College Sports

[ZCat]

Jacob,

In another thread you told the new guy (or girl) (already banned LOL) that maybe college sports is not for him.

I wonder, how do you and others feel about college sports? You seem to watch a LOT of bball and fball.

NCAA is always trying to have an "even playing field". Phone book size rule books, and infraction rules, etc.

Shouldn't there be a somewhat serious attempt at making things "even" (or is this a joke with $B's involved)? Ex - have an equal amount of home and away games (maybe they cant bc of buy games needed to fund small schools). Why not share the cash (pipe dream) so people can have even schedules? Look at Syracuse. Every year they play TONS of home games. I remember this from not just this yr, but when I was in high school years ago. At least they try to look at metrics to even things out now (KenPom etc).

How can it be fair that OSU has 2-3 Co D-coordinators?? and OC too LOL. I never even knew this til Coach LF came. I think we did too, but we are small time. Alabama the same I think? At least the scholarship limits evened things out a bit.

I know college sports started out small and became BIG business, but this is ridiculous. I know UNC or UCLA and others have built in advantages from star alumni and championships so it is hard to even things out, but it seems a little ridiculous. Oregon built a $40M training facility I think. Some small school likely has an athletic budget 1/4 of that. I never even hear this (making things more fair) mentioned. So Alabama or OSU wins the national title on the field, but is it a even-stevenly held competition?? We have advantages over smaller schools too, I understand.

[jacobkdoyle]

I wouldn't be the one to ask about the money side of things. Kind of the ugly side of college sports imo. I do know Alabama can afford 800 people on their staff in football. Just imagine if Coach Cronin and Coach Fickell had those kind of resources, where they could literally have established former head coaches devouring film for them and having a sole job of player development in position groups, outside of the actual assistant coaches. Obviously that's more a football thing, and it's only the top of the top who have those advantages, but if you ask me it absolutely makes life easier in terms of repeating success at the highest level.

My comment was just more about how I've come to view college athletes...especially at UC. When I was a kid in the 90s, I idolized the Fortson, K-Mart type players. I thought they were "old" bc at that age you don't really have a concept of adults. They're all just old lol. But the older I get the more I just respect the hell out of our student athletes. It's such a commitment to do what they do. My goodness, thinking back to my college age self, it was a miracle if I was even functioning more than a few days per week. So I just see it differently. I won't hang a Jarron Cumberland poster in my room like I would've wanted as a kid. Instead I just see it as more about rooting for a guy like him, as well as the rest of the guys obviously. But it's not about any of us. So it bugs me when people try to make it that way. They don't have to live their lives to try to meet the expectations of fans who specifically create an account on a message board just to tear them down. And I don't mean to make it sound like I'm perfect. None of us are. We all get heated and passionate when the games are intense, and that's ok. That's what being a fan is about in my mind. It just really rubbed me the wrong way that people who have never posted a single time here during one of our best seasons, couldn't wait until we lost so they could point out everything our players didn't do for them. If that's your mindset, I just don't think college sports are for you. If you want to rip on the pro players in town making millions, or our coaches here making millions, have at it I guess. But our guys aren't all NBA All-Stars. If they were, they wouldn't be at UC, or in college at all for that matter. So part of the appeal in amateur sports is seeing guys grow up on and off the court.

Anyway, that's just my thought on it. Doesn't mean I'm ok with losing or anything, just wish people could step back and give the guys the credit they deserve bc a couple of the people coming around here after the season ending loss are just straight up pathetic and have no room criticizing guys who are doing things they could only dream of.

[GarradJ21]

Originally Posted by jacobkdoyle

I wouldn't be the one to ask about the money side of things. Kind of the ugly side of college sports imo. I do know Alabama can afford 800 people on their staff in football. Just imagine if Coach Cronin and Coach Fickell had those kind of resources, where they could literally have established former head coaches devouring film for them and having a sole job of player development in position groups, outside of the actual assistant coaches. Obviously that's more a football thing, and it's only the top of the top who have those advantages, but if you ask me it absolutely makes life easier in terms of repeating success at the highest level.

