Some of the other institutions we hold dear will be hurt too. The Million Dollar Band receives a lot, if not all, of its funding from the athletic department. Many high school bands and non-football sports are funded through concessions and parking. Lots of things will contract from no football this year.
Unintended consequences......maybe my favorite topic of all time.
Yeah, those folks yapping about “football factories,’ will be the first lamenting the demise of football-supported activities....like the MDB. Like crew. Like soccer. Like pretty much everything other than football, men’s basketball, and (at Alabama), gymnastics and softball — even those last two, only maybe.
Even in normal years, nothing else at Alabama comes remotely close to making money. And we’re at the top of the heap. Others are a
lot worse off.
Don’t get me started about G5 football and lower. Precious few of those guys would be afloat at all if not for the much-maligned “patsy” games against P5 teams.
As in, you prevent juggernaut Alabama from getting an easy W against Georgia State or Florida Directional or whoever. You feel real proud of yourself for bringing down the avaricious monster.
Trouble is, the weaker program just went broke because that payday evaporated.
Do you feel better now? How do you explain your position to the 170 parents of 85 formerly scholarshipped kids that their best (sometimes only) chance for a college education just got yanked? How do you look the kid in the eye, and say the world is now a better place?
Guessing you look away, and simply don’t. You look down, study the toes of your pointed shoes, go back to your hotel room, have a Chardonnay, and lament the unfairness of life. Conveniently ignoring the fact that you just made it that much more unfair.
Yeah, you beat back the big, bad football factory. Using the forehead of an optionless kid as your hammer.
I repeat....do you feel better now?
Sadly, the thought processes of what passes for “journalism” today are so tied to that of lemmings, that I’ve never seen those follow-up questions asked.
Rant over. Back to your originally-scheduled programming.