This was forwarded to me. The source is P&G TigerWire: Koppel Flips His Wig Yesterday was a rather slow day in TigerTown, so for a while we were worried whether we'd have anything of value to put in today's TigerWire other than to say this week's issue <http://www.purpleandgold.com/toc.cfm> is online. But ABC's Nightline saved us. For those of you who missed it, last night Nightline decided to attack the issue of college athletics and how out of control it is. As evidence of the sad state of college sports, they mentioned the craziness at Colorado, the fact that Miami signed a kid (Willie Williams) who's been arrested 11 times...and the fact that Nick Saban now makes $2.5 million a year as LSU's head football coach. As the old Sesame Street song goes, one of these things is not like the others... Nightline also trotted out some pencil-necked, four-eyed caricature of a professor (from the University of Indiana, no less) who decried college athletics as a waste of money and indicated that colleges are cooking the books so as to hide how much cash is being siphoned out of academics to feed the athletic side. And then the fun really started. As the show went to its break before unveiling its guests, we were just POSITIVE they'd have LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert on in order to give LSU's side of the story. But nooooooo... Instead, the panel of three school presidents interviewed by Ted Koppel were Penn State's Graham Spanier, John L. Hennessy of Stanford - and Scott Cowan of Tulane. The discussion was couched in terms of an either/or proposition, making it sound like the sacrifices made at Miami or the chaos at Colorado were simply a price of admission to the elite of college athletics. All three were asked what they'd do if a Willie Williams was discovered to have signed with their football programs, and naturally Cowan's sanctimony on the subject was overflowing. Guess he never heard of Toney Converse or Lynaris Elpheage. The highlight of the show, though, was when Koppel asked Hennessy, whose university unquestionably is an example of a good mix of academic and athletic excellence, about coaches' salaries. He actually said Stanford tightened the purse strings when looking for a football coach because they didn't want to send the wrong message totheir faculty. Um, excuse us, but all Stanford got was Buddy Teevens. And they've got the worst football team in the Pac-10 as a result. Which brings us to this point: what do Tulane, Stanford and Penn State have in common? That's right - AWFUL football teams. Penn State and Tulane also have awful basketball teams as well, though Stanford's club is undefeated. Do all three have good academic reputations? Sure. But why weren't any of the major powers in college football represented? Why was no SEC president booked on the show? Specifically, why was Mark Emmert not brought on? The fact is, LSU is a shining example of college athletics done with excellence. LSU's football program won the national championship on the field, but it's been so long since there was an off-the-field incident we can't remember one offhand. And there were 11 football players on the Dean's List in the fall semester, meaning GPA's of 3.5 or higher - seven of them posting 3.9 GPA's or higher. Only five football players had GPA's under 2.0. Those academic figures are consistent with the academic performances of LSU's other programs; 33 athletes had 3.9's or above and 78 posted 3.5's or better. Those numbers are largely the product of the fact LSU raised $15 million to build an Academic Center for Student Athletes which is the best in the nation - all out of a capital campaign, not through ticket surcharges. The LSU athletic department also contributes over $1 million per year out of self-generated funds to the academic side of the university. And yet all Nightline can say about LSU is that Saban makes $2.5 million per year? It was a shameful, outrageous performance. To give Cowan a forum to speak about "major-college" athletics and play holier-than-thou about the big boys without allowing someone to speak on behalf of the universities who actually succeed the right way in major-college athletics was a totally unbalanced and non-credible presentation. Frankly, this was the journalistic equivalent of Koppel's famous hairpiece - very obvious and highly unattractive.
Some of the younger folks on this forum have asked why we of older vintage despise Tulane as we do. Here is your answer. On a related note, not long after LSU won the National Championship, one of the ESPN radio shows had on the "great" Patrick Ramsey as a guest. He was asked about LSU winning the Sugar Bowl and he said something to the effect that all the "fair weather" fans were now putting their purple and gold shirts back on. So very typical. He was probably just upset to see his how his old home stadium looked with fans in it. As for Cowan, perhaps he has heard the name John "Hot Rod" Williams before...
The panel they had on the show was designed to facilitate their story line, that's the easiest way to paint the story the colr of their chosing. No one has ever accused the national media of being unbiased and truthful, that's for sure. When's the last time you've seen them do a pice of the bias in the media and the failure of shows of this nature to produce all of the facts. I'm didn't see the show but I am surprised that I haven't read anyhting about LSU's Graduation rate also. Cowan is a crybaby, Tulane has had many a problem over the years on all fronts. What the hell does Nick Saban's contract have to do with any of this. The guy makes LSU much more than he cost the University, much more. They are acting like all of this is new. It's been going on for a century now. Army was the biggest cheat in the 30's, 40's and 50's and I met they would never bring that up. Many a great college player ended up playing for Army after having starred somewhere else earlier.
That's exactly the name I thought of when I first read it. And, why didn't any of this come up when Stoops was making a million more per year than Saban?
Bear in mind, that to dyed-in-the-wool socialists like Ted Koppel and these academic types, the idea of somebody making a salary the magnitude of Coach Saban's is absolute anathema. It's unfair to the proletariat...never mind that he earns every penny and it's what the market will bear.
Wonder if Koppels salary was mentioned. What has his program contributed to humanity during his career? Saban can prove for a fact that he has improved the chance of career success of a number of young athletes by insuring that they earn their degree if they play sports at LSU.
