BCS stands for confusion

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 9/15/2004

Bowl games reflect the unfairness of college athletics

You have read or heard me say it before: The NCAA and Collegiate Athletics is a major scam being utilized by institutions of higher learning across America to take advantage of our young people. As you know, athletes don’t get paid in college; those who get scholarships have two full-time jobs, one as a student, the other as an athlete.

The schools use the athletes to generate millions and billions, all under the guise of amateurism. It’s a system that has allowed this country to flourish economically.

That is the reality. Let me give you an example to consider. Both of my sons, Larry Jr. and Marcus, like good old Dad received athletic scholarships. And Larry Jr., after two record-setting years at the University of Pittsburgh, Heisman Trophy runner-up, and Walter Camp Player of the Year, was granted the right to enter the NFL Draft this spring. He was drafted number-one by the Arizona Cardinals and Dennis Green with the third overall pick in the NFL Draft.

He later signed the richest rookie contract in NFL history, $60 million. He was criticized by some for not electing to stay in school at Pittsburgh, mostly by people who have benefited most from this slave-like system, people who think they know what’s best for our children.

Had Larry Jr. stayed at Pittsburgh and continued to help them generate millions of dollars, he would still be eating dorm food and playing in the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona on New Years Day 2005 against undefeated Utah (11-0) in a $17 million Bowl Championship Series (BCS) game.

The athletes playing in the Bowl games don’t get a dime. They get watches and tickets for family members, but they don’t get their rightful share of that $17 million payday! The University presidents get that, and the institutional injustice continues.

The beneficiaries of this system are not us; they don’t care about our children — can’t you see that? They care about ratings and greed and money, not the well-being of our hard-working student athletes who dare to dream that this country will do what’s right for all people one day.

Just look what happened to Tyrone Willingham, who was recently fired during his third year at Notre Dame with two years left on his contract. Hello? This is institutional racism at it’s worst. There are 117 NCAA Division 1-A Head Football coaching jobs, and two of those men are Black. If that’s fair, then we live in a hopeless society.

Defending National Champion unbeaten USC will play unbeaten Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl for $20 million January 4. Unbeaten Auburn (12-0) got flat-out shafted — a victim of the BCS. California (10-1) gets the Holiday Bowl, not even the Rose Bowl - a victim of the BCS.

Are you kidding me? Texas vs. Michigan in the Rose Bowl? Texas has no business in the Rose Bowl. Like I said, BCS stands for confusion.