Daily Double - Back in the Saddle Again

Junior and I discussed it and due to a little linkage from Jerry at Joe Cribb’s Car Wash, we are going to try and get this thing going again.

So, on with the fart jokes and half-naked women...

1. Auburn released their 2008 Football schedule and there was much rejoicing.
   
   The highlights include a trip to Morgantown for a little couch burning, LSU, Tennessee, and Georgia at home, the usually spate of SEC games, a cupcake to start off and a cupcake for homecoming, and the bi-annual owning of Bryant-Denny stadium. Not too shabby, Junior and I are definitely in for a little Morgantown action. Plus, Junior visited this gentleman’s establishment outside of Pittsburgh one night that I have to see.
   
   I’m a little miffed at the inclusion of Tennessee-Martin. Auburn has no business scheduling non-Division I-A (or FBS, whatever) teams. I understand it is difficult to put together a schedule and all, but hell call anyone but a Division I-AA team.
   
   The folks did put in two open dates, which I like. That first open date will feel great after that stretch of games. Let’s hope Kodi Burns shows big time improvement between now and September 6th.
   
   
2. Michael Lewis trots out another column about the inequities of big time college athletics. Okay, big time college football. In the course of his column, Lewis comes off sounding very elitist, which isn’t something I normally associate with him. Nevertheless, his argument boils down to, “Hey you Neanderthals that like college football, don’t you know you are somewhat racist and holding back poor black kids from getting their just due.” I’m generally not a fan of someone calling me racist. Particularly when they do it in a rather thinly veiled way like Lewis does with the following, “At this moment there are thousands of big-time college football players, many of whom are black and poor. They perform for the intense pleasure of millions of rabid college football fans, many of whom are rich and white.” Ahh yes, the old rich white people taking advantage of poor black people argument. I will grant Lewis that the average person supporting any given college football program is fairly well off and probably white. However, this is how they spend their entertainment dollars. Dollars, I might add, that most would consider well-earned.
   
   But let’s peel the onion back a little more on Lewis’ column. He, of course, argues that college football programs make millions of dollars without properly compensating the labor creating those dollars. As an example, he says that Vince Young gave a donation of his labor to the University of Texas, a donation Lewis estimates to be $5 million. For that $5 million, Vince Young has made about $8.42 million dollars in salary from the Tennessee Titans in two years and is set to make an additional $17.32 million in the next four years (this is only his guaranteed money and does not include endorsements). If you consider the time value of money, $5 million over the first three years and $25.74 million over the next six, gives a return of 50 percent. I think any of us would take that on our 401(k) accounts.
   
   Don’t think VY is a good example to use? Okay, let’s take the average scholarship football player. He attends four years of college with room and board for free. In exchange, he plays football. I’m certainly recognizing that the tradeoff isn’t fair. However, the opportunity to earn a degree is his for the taking and he has a support system that is designed to do all it can to assist him in doing so. The average differential between a college educated person and a high school educated person is about $21,000 per year (admittedly a two-year old study, we will put our intern right on conducting a more recent study...oh wait). Over a thirty-year period (assuming three percent growth in the differential each year) at a fairly modest five percent return, the present value of the education he receives is about $58,000. On a team with 85 scholarships, what does Lewis think the average “donation” is likely to be? Hard to say, but I think most of the scholarship football players are breaking even.
   
   The largest question to ask is how is this inequity that much different than a normal student? No one who attends college is getting compensated at the time for their labors and efforts. I wasn’t given a check for the work I was putting in for Auburn’s engineering school in the mid-90s. No, I put forth effort with the expectation that I would receive future compensation that would exceed the value of the time I was expending. And this doesn’t even count the fact that I was paying to go to school. Something a scholarship athlete doesn’t do. What, you don’t think school’s benefit from their student’s achievements? Let’s see, rankings, graduate and undergraduate research, alumni donations, etc., etc., etc. Are these worth as much each year as what the athletic department rakes in? No. But the potential future earnings of the average college student and a blue-chip athlete are a little different as well.