A lot of big business decisions are being made for what is supposed to be an amateur endeavor: College sports.
And in the fallout of multiple NCAA football teams rejecting bids to lower bowls, it’s time to discuss whether the NCAA is a professional sports league.
The recent decisions made by Notre Dame, Iowa State and K-State prove college football is no longer about the love of the game or bettering athletes’ lives through education. It’s about money, business decisions and, just like any business, it’s time colleges pay taxes on their earnings from sports-related events.
The decisions to beg out of bowl games were not made at the players’ request. If I were a senior without any eligibility left, and little chance of playing professional football, I would be irate. Who are these coaches and team officials to take away an athlete’s last game, even if he or she doesn’t take the field?
It’s strange watching coaches and athletic directors in expensive suits strut around like they’re Wall Street bankers. But they are businessmen, except the whole paying taxes thing.
The multi-billion-dollar TV deals, paid players, $100 million coaching contracts, and skipping games because it’s just not worth their time, are clear indicators college football is a business.
Maybe I’m just mad because it was a small college bowl game that made me fall in love with college football. Long ago, in 1997, I sat captivated watching the Independence Bowl featuring the Tigers LSU vs. Notre Dame, who ironically had the same number of losses as the 2025 Fighting Irish.
I was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, which does not have a college football team. Notre Dame and LSU playing at Shreveport’s Independence Bowl was like the circus coming to town. Even if I couldn’t be there in person, it was exciting seeing these two juggernauts playing in my hometown.
Today, kids like me aren’t worth their time. The fans aren’t worth their time. The players aren’t worth their time. And this stopped being about education a long time ago. College football is just another soulless, corporate-America entity sucking the lifeforce out of taxpayers under the guise of education. It’s time they pay up like the rest of us.
