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College Football Is a Sham
IT’S ALL ABOUT MONEY, AND THE PANDEMIC PROVES IT
By Cy Brown news@flagpole.com
Redshirt freshman D’Wan Mathis (right) appears to have the inside track on the starting quarterback job, but does it
really matter?
Let me begin by stating the obvious: None
of this should be happening—football sea
son, students on campus, bars open down
town. None of it.
With that said, I can now get into some
old-fashioned football analysis. Who will
be our starting quarterback, JT Daniels or
D’wan Mathis? Did you know new Arkansas
head coach Sam Pittman was Georgia’s
offensive line coach up until this season?
Does he know any secrets that could lead to
us losing to the Razorbacks? Did you...
Oh, Jesus Christ. I just can’t do it. You’ve
probably noticed, but we’re in the middle of
something of a pandemic. Almost 200,000
Americans have died from COVID-19, and
that number will certainly continue ris
ing for an unforeseeable amount of time,
thanks to failures of leadership across many
levels of American society
Which brings me back to UGA. In the
last month or so, college campuses have
become hotspots for COVID-19 outbreaks.
The University of Georgia is among the
worst of those hotspots. Despite
the university’s shabby testing pol
icy, 3,000 cases have been reported
since mid-August. What’s the proper
response when almost 10% of the
student body has had a deadly virus
and many more are expected to get it
in the coming weeks and months?
As the situation worsened
in Athens and on campus, UGA
President Jere Morehead shifted
blame to the Athens-Clarke County
government and the students. But
him? He’s a good boy who follows
the rules. Why can’t you all be as
good as Jere?
“I can tell you that what we con
tinue to see is measures that we’ve
taken on campus have worked,”
Morehead said recently. “And they
work in my class. I have a mask on; every
one in my class has a mask on. They are all
socially distancing. Where it’s not working
is downtown in the evenings. It’s not work
ing at off-campus parties.
And, unfortunately, these
things are beyond my con
trol and are under control of
the Athens-Clarke County
government.”
That is unfortunate. I’m
just spitballing here, but
I think the root problem
might be that he invited
39,000 18- to 22-year-olds
back to campus instead of
making the obvious, sane
decision to hold all classes
online for the time being
and keep campus closed. I
think that would’ve pretty
well nipped this whole
problem in the bud. But
Morehead, like university
presidents across the country, knew that if
he went online from the jump, many stu
dents would take gap years and others just
wouldn’t enroll, costing the university all
that sweet, sweet tuition and fee money.
God forbid we lose a little money for the
sake of human life. Which brings us back
to football, because the opening of campus
and the sham of amateurism in college
sports are intrinsically linked.
Not playing football was never an
option. There’s too much money at stake.
Of course, all these schools that are fool
ishly playing could do so without students
on campus. But that would reveal the lie
that football players are normal students. It
would show the truth—these guys are here
to play football, not go to school. And once
that is laid bare, you have to pay players.
That’s a concept that just won’t fly for the
powers that be, who have grown fat and
happy exploiting these men for free labor.
For people such as Morehead, athletics
director Greg McGarity and university pres
idents and ADs across the country, COVID-
19 has never been a human problem. It’s a
logistical problem. These guys sold college
football to the TV networks, and they have
inventory they are expected to deliver. It
doesn’t matter if the product is good or
even safe. All that matters is that they fulfill
their end of the deal so they still get their
check. And if some people get sick or die
along the way, well, that’s the cost of doing
business.
So I have one question for Jere
Morehead: What’s the number? I know
you’ve done the math. You can’t have gone
this far without doing it. It might not have
been in any official meeting, but sometime
this summer you were sitting at home and
worked it out in your head. What’s the
number? How many people are you willing
to let die to keep the school open? How
many before it becomes a bad idea? One? A
dozen? 50? 100? What’s the number?
Oh, yeah—Georgia beats Arkansas
35-10.0
The Schedule
The Dawgs play a bizarre 10-game conference-only
schedule this year in the barest of nods to safety
during the pandemic.
Sept. 26: at Arkansas, 4 p.m., SEC Network
Oct. 3: versus Auburn, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
Oct. 10: versus Tennessee, time and network TBA
Oct. 17 at Alabama, 8 p.m., CBS
Oct. 24: at Kentucky, TBA
Nov. 7: versus Florida in Jacksonville, 3:30 p.m., CBS
Nov. 14: at Missouri, TBA
Nov. 21: versus Mississippi State, TBA
Nov. 28: at South Carolina, TBA
Dec. 5: versus Vanderbilt, TBA
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SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 | FLAGPOLE.COM
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STEVE LIMENTANI / UGA ATHLETICS