Who’s #1? Alabama For Now, But The Georgia Bulldogs Are On Their Heels

I don’t personally know a lot of these coaches and at least I’m honest about that. We all know that I often use a quirky thing they seem to do, the way they carry themselves or something boneheaded they said or did as comic fodder for when I’m making my game picks (which I’m champing at the bit to do by the way) but some of these guys are taking it to another level, a dangerous level.

I know coaches are paid a lot of money. I read in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune that Urban Meyer is making in the $3 million per year range in salary alone (I guessed 4 when my wife asked me how much he makes) and I know that other top programs are paying out in the same range. With the money their programs bring in, winning games and championships is usually money well spent.

To be honest, I think there is a huge pie for coaches to get a slice of, and if they are deserving then why not, that’s America.

What I don’t understand is how by taking the money that doesn’t give them any accountability for players on their team and their behavior of these student athletes and model citizens we cheer on every Saturday.

It starts long before the dirty recruiting process. High School athletes are often given “special treatment” as if they are above the law. High School coaches try and convince teachers to pass their star players, even though they usually haven’t done the bare minimum like show up for class, let alone do the work.

When teachers refuse they are usually overruled by the administration, who knows how important winning games is to their school. Then, when the players get to college, it seems to get even worse.

I doubt guys like Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban and Georgia Head Coach Mark Richt are telling parents the truth about the real education their kids are getting. I mean can you imagine Saban telling the parents:

“Your son isn’t just going to be a football player at Alabama, he’s going to get an ed-you-cation. And when we treat him like no matter what he does, he is going to be o.k. and he wants to try sumthin’ else we have plenty of good ol’ boys to help him out with that as well.

"You see Mr and Mrs. (insert name), we have this one guy, I’ll call him Jimmy Johns, ’cause that’s his real name (yuk, yuk). Jimmy decided he wanted to try out being an entrepreneur this off season and was so successful his stuff was just a flyin' off the shelves like grits right here in Alabama I tell you.

"Well big old Jimmy ended up selling his wares to federal agents, but unfortunately Jimmy wasn’t selling grits or lemonade, and he’ll be leaving Tuscaloosa with a 20 year-to-life sentence, but I promise you he will get his degree, no one but no one leaves here without that piece of paper.

And if selling narcotics isn’t for your son, I’ve had nine other players arrested this off season alone running the gamut from assault and battery, to gun possession, armed robbery or he can just be a regular kid and shoot for a public intoxication. You name it, these kids do it.”

Of course it doesn’t work like that. Nick is more likely to talk about how great and historic the program is, how many pro players came from Alabama, throw in a Bear Bryant reference or two and try and get them to sign on the dotted line.

Coaches promise the parents a lot more that they don’t come through on, so maybe we should hold these guys accountable; after all, they are “their” players.

While Saban’s kids lead the nation in off season arrests at a solid 10, as I write this Mark Richt’s Georgia bunch looks to take home the coveted title of going into the season ranked number one while at the same time having double-digit player arrests in the off season.

The Dawgs are right at the cusp with nine players, or over 10 percent of the scholarship guys on their team making the police blotter. Don’t worry Mark, you still have a few weeks and you got just the bunch to get UGA to that double digit number.

Let’s get one thing straight, I’m no choir boy and I do agree with Bobby Bowden when he says boys will be boys and I agree with Colorado Coach Dan Hawkins that studies show 82 percent of all college students drink and probably less than 82 percent of college athletes drink; I don’t agree with them that their players are above the law.

I’m sure MADD and other groups are going to disagree with me, but I think a Public Intoxication charge isn’t a horrible thing as long as it isn’t a regular thing.

I think a DUI is much worse, but still nothing to get a kid thrown out of school over. License revoked? Yes, but they should not be thrown out, at least when it’s a first time offense.

However, when the kids drink too much and start throwing around their NCAA athlete bodies against normal students and members of society, there is a serious problem.

When guys come in with a history, yes, they deserve more than just a second chance in life for something they did as a kid, but when we see it wasn’t just as a kid, like WVU’s Noel Devine getting into fights outside of bars, we have to wonder how the coaches let this stuff happen.

There is about as much chance of gas going to 50 cents a gallon as there is of Devine being dismissed from the team in Morgantown. Maybe it’s time we tell the coaches that they have responsibilities here.

Battery charges seem to be pretty common across the entire country this off-season, and the numbers are nearing triple digits nationwide, ranging from starting Ohio State DB Eugene Clifford to Clemson DB DeAndre McDaniel and Colorado LB Mike Sipili.

I am surprised that we don’t hear stories like Sipili’s more often, as just sending the guy talking to his ex-girlfriend a message wasn’t enough, he hit him hard and often enough to cause actual brain damage along with permanent physical damage.

While I don’t want what I’m saying to become a news article about player arrests as that information is available to everyone, I typed into Google “arrested college football players 2008″ and got back 2,590,000 hits of articles relating to either the actual arrests or a mention of the subject.

I do think it’s something that gets ignored when TV announcers talk about how great these coaches are as people.

Let’s try and put this in another perspective. Say I’m walking down the street here in Chicago or at a suburban strip mall and we see a guy with marijuana who is toting around a hand gun.

Is this the type of guy parents would want their kids to be sharing a dormitory with? Is this the type of guy who belongs in jail? Last I checked, it wasn’t just against team rules or NCAA policy to sell, smoke or be in possession of marijuana and there are some pretty specific laws involving handguns as well.

I guess these laws are just guidelines if you’re a member of Florida State University’s football team as these charges got all-world receiver Preston Parker suspended for a whole two games, and in true Bobby Bowden fashion, these games are against Western Carolina and Chattanooga (no I’m not joking around here, the Noles really have Western Carolina and Chattanooga on their schedule).

Over in Louisville, WR JaJuan Spillman was released from the team just this past week for his second arrest. Obviously, he hadn’t learned his lesson after similar marijuana and gun charges.

It’s tough for me or anyone to put 100 percent of the blame on the coaches, as parents have to have some responsibility as well, but the coaches do promise parents they will watch out for their kids while in their care.

I think there are a couple of issues here. First, the coaches are under pressure to win at any cost and that’s why they will bring in players whose character is questionable if they feel the player will help the team win and help him keep his multi-million dollar paycheck.

Second, the coaches seem to have little accountability to the administration or the alumni in regards to their “student athletes” except in regard to the teams’ record.

The biggest problem is that these athletes are treated from a pretty early age as if they are bigger than life and it’s very possible that is why some may feel as if they really are above the law.

While I don’t have any kind of definitive solution to this problem I surely believe that there are solutions out there and they begin with accountability.

Perhaps instead of discussing sideline warnings and incidental face mask rules the NCAA should be talking about deducting pieces of the TV money pie from schools that have players arrested.

While I’m not sure how to scale this I’m sure it is scalable and it would certainly make administrators, alumni and therefore coaches actually care, at least a lot more than they seem to now.