Power Play

By Jim Gazzolo

This is the summer when the fight over college athletics seems to be coming to a head.

There are battles everywhere, in the courts, in Congress, and between schools.

But there is one place where the true confrontation is taking place, and that’s in the boardroom. It is a fight for control of college football between two leagues.

The Big Ten and SEC are in an epic struggle to decide on the future of the postseason when it comes to football’s highest level. 

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said last week that his league was still the best, but the numbers suggest otherwise. The Big Ten is 4-0 over the last two years in the playoffs against the SEC and has won the last three national championships.

That comes after years of dominance by the SEC, but clearly NIL has changed the playing field. If not tilted to the Big Ten, it has clearly been leveled. 

The SEC hasn’t even played in the title game the last three years, making Sankey sound like a guy trying to rally the troops rather than tell the truth. 

Now, however, comes the real fun. The SEC wants the playoffs to expand to 16 teams, up from the current number of 12. They are helped along by ESPN, which would still control the postseason at that number.

The Big Ten wants even greater expansion, doubling the number to 24. That would make the Fox network a player in the playoff games. 

So once again, the battle appears to be, like always, over money and control.

If only there were a governing body with the power to run college athletics and to take control when needed. That ship has long since sailed.

There have even been congressional hearings about the problems and potential fixes in the game. Legendary head football coach Nick Saban even testified, though his words seemed a little hollow. 

He wants to fix the game by limiting players' options and money. Of course, he said nothing when his Alabama team was running wild over the rest of college football. 

There is even talk of a Lane Kiffin rule that would bar coaches from leaving schools until their seasons are complete, as if the Lane Train were the only one to ever jump on the tracks and head out of town before the playoffs.

Of course, nobody was talking about coaches being fired during the season. 

No question, college football has its issues, and the revolving door that is the transfer portal is at the center of many of them. College kids should not have free agency every offseason; that is clear to everybody. How to fix that is not.

It’s the same story that has been going on for over a decade. 

It’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle.

Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers sports in Southwest Louisiana. He is also the host of Poke Nation, which airs weekly on CBS Lake Charles.