
duplicated. Ever.
The setting? So picturesque you don’t want to touch
it, yet so enthralling you just can’t let it go. It’s
a
similar one in Knoxville, Tennessee, Starkville,
Mississippi and Blacksburg,Virginia, and it has been
for years. Southern football is Erk Russell joking,
“we don’t cheat at Georgia Southern, that costs money
and we don’t have any.” It’s John Heisman saying,
“it’s better to have died as a young boy
than to fumble the football.” It’s Bobby Dodd saying
he’d rather face the lions in the colesium than the
Tigers in Baton Rouge. It’s Clemson fans stating they
would rather be on probation than lose to
Furman.
The players, the coaches and the rivalries are
captivating here in the south. Florida-Georgia weekend
causes more people to call in sick on Monday morning
than the stomach flu and strep
throat, Alabama-Auburn divides households,
neighborhoods and the entire state, and The Egg Bowl
is a true late November fixture. The storylines are
just
as alluring. Think “The Choke at Doak”, “Lindsay
Scott!!” or the 1961 Clemson-South Carolina game where
a group of USC students impersonated the Tiger
football team in pre-game warm-ups, catering to the
crowd and the band before flopping all over the field
and mocking Clemson’s agricultural background with
milking hand-motions.
Though the press tries to hype the last week in the
regular season as rivalry week, every week is rivalry
week in the south.
Something down here makes this game different.
College football has a legitimate influence on state
governments, a major affect on commerce and local
economies and is the lifeblood and pulse of God’s
country. Perhaps former Tennessee Volunteer radio
personality George Mooney put it best.
“Southerners are proud of their football heritage,
their schools, and their teams. And they share a deep
pride that goes with being from the South,” he said.
It’s a match made, and currently outplayed, in
heaven.
OK, so we love college football. But WHY do we still love it? - Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) | NCAA Time
July 18th, 2011
10:23 pm
[...] is the original: OK, so we love college football. But WHY do we still love it? – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) Tags: 100, 885, function-ctu, image, not-want, notice, previous, previous-page, return-false, [...]
jarvis
July 18th, 2011
10:25 pm
1998 champion? Like it was yesterday?
Gordon
July 18th, 2011
10:29 pm
Thomas WAS NOT ineligible for the ACC Championship Game, or any other game Tech played. That is a fact. The punishment Tech received was ridiculous. I will be very disappointed if we don’t appeal.
gtkenz
July 18th, 2011
11:35 pm
Mr. Bradley,
For starters, cheating much like sin is not categorized, but you ain’t God and neither are we. Let’s not make any mistakes here. GT in its long and glorious tradition has never engaged in the type of cheating that runs amuck in College Sports. And when it comes to honesty, the white hats in the flats can never be confused with the black hats in Athens………..the birth place of cheating.
GT has no Jan Kemp, no basketball 101 for play (with answers), and we have certainly never had nearly 1/5 of the football team arrested between spring practice and fall arrivals.
Enjoy the story, all $314 bucks of it.
Jorg'e O'leary
July 18th, 2011
11:39 pm
Hey realistic fan, go back to powdering UGA’s mascots balls fake tech fan. P.s. 7-6 CUSA rules you loser!!
just asking
July 18th, 2011
11:56 pm
any chance any of you reporters with AJC can ask the NCAA why did they not rule GT had an ineligible player before the 2009 game? Instead of waiting a year and a half later? Why didn’t the NCAA start shouting from the rooftop with they saw Demaryius Thomas go out on the field after the kickoff on Dec 6 2009 vs Clemson? If GT notified the ACC and NCAA plus has the clothes with the tags stils on them, what is the problem? Sounds like the NCAA interviewed Thomas and coerced him into answers. Thomas probably thought they(NCAA) was on his side like they were trying to find out if someone posing as a friend was really an agent who they wanted to go after and encouraged Thomas to agree with them instead.
What kills me is that you MARK yes you and your coworkers should be asking the NCAA these exact questions instead of pointing your finger at GT? These questions I presented are valid. YOU ARE THE HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER, DO YOUR JOB FOR A CHANGE
HardTruth Soldier
July 19th, 2011
12:16 am
In the real world(people who work) taking from a store requires over 500 dollars to be deemed a felony, so why is Tech being slapped around(can’t believe I’m defending them) like a cheap slut? I mean(Free Shoes University) was cheating like dogs in the 90;s along with there in state rivals Felony University. That’s FSU, and Florida for the mentally challenged. and nothing happened to them. Georgia fans don’t even want this, so we can say we kicked ya’lls behind cleanly. MB good article, and you and Georgia hating Jeff Schultz keep bringing it daily, it keeps me entertained daily. To Bad Terrance Moore ain’t in this, it would have to be pay per view newspaper reading read what he has to say.
