The Chris Moeller Archives

Football is so crooked it's oblong

I’m not sure how I’m supposed to take college football seriously. My alma mater, Iowa State, suits up its players once a year against Oklahoma State in the Big 12 conference. At the beginning of the 2013 season, there was a five-part magazine profile in Sports Illustrated investigating Oklahoma State University’s football program. It revealed, between the years 1999 and 2011, under-the-table cash payments and bonuses to players, sham jobs, academic misconduct designed to produce passing grades, heavy drug use, a "hostess group" of female students utilized to have sex with potential recruits, and former players coping with homelessness, drug addiction, suicidal impulses, and prison sentences. Half a year later, no sanctions have resulted against Oklahoma State, which is fresh off a lucrative January 3rd appearance at Cowboys Stadium in the Cotton Bowl.

So pay for play under the table is okay? Whoring out the co-eds is kosher too?

Officials at Penn State University knowingly enabled two decades of child molestation, but NCAA officials informed us that a four-year bowl ban and a "significant" loss of scholarships would be more damaging to the celebrated "Success with Honor" football program than the death sentence. Two years after sanctions, the Nittany Lions have gone a combined 15-9, and have won twice as many games as they've lost in conference play. The NCAA has restored five of the lost scholarships per year, citing "significant momentum" by the school in making institutional changes, which I guess means none of the coaches have been observed raping a child during the previous 18 months.

So when I hear a joke about my school only winning three football game this season, I'm not sure why I should feel any sense of embarrassment? This is like having a losing record in the ring against nothing but Don King fighters.

posted by CM @ 6:26 PM