SHOW THEM THE MONEY!!! (Insert Pink Floyd song here)

There are clearly a lot of differences between the NFL and NCAA football. Some of which include marching bands, game rules, cheerleaders (being a former cheerleader myself, I am using the term loosely when it comes to the NFL- eye candy may be more appropriate... but we will save that for another post), and attendance numbers. However the major differences make for a much more interesting conversation. College football doesn't have a playoff system, they have the bowl system. This system doesn't make a lot of sense to most people but again, we will save that for another day, mostly because it just makes me angry. I am currently intrigued by the argument about compensation for college players.... you know, money. I was recently reading an article on ESPN.com and was pretty astounded by the amount of money that big time football programs bring into their schools and just how much some of these coaches make.

For instance, Urban Meyer, the man who has led the Florida Gators to two BCS titles in three years, is expected to sign a new six-year $24 Million contract. TWENTY FOUR MILLION DOLLARS! But no matter how great of a coach Meyer is, the real turn around in the Florida program has been the cult like status surrounding Tim Tebow. Tebow is a two time national champion, the first ever three time Heisman nominee (which he won in '07), and has a 34-6 record as a starter for the Gators. The article calls him a "franchise" player. For those readers not in on the lingo... a franchise player is someone that a sports franchise is built around. For example, when you think of the Colts, you think Peyton Manning. Even in baseball... You don't think St. Louis Cardinals without thinking Albert Pujols. These guys fill the seats, they sell the most jerseys, they are the most recognizable and most popular guys on the team. Tebow is absolutely a franchise guy. The kind of guy that doesn't come around very often. When you look at other schools like Texas and Oklahoma with their storied programs, they churn out top players like it's their job, because it is. There will be more Colt McCoy's and Sam Bradford's to come, they appear in Austin and Norman every few years. But Tebow is lightning in a bottle. He certainly isn't the best the game has ever seen, but he has a following that is unrivaled in college sports. For example, Tim Tebow has never played in front of anything less than a home sell-out, which comes out to more than 2.4 million people over four years. Let me put that into perspective for you, If "The Swamp" as the stadium in Gainesville is called, was a city... it's 2.4 million would replace Houston as the fourth largest city in the U.S. That amounts to more than $132 Million dollars in revenue for 2007 and 2008. Florida made enough money off of their football and basketball teams last year to fund the rest of their athletic department and donate $6 Million to the University for scholarships. The article even went on to say that the Governor of Florida approached the Jacksonville Jaguars about drafting Tebow in order to try and bring fans and money into a failing NFL franchise and keep the team in Florida.

However, NCAA rules state that college players are "amateurs" and thus can not be compensated for playing or endorsement deals. They receive scholarships for their education, but those only amount to an average of around $30,000. Now I don't think that we should be forking over millions of dollars to the Tim Tebow's of the world just yet. These guys aren't contract players. They can decide to drop out of school and enter the NFL draft if they want to. So you could be potentially throwing away millions of dollars. And in reality, college coaches are something special. They are burdened with the responsibility of maintaining winning schedules with a constantly changing team. If you look at NFL guys like Phillip Rivers, Donovan McNabb, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, and Peyton Manning have all been STARTING in the league for more than five years. Whereas college players play for four years maximum. But if you look at Mack Brown, the head coach for the University of Texas, he has a record of 101-15 since 2001. He has only lost 15 games in 8 years, two of those years (2005, 2009) he was undefeated in regular season play. Not only that, but he did it with two different quarterbacks, Vince Young and Colt McCoy. There is no doubt in my mind that some of these college coaches are geniuses. Texas didn't play to a crowd of less than 100,000 at home at any point in the 2009 season. Even though they were wearing McCoy's number 12, I am pretty sure that when you get down to it, it was Brown's coaching prowess that put the people in the seats. They probably wouldn't flock by the masses to watch a team with a 2-11 record.

With that being said, I do think that the coaches deserve a decent chunk of change, but I think that the players should at least see some of the money. And I think that the players should see the money they make from their jersey sales. According to the ESPN article approximately $3 from every $79.99 jersey sale goes to the school, this could equate to somewhere around $77,000 for Tim Tebow's number 15 jersey in 2008. It's not millions, but it is certainly more than the $13,000 a year he is receiving is scholarships.

So basically... give the guys a little money (and maybe a playoff system). Oh, and if you wouldn't mind maybe putting marching bands in NFL games... the drum lines and fight songs are my favorite.