Killing the Goose… The Crime Scene

-EDITORIAL -

By TexCane

There’s an old saying… “Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs!”

CaneReports has always believed college athletics should transcend loyalty to an individual school. As such, over the last decade we have attempted to address the issues impacting our favorite pastime. Our goal has been to face the issues head on, with no blatant bias toward University of Miami athletics. OK, maybe a little.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to break down college athletics. The good, bad and ugly.

The Crime...

College athletics is currently a total mess. After decades of power struggles, money grabbing and bad decisions, fans are showing their disgust by literally walking away from the games. Attendance and viewership continues to drop each year. Fans are frustrated and angry.

Who is to blame?

Just about everyone associated with college athletics. The NCAA…Power Conferences…Media Networks… Universities…Coaches….Student-Athletes and their Parents. All are complicit in the demise of college athletics.

The NCAA…

The governing body of college athletics is the NCAA. For decades this association has managed in its own best interest… to maintain its position and power. It has lacked strong, innovative and bold leadership. Slowly it has been reduced to a powerless entity of warring tribes, acting in their own best interest. The NCAA recently divested themselves of the responsibility enforce their own rules.

The Power Conferences…

The NCAA Division I was originally organized with five conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big-12, PAC-12 and SEC) over the top tier of college athletics. Unfortunately, conference leadership over the past two decades has blatantly acted in their own best interest. When realignment emerged, it became “every man for themselves.” Conferences began competing against themselves, eventually cannibalizing their own (PAC-12.) They even left two schools (Washington State and Oregon State) to fend for themselves. All for more power and money. Disgraceful!

The conference power brokers and their network partners are running the show now, faking brotherly love but actually competing against each other for more power and more money for themselves. Certainly, not in the best interests of their student-athletes.

The Media Networks…

The sharks smelled blood in the water and took advantage of the lack of strong NCAA leadership. ABC/ESPN, CBS Sports, FOX Sports, and NBC/Peacock began to throw ridiculous money at selected power conferences for their media rights. This divide and conquer strategy has brought disunity in the NCAA. The result... the playing field is no longer level. The networks want a new landscape of premiere schools to feed their own networks. It’s working, the SEC and Big Ten have separated themselves from the pack. The networks are now controlling the national playoffs (CFP). The ACC and Big-12 are on death row. The PAC-12 is already dead, despite heroic efforts at re-birth.

The Universities…

University athletic departments became more and more thirsty for money to run their operations, thus fueling their respective conferences as they fell into the network “ Venus Fly Trap…money.” And the university presidents and chancellors let them do it.

The Coaches…

The coaching fraternity also has had a hand in killing the goose. The most successful head coaches want more money to stay at their current schools. It’s gotten to the point head college football coaches are making more than their university presidents. Again, it’s all about greed and money.

The Student -Athletes…

It use to be a scholarship athlete got his/her tuition, room & board and books for playing their sport at a school. Today, that's chump change. With no rules or guidelines in place by the NCAA, athletes now leverage themselves to the highest bidder, using the transfer portal and name-image-likeness contracts as pay-for-play weapons. A degree is no longer the goal for most college “student-athletes.”

The Parents…

The role of parents in our society is to nurture and guide our children to be a good, productive and contributing citizens. Unfortunately, many parents of college “student-athletes” have also abdicated their responsibilities in the interest of money. The consequences of prioritizing short-term money over long-term education value is frightening.

BOTTOM LINE:

The goose is dying or will eventually kick the bucket because of power and greed. We need a miracle to save college athletics.

Next… Getting Control Back

GO CANES!