College football doesn’t need a czar. Or an emperor. Or a Grand Poobah or a potentate.
It needs a Nicktator.
Former Michigan State, LSU, and Alabama coach Nick Saban said this week on Pat McAfee’s show that Saban knows how to fix college football, but that no one will listen to him.
“I got it figured out, nobody will listen, so you know, what are you going to do?” Saban said, via Matt Yoder of AwfulAnnouncing.com. “We got to have some kind of antitrust exemption. You got to get the political parties together on it. I think the college people have to get over the fact that a graduate student can be a graduate assistant, get paid, is not an employee, so players don’t have to be employees.”
Actually, the “college people” and people like Saban and politicians of like mind need to get over the fact that an antitrust exemption is something as simple as changing a flat tire. The kind of antitrust exemption that the “college people” want would take away rights the players have fought in court to secure based on the rampant and longstanding antitrust violations flowing from the entire NCAA structure.
They want Congress to wave a magic wand, allowing them to return to rules that restrict the compensation levels and freedom of movement that coaches like Saban have always been able to enjoy.
The only antitrust exemption they should get would be the one that comes from having a nationwide union. That’s how the NFL manages to impose rules like a salary cap, a draft, and the franchise tag.
But the “college people” don’t want to have to deal with a union. Because a union would advocate zealously for player rights. Less contact at practice. Less time spent in grueling offseason conditioning drills.
Less ability for folks like Saban to keep a firm grip on the team.
In other words, fewer college football Nicktators.
But they’ll keep feeding us bullshit about college football being in crisis. They’ll keep trying to tie the situation to the success of other college sports. They’ll keep pretending the sky is falling.
And college football will continue to thrive.