Is College Football It’s Own Worst Enemy?
By Matt Haley
I want you to take for a moment and put yourself in this situation. You have just been arrested on felony weapon charges, you have lost you job most likely and you are thinking what am I going to do to take care of my family. Then a couple days later you receive a call from a smaller company asking you to come work them despite your trouble with the law. Now you are probably saying to yourself that I am crazy to even suggest this could happen, but in the world of college football if you are talented someone is going to take a chance believing they can turn your life around.
Isaiah Crowell is a talented running back who was dismissed from the Georgia football for the scenario i describe at the onset of this post. Less than a week after the arrest he announced he will be taking classes and playing at Alabama State. Crowell is doing exactly what I would do in his situation by taking advantage of his athletic ability to receive a second chance in college football. The issue does not lie with the young man who made a mistake, but that he would have coaches lining up less than a week after a kid was arrested on gun charges is something that is not right. A school has the right to recruit and hand out scholarships to players they see fit for their University, but if I am a parent of a current high school player being recruited by Alabama State I have many questions.
When college football coaches say that character is the most important part of a football players grade when they are recruiting athletes i want to just bust out in laughter. The first thing a coach wants to know is can this kid win for me at whatever university, then can he qualify, then they may get to is he a good person. If the first question is a resounding no then the kid is placed further down the list and will be offered only at a last resort.
College Coaching is one of the most fickle businesses in the world and perhaps the problem lies in just that, should college football be like a business? Coaches no longer stay at Universities as Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno once roamed the sidelines. The pressure to win puts coaches in situations where they are willing to take a chance on a kid with felony charges as Alabama State did. When Crowell chose Alabama State it only showed us that this school took a chance on Crowell making the most out this opportunity and the school winning a few more games because of his presence. However if this does not pan out the coach at Alabama State along with Crowell will be gone from the University. Crowell because he had not learned from past mistakes and Coach Barlow for not winning enough games. Barlow says the University officials believe in helping young people, but as we saw in the Butch Davis situation chancellors can change their mind very quickly and for no apparent reason.
I believe there is a solution to help change college football. The NCAA got it partially right when they changed the number of scholarships each team could have at 85. This kept coaches from stockpiling talent and over recruiting positions just to avoid competition as Bear Bryant did at Alabama for so many years. Now it is time for the NCAA to change this policy to a more fluid one that rewards coaches who are putting academics and character first at their Universities. If there was a formula that gave coaches more than the 85 limit and reduced the number for schools that did not graduate players or any number of other measures that could be put in place.
The presidents of major Universities just approved the steps for a four team playoff to be put in place for college football. The next step is for the presidents to look at the rules of college football, and decide if the rules are helping kids like Crowell. Is playing football the best step for this young man or would making him focus on his academics while trying to get his life in order be a better plan. Removing him from adult mentors that can guide him in the right direction is not something that i believe would be positive, however I wonder if he could not “tote the mail” as they say would Coach Barlow believe in helping this young man at all?
As always you can follow the Haley and MandMsportshow on twitter @MandMSportshow and you can read more articles from Haley at The Water Cooler.