My comment was just more about how I've come to view college athletes...especially at UC. When I was a kid in the 90s, I idolized the Fortson, K-Mart type players. I thought they were "old" bc at that age you don't really have a concept of adults. They're all just old lol. But the older I get the more I just respect the hell out of our student athletes. It's such a commitment to do what they do. My goodness, thinking back to my college age self, it was a miracle if I was even functioning more than a few days per week. So I just see it differently. I won't hang a Jarron Cumberland poster in my room like I would've wanted as a kid. Instead I just see it as more about rooting for a guy like him, as well as the rest of the guys obviously. But it's not about any of us. So it bugs me when people try to make it that way. They don't have to live their lives to try to meet the expectations of fans who specifically create an account on a message board just to tear them down. And I don't mean to make it sound like I'm perfect. None of us are. We all get heated and passionate when the games are intense, and that's ok. That's what being a fan is about in my mind. It just really rubbed me the wrong way that people who have never posted a single time here during one of our best seasons, couldn't wait until we lost so they could point out everything our players didn't do for them. If that's your mindset, I just don't think college sports are for you. If you want to rip on the pro players in town making millions, or our coaches here making millions, have at it I guess. But our guys aren't all NBA All-Stars. If they were, they wouldn't be at UC, or in college at all for that matter. So part of the appeal in amateur sports is seeing guys grow up on and off the court.

Anyway, that's just my thought on it. Doesn't mean I'm ok with losing or anything, just wish people could step back and give the guys the credit they deserve bc a couple of the people coming around here after the season ending loss are just straight up pathetic and have no room criticizing guys who are doing things they could only dream of.

Really good post.

[ZCat]

Originally Posted by jacobkdoyle

I wouldn't be the one to ask about the money side of things. Kind of the ugly side of college sports imo. I do know Alabama can afford 800 people on their staff in football. Just imagine if Coach Cronin and Coach Fickell had those kind of resources, where they could literally have established former head coaches devouring film for them and having a sole job of player development in position groups, outside of the actual assistant coaches. Obviously that's more a football thing, and it's only the top of the top who have those advantages, but if you ask me it absolutely makes life easier in terms of repeating success at the highest level.

My comment was just more about how I've come to view college athletes...especially at UC. When I was a kid in the 90s, I idolized the Fortson, K-Mart type players. I thought they were "old" bc at that age you don't really have a concept of adults. They're all just old lol. But the older I get the more I just respect the hell out of our student athletes. It's such a commitment to do what they do. My goodness, thinking back to my college age self, it was a miracle if I was even functioning more than a few days per week. So I just see it differently. I won't hang a Jarron Cumberland poster in my room like I would've wanted as a kid. Instead I just see it as more about rooting for a guy like him, as well as the rest of the guys obviously. But it's not about any of us. So it bugs me when people try to make it that way. They don't have to live their lives to try to meet the expectations of fans who specifically create an account on a message board just to tear them down. And I don't mean to make it sound like I'm perfect. None of us are. We all get heated and passionate when the games are intense, and that's ok. That's what being a fan is about in my mind. It just really rubbed me the wrong way that people who have never posted a single time here during one of our best seasons, couldn't wait until we lost so they could point out everything our players didn't do for them. If that's your mindset, I just don't think college sports are for you. If you want to rip on the pro players in town making millions, or our coaches here making millions, have at it I guess. But our guys aren't all NBA All-Stars. If they were, they wouldn't be at UC, or in college at all for that matter. So part of the appeal in amateur sports is seeing guys grow up on and off the court.

Anyway, that's just my thought on it. Doesn't mean I'm ok with losing or anything, just wish people could step back and give the guys the credit they deserve bc a couple of the people coming around here after the season ending loss are just straight up pathetic and have no room criticizing guys who are doing things they could only dream of.

Thanks Jacob. Yeah, college sports is not pure, but I still love it more than the pros. Especially rooting for the teams of my Alma mater.