Football, History, and World in Transition

Monday, December 22, 2008

do-it-yourself athletic scholarship

Over the past few years, recruiting has become a giant industry of its own in the world of collegiate athletics. There have emerged expert scouts, who serve (and make handsome profits) as middlemen between college athletic programs and prospectus recruits. Professional recruiting "counselors" can charge high school athletes and their parents over a $1,000 for placing them with college athletic programs. But what do you do if you're not a highly touted recruit or your parents can't afford to hire a professional consultant to land you that college athletic scholarship? According to this Wall Street Journal article, high school athletes can now post their profiles and videos on do-it-yourself websites. The recruiting business seems to have become ever crazier in recent years, and along with the ridiculous test prep business, it has served to expose the problem inherent in our education system. Instead of offering fair and affordable education to students of all backgrounds, our system has commercialized college entrance on all fronts. Students of both scholarly and athletic persuasions are forced to make themselves more marketable, and Prep Stars' and Princeton Reviews of the world cash in on the system that fosters overtly, and unnecessarily, competitive and money driven education market.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

great african american coaches snubbed yet again

After forcing head football coach Tommy Tuberville to step down, Auburn hired Iowa State's Gene Chizik over other candidates with better coaching records. Chizik is on a 10-game losing streak and has shown little to no evidence at Iowa State that he is deserving of a big time coaching gig at an SEC powerhouse.

In what seemed to be a hastily organized search process, Auburn interviewed two quality African American coaches--Turner Gill and Rodney Garner. Gill has turned Buffalo, undeniably the worst college football program prior to his tenure, into a winner and shocked the college football world by winning the conference championship this season. He was a star quarterback and later an outstanding assistant coach at Nebraska before taking over the head job at Buffalo. Garner is an extremely talented assistant coach and recruiter at Georgia. And he played and coached at Auburn.

However, on Monday, Auburn's Athletic Department surprised no one but disappointed many by introducing Chizik as their choice of replacement for Tuberville, who was one of the best head coaches in Auburn history. Chizik just so happens to be a white man, by the way. But to be fair to Chizik, I should mention that he was a highly regarded assistant coach at some of the big time college programs, including Auburn. But as a head coach, he was an embodiment of mediocrity. There is no question who was the better candidate in this hiring process: Turner Gill.

Here's one of the better articles circulating around the internet regarding this matter: "Auburn's 'best fit' defense of Chizik looks lame."

And according to former NBA star and Auburn alumnus Charles Barkley, who had talked with Gill during the hiring process, Gill was concerned about his chance of getting the job because his wife is a white woman. I also heard a commentator on ESPN yesterday confess that he had been told by a few white coaches in the SEC, the conference to which Auburn belongs, that they were concerned about Gill's chance of getting the Auburn job precisely because he is married to a white woman. I understand that Auburn is located in the deep southern state of Alabama and I guess there still are white southerners who do not wish to associate themselves with African American men married to white women. And unfortunately, they include university presidents, athletic directors, donors and athletic boosters, all well educated white people. And this is 2009 for god's sake.

FYI, there are 119 teams in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, former known as Division I-A), which is the highest division in college football. As of today there are four African American head coaches, including only one at a BCS school (Miami's Randy Shannon).

joe pa will coach next year

Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno will be back on the sideline next season after all. The oldest active coach (he'll turn 82 next week) signed a 3-year contract extension, which will likely stamp his place in history as the winningest coach in major college football. His principal rival, Bobby Bowden of Florida State who currently is the second winningest coach, will most likely retire after this season, so I think Joe Pa's place in history will be firmly secured for years to come. It would've been nice if his team hadn't lost to Iowa this season. The win would've given Penn State a perfect record and a shot at the national championship game. I'll be rooting for Joe Pa and Penn State against USC in this year's Rose Bowl game.