Pig Farmers Local 42
July 19th, 2011
12:26 am
Im a Tech fan. That beiung said, until colleges REMOVE the UNCK-bohmahnganies from the sport, we will always have the discpline problems. Some kids have not/shall not/ will not abide by the rules bc/ their dads aint around and thier moms are lookin for the next paycheck. Need I say more? BTW if it wasnt for footbal these kids would be mowin yards or breakin in houses……….Go Jackets!
TheAntiMe
July 19th, 2011
12:29 am
Because it’s football!
TheAntiMe
July 19th, 2011
12:32 am
And, because we don’t have to listen to Ledbetter going on about what a hotshot he thinks he is.
ScottBravesFan
July 19th, 2011
12:51 am
I’m done with college sports. At least pro sports tell you up front they are in it for the money. College sports like to pretend that they are doing it for love of school or state. It’s all a joke. Like the running back from USC who just got suspended because he said that USC players get paid better than pro’s. He said he was joking but let’s be honest there was some truth in what he said.
gtdrake
July 19th, 2011
12:57 am
to all you idiots who declare Tech cheaters and liars…
FALSE! thomas was NOT ineligible you morons. He was under investigation. D Rad even consulted the ACC before playing thomas. Mark rich would have done the same thing. Seriously, you call us cheaters, but in reality it was nothing. You want cheaters, look at unc, auburn, ohio state, etc. Geez, read the whole story first before making ridiculous accusations…
Pongo
July 19th, 2011
1:20 am
I’m sorry, I gave up on college football 5 years ago and haven’t missed it. The NCAA has completely lost control of the recruiting process and hasn’t figured out how to handle even texting and the internet. Until they come out with a playoff, I won’t be back! The NFL is much cleaner.
legionaire
July 19th, 2011
5:43 am
The NCAA does not allow for common sense. Is it common sense to expect kids recruited from a poor familes to not allow them some pocket money while in school? Players are not allowed to have a part time jobs. When I was at UGA in the 50’s players got $40 a month in “laundry” money. Players were allowed part time jobs when not playing ball. I don’t know if Tech cheated or not but doesn’t the fact that an entire team is punished for something so trivial devoid of common sense or worse just not fair to the players who sweated their collective ass off and took the pounding in order to make Tech and the NCAA millions.
tenn.DAWG
July 19th, 2011
6:37 am
Fulmer Cup is wide open.
CentralFLDawg
July 19th, 2011
6:42 am
Mark…well said; for fans of college football, the season for selective awareness begins.
The good is so good…memories, back to the campus, game day excitement, old friends…and, annually, ‘next year’ has finally arrived.
But, the bad is creating severe cognitive dissonance…the heart says it’s wonderful, the mind says ‘what a hell of a mess!’
What’s the solution? Probably only two unappealing options: 1) Adopt Div III (or whatever it’s called these days.) No scholarships or jock dorms. Playing football would be just like joining the geology club. 2) Recognize college football for what it is, a semi-pro money machine. Pay stipends, royalties. No classes during the season.
But, in the meantime we will dwell in this conflicted purgatory, hold our nose, deny or ignore the ugly realities and enjoy the 4 hours every week with the mind numb and the heart full.
steve brown
July 19th, 2011
7:12 am
Most NFL players last 3-4 years in the league and then deal with a screwed up life. Why do I get the feeling that most big time college football players don’t really belong in college and fare just as poorly afterward as NFL’ers.
Gen Neyland
July 19th, 2011
7:19 am
Classroom cheating by student-athletes or money passing hands to players and/or parents may constitute the need for the NCAA to hand out their Golden Hammer Award’s to college athletic programs. Other than that, I’m a bit suspect of their power…
chazzo
July 19th, 2011
7:20 am
Don’t you think it is a sign of bigger things than football. Our society accepts cheating. There is no regulation, no proactive investigations. We just want to win. Right? And, if a coach decided to raise the academic standards and only recruit A and B students, only offer scholarships after players are there for a year and earn them, and immediately kick anyone off the team that looked sideways…. How long do you think that coach would last?
So many of these posters argue about honesty out of one side of their mouths and argue about not competing for great players out of the other.
Let’s face it there are a bunch of college fans who would be thrilled to death to have a dirty rotten, cheating coach who won championships as long as he didn’t get caught.
I hated Kiffin, but let’s face it, had he been at UGA, I would have liked him and most likely defended his shananigans.
The BCS is worthless. It was always a money-making scheme. Play-offs would help. It’s always going to be a dirty business, though. Sorry, I remember Jacky Sherill, Frank Ford, Charlie Pell, and Johnny Majors too well.
