jonvalk

Something's been missing from Michigan gamedays since the free programs ceased being economically viable: scientific gameday predictions that are not at all preordained by the strictures of a column in which one writer takes a positive tack and the other a negative one… something like Punt-Counterpunt.

PUNT

By Nick RoUMel

Issues of NCAA reform are bubbling to a head. John Bacon assessed the problem and some of the solutions just for recently. As for paying players, he suggests that this would not fix the underlying problem, but simply requiring feeding the greedy college football monster with even more money. As a starting point for discussion, Bacon proposes re-imposing what had been a long-time ban on freshman eligibility, as a means to eventually force the NFL and NBA to stop using colleges as their minor league program.

I too have railed against the business and corporate aspect of college football in this space, and come off as curmudgeonly to some. Sometimes I wax fondly about the old days, but I’m realistic enough to know those days are gone. We have created a situation that makes a lot of people filthy rich and leaves many players feeling used. If they’re real lucky, they leave college with a college degree, good memories, and bodies largely intact as they pursue alternate careers.

There is one thing about the old days, however, I do not like. Which leads me to the Minnesota Gophers and their coach Jerry Kill, who happens to suffer from epilepsy. In the old days, epileptics were often shunned, segregated with the insane or even imprisoned. This was part of the generally abysmal way our society has often treated people with physical, mental, or emotional conditions. We have progressed to the point, I would hope, that we don’t want to do such things anymore.

Except for Minnesota Star-Tribune columnist Jim Souhan, who suggested that the Gophers should fire Coach Kill in part because “No one who buys a ticket to TCF Bank Stadium should be rewarded with the sight of a middle-aged man writhing on the ground.” I’m not sure if this opinion is grounded in the historical shutting away of “defectives,” the entitlement of fans and networks to be not be distracted from the business of college football, or both. But it is an opinion that I find abhorrent.

If Coach Kill has just one more play in him than Akron’s Coach Bowden or UConn’s (now fired) Coach Pasqualoni, then maybe he will beat Michigan and temporarily shut up his ignorant critics. I do know that the Wolverines have been playing like amateurs lately, rather than the paid performers some wish they were. After today’s performance, you might even see a few of our players fired.

MINNESOTA 23, MICHIGAN 21

COUNTERPUNT

By Heiko Yang

The beauty of amateurism is you can’t get fired from a job you’re not being paid to do. For example, if Devin Gardner throws back-to-back interceptions in the first quarter, he’ll probably get benched, and if he keeps regressing he’ll probably no longer be the starter. As much as that sounds like being fired, the important distinction is that he’ll get to keep his scholarship, and that sounds like a good deal to me. Being a backup might actually be a better life plan. After all, the fewer snaps Gardner takes, the more likely his body will be intact when he leaves with his Master’s degree to pursue an alternate career.

That pretty much sums up why I don’t see any reason to give athletes more than what they’re already getting. A scholarship essentially says, “Your education is free as long as you play this sport, even if you end up being awful.”* If current athletes feel like they’re being exploited for generating revenue they’ll never see, there’s a really simple solution: start sucking. Being relegated to the practice squad doesn’t make that degree any less free.

That’s the kind of job security a guy like Jerry Kill could really use right now, but he has no amateurism clause to hide behind. Yes, the Star-Tribune columnist’s jab at Kill is callous and reprehensible. Unfortunately, he’s technically correct. Unlike Gardner, Kill is actually getting paid to do his job. Lots. If he becomes unable to do that job, he probably shouldn’t get paid anymore. To be clear, there’s a thing called common decency that says we shouldn’t be jerks to a guy who’s suffering from epilepsy, but when millions of dollars are involved, there’s no such thing as a medical hardship. Even Urban Meyer knows that.

The rabbling for NCAA reform has indeed reached a crescendo recently, and I have to tell you: the portrayal of a grave class struggle between the haves and have-nots, the suits and jerseys, is disingenuous. It’s not like players are poorer than they were 20 years ago. Deep down I think we just hate looking at Mark Emmert’s side-part, which I swear to God becomes more and more perfect every day.

We try to pin the bastardization of our beloved pastime on money and corporatism, but we have only ourselves to blame. We love amateur sports so much that we do everything in our power to corrupt it. Especially as Michigan fans, when we consider the thick wads of cash we indiscriminately throw at anything that’s blue with maize stripes, we should be thankful our football program didn’t end up like USC or Miami.

Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of changes we can make to preserve amateurism and tradition in college football as well as improve athlete education and safety. I hope the latter get implemented soon so I don’t have to feel so guilty every time someone forgets to block Frank Clark. But ultimately, I don’t think college athletes should be paid. Even though all we want is to give them money, that part of it should stay untouched. I mean, I would hate to give Nick a reason to think he can go around firing any of our players.

Not that he’ll feel compelled to, because Michigan will win comfortably.

Minnesota 10, Michigan 35

*[unless you’re at Alabama.]