The following CNN recap this morning of last night’s game says it all:
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Kirby Smart, Stetson Bennett and the Georgia Bulldogs turned back their demons and turned away Alabama, defeating the reigning national champions to capture the school’s first title since 1980.
Smart — who had previously been 0-4 when facing his mentor Nick Saban as a head coach — watched his top-ranked Bulldogs close the game with a 33-18 victory in Indianapolis.
Saban, who was seeking his seventh national title at Alabama, and eighth overall, was Smart’s boss for nine seasons in Tuscaloosa, and most recently got the better of his pupil during the SEC Championship game. The rematch, however, went the way of Georgia, in large part thanks to senior quarterback Stetson Bennett.
A costly fourth-quarter Red Zone fumble by Bennett led to Alabama’s lone touchdown, a three-yard strike from Bryce Young to Cameron Latu which put the Crimson Tide in front 18-13 with 10:14 to play. However, on the very next possession, Bennett responded with a picturesque 40-yard scoring strike to Adonai Mitchell, giving the Bulldogs the lead right back at 19-18.
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Of course, the real story of this game is how Saban’s much vaunted Alabama not only allowed Georgia to score four unanswered touchdowns in the last 16 minutes of this game, but failed to respond to any of those scores with a touchdown of its own.
In other words, the real score for this game was a Georgia shutout of Alabama 28-0! And, trust me, no Georgia fan will ever let any Alabama fan forget all the gloating predictions about Alabama defeating Georgia again to sweep their matchups this year.
By the way, most sports commentators previewed this game by hailing Saban for being as close to a coaching god as there ever was. But I am constrained to note that this marks his third loss in a national championship game in the last five years. So…
That said, I am not a fan of college football. Perhaps this is because I did not attend one of far too many colleges in America whose reputation is based more on athletics than academics. Whatever the case, I’ve never had any bragging interest in the outcome of any NCAA championship (in any sport).
The only reason I watch this annual spectacle is to establish standing to vent my abiding lament about college football masquerading as an amateur sport. This excerpt from “Reggie Bush Forfeits Heisman Trophy,” September 16, 2010, crystallizes my concerns:
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There’s nothing amateur about college football. It’s a multibillion-dollar business for Christ’s sake!
More to the point, the people generating its revenues are not the university presidents, athletic directors, or coaches who, incidentally, make millions of dollars in salary and endorsement deals. Instead, they are the poor, mostly black athletes whose raw talent colleges exploit to pack 100,000 fans into their stadiums on game day.
I have always felt that it’s tantamount to modern-day slavery for universities to recruit poor and, all too often, uneducated athletes just to play Football and not compensate them for their services, especially considering they rarely get an education. …
But this indentured servitude is made much worse by branding these poor players – who generate tens of millions for their respective universities – as cheaters for accepting a little cash on the side. Mind you, those offering the cash are often boosters just trying to make life easier for players to enable them to perform better. Not to mention that, if the NCAA were to penalize all college players who accept such gifts, there would be no college football (or basketball) worth watching.
The hypocrisy inherent in this is beyond shameful. Universities should be required to compensate student athletes in direct proportion to the way owners of professional football teams compensate their players.
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As it happens, no coach personifies this modern-day slavery quite like Alabama’s Saban. But, after years of court battles and public pressure, colleges agreed just last year to allow students to solicit endorsement deals, sell merchandise, and monetize their social media accounts.
Except that’s tantamount to restaurant owners saying that, instead of salary and benefits, their waiters will have to rely solely on tips for income. Which is why I greeted this so-called “First Step” with evident dismay in “Court Emancipates College Athletes but They Still Face Jim-Crow Restrictions” June 21, 2021.
And no restriction is more vexing in college football than this:
For the NFL, players must be three years removed from high school. To play in the NBA, they are required to wait a year after high school. In Major League Baseball, players can be drafted out of high school, but if they go on to attend a four-year college, they must be there for at least three years.
(Tulsa World Sports Extra, April 20, 2013)
Which means that, despite being able to make millions in the NFL, any freshman sensation has to play two more years for free before he can enter the draft. This is an obvious case not only of discrimination against college football players but also of collusion between college Football and the NFL. Yet all legal challenges have failed.
In any event, I shall end with this bit of advice for all eligible players (in every big-time sport): Strike while the iron is hot. Declare emancipation and enter the draft!
Congratulations, Bulldogs!
Related commentaries:
court emancipates…
Reggie Bush…
Student-athletes graduate poor … and dumb