Otter
July 19th, 2011
7:28 am
Thanks for the downer Mark… just what we all needed.
arch
July 19th, 2011
7:29 am
yes, why do we still love it…when coaches continue to sign irresponsible, lazy, cheating, nonethical kids that either, rob, steal, lie, drink & drive, evade parking tickets/law, court appearances,burglarize, break team rules, break ncaa rulles(jersey’s, clothes, rings,etc). Would rather see them sign a lesser athlete with better character; so what if they’re still 6-7??!!
not loving it so much anymore
Sometimes you make it hard for me to care. | Get The Picture
July 19th, 2011
7:37 am
[...] that’s not how I feel after reading one little dung nugget in Mark Bradley’s latest attempt at passive-aggressive observation of the world that helps pay his bills. … College football [...]
Thomas Brown
July 19th, 2011
7:38 am
Cognitive dissonance
Mark Bradley
is what you sir, practice changing the subject so quickly from 4 years PROBATION for Georgia tek yet AGAIN in FOOTBALL back-to-back in your last blog.
A blog I note if you will that from November 11, 2009 until AFTER The NCAA announced July 14, 2011 had not one word about Georgia tek and their cover-up with your personal assistance Mark Bradley sir.
chazzo
July 19th, 2011
7:41 am
Make the rules simple: No contact with players prior to completion of their senior season. No gifts, money, or promises from anyone coach or not. Pay rewards to recruits who report violations. If it’s some jaggoff agent not affiliated with the U, then he goes to jail.
Bust them early! Don’t penalize a bunch of legitimate players for what one player did a few years ago. Stripping titles is crap. As dirty as it may be, the majority of the players work hard, and this is it for them.
Thomas Brown
July 19th, 2011
7:53 am
Not around here, they don’t chazzo – work hard that is.
Around here, we are 3-9 vs the teams who finished Top 10 all 10 yrs
And, 10 more losses to teams who didn’t finish Top 25 all 10 yrs
That is not working hard, not at all.
Fan of the Game
July 19th, 2011
8:02 am
I’m quickly losing my likeness for College Football. I am afraid that everyone knows that college football and college basketball are two of the most corrupt outfits there are. We continue to sign players that we think can win us championships and have no regard for the integrity of the game or about what college athletics should be about. You use to have one, two or three players you gambled on and signed but now rosters are full of so called student athletes that have no business in college much less representing a university.
dtanner
July 19th, 2011
8:08 am
another thing i hate about college football now is these sorry ass non conferance games against non bcs schools look at UGA’S schedule now, charleston southern,georgia southern etc.,disgraceful
Columbus Dawg
July 19th, 2011
8:23 am
Hey Viningsdawg, I don’t know how old you are, or whether or not you have followed Auburn’s shady history, but there was never a drop off in Auburn’s pay-for-play from one instance of probation to another. Terry Bowden would not have done the interview implicating Stephen Davis and others after the Pat Dye fiasco. Auburn has been dirty since 1957 when they were on probation, could not even appear in a bowl game, but were named national champions by the media poll anyway. Goes to show you that the media did not just now become a crowd of idiots. Auburn did not get caught again until the 1970’s when the incredibly intelligent Doug Barfield became coach, then came the eighty’s and the D.A. drunk pos Pat Dye’s era of cheating. Yep, caught again.
I’ll be glad to tell you how Auburn cheated. By giving cash money to football recruits, and players who were already on Auburn’s campus, that’s how. As far as the NCAA’s current investigation of Auburn football, that is what it is, an investigation into Auburn football’s pay-for-play scheme, which has yielded many Auburn players cash money, and not just Cameron Newton or his pos father. Everyone who speaks of the Auburn football investigation refers to it as the “Cam Newton” investigation, but there will be players implicated that no one ever thought about when it comes to light.
Bottom line is that Auburn has NEVER stopped paying players, in any decade since old Shug was in charge, this time however, they will be hammered by a different breed of the NCAA, one that is trying to get some credibility back.
GT
July 19th, 2011
8:34 am
Southern college football and church are about the only two public gatherings that you can take your kids to anymore. It becomes a family tradition. The north has it in pro sports but the crowds are not like college football where there is enough sprinkling of college grads that the mob is generally civil. You have the idiots at the Georgia game that urinates on the sidewalk in front of your daughter, but when confronted he is at least apologetic and your daughter is embarrassed you confronted him.
I do believe college football is on a decline. Not in the south but the rest of the country. What we don’t understand as we pull for our teams is if they don’t have competition and are in an isolated world of greatness that is not good. And the sport is good where the least population and money is. Watch what happens when Ohio State, Notre Dame and Southern Cal are no longer in the picture. The real alumni will stay but the subway alumni will disappear. Sponsors will be less interested. I don’t think the game is as healthy as Brad would lead us to believe. Now that the NCAA has seen fit to throw the book at lowly Tech which in general is closer to Vanderbilt than Alabama, they about have to do something really radical to Ohio State. Is that good for the game? Interesting times.