College: An Unfair Ponzi Scheme

It just saddens me to see kids all geared up for college when they're 18. But when they leave school they have $80+ Thousand debts to the Banks for student loans. I understand some gets get Grants, Scholarships and whatnot but still not every kid is able to do that. And if the kid gets married right out of schools we're talking about 160+K debts and we aren't even talking about car and house payments yet.

Here is what is even more sad, some of these kids(already in debt) can't even get a job at the local Walmart, or gas station, let alone their chosen Career Field that they are indebted to in the first place.

Now lets dig a little deeper on how sad this system is, and its down right heartbreaking man.

College's receive $50+ Million in hosting football games, 20+ Million in TV Deals, Billion+ Dollar Endowments for research and on top of that Millions of Dollars Donated for specific functions. And we're not talking about the Millions of Taxpayer Dollars whether its on the Federal or State level given for Education. Lets not forget that Colleges are also Tax Exempt. For example just last week University of Pittsburgh received a $125 Donation for its School of Arts.

What is wrong with this picture, why are kids putting themselves Hundreds of Thousands into debt when Colleges are receiving Billions of Dollars for whatever reason and are Tax Exempt.

I propose 1 of 2 things, either kids should be able to go to college for free or college's lose their Tax Exempt statue.

College's should be able to function just fine even with those revenue losses to its books if kids went to school for free. Remember college's are public Universities funded by the State and Federal Government's. Do Public School Districts charge a fee for kids to go through their education system. Of course not, and the same should apply to public universities.

States like Alaska, and Texas already allow kids to go to school for free. I'm not sure about Living on Campus and other things in that area. But every state in the union should follow Alaska and Texas's method on this issue.

Now if a school was to go Private, I'd revoke their tax exempt status, and Federal and State funding. Therefore a school is going to lose money either way. It would be up to the specific school on what they should do here.

Either way, should we as a society be letting kids getting into Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars and watching Banks profit from this? If there was a moral issue, this is it.

Society in general really needs to get its head out of its ass and do whats best here.

An Ever Changing College Football Landsape

Last weekend was one of the craziest weekends in sports history. The timeline for me, I catch wind of Pittsburgh and Syracuse talking to the ACC Thursday night via personal message on a message board. Friday Night the news breaks from Pete Thamel of the New York Times. Then Saturday morning before all of the football games news breaks that Pitt and Cuse applied to join the ACC and a vote was imminent. Late Saturday night the news broke that there Pitt and Cuse was invited into the ACC with a teleconference Sunday morning. The story in itself moved way faster than the normal expansion process. Usually it seems to be months and months of vetting and inquiring with crazy speculation clouding the process IE the B1G 10 search last year.

As of right now its being reported by Brett McMurphy(of CBS Sports) that WVU's applications to the SEC and ACC has been denied. Now the current league of 7 schools(including Texas Christian, who is set to join in 2012) has 3 options; keep the Big East hybrid together and rebuild, split from the nonfootball schools and build a new league, or merge with the Big XII(assuming Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Missouri leave).

I prefer that the league either attempts to keep the hybrid together-even though the fans generally hate that idea- or split and rebuild. Remember that the league was left off is much, much worse shape back in 2003 when Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College left. The league still has 7 members and will keep TCU's BCS points so I'm very sure that the league will keep its Automatic Bid to the BCS.

If the league is to split, they would have to have at least an 8th member in place for whatever year they plan on playing its first year as a new league. The league would still have options to get to 8 and beyond in Central Florida, Eastern Carolina, Memphis, Temple, and Massachusetts. (note, I didn't mention Houston because I believe they would be heading to the Big XII)

The SEC is still on the prowl for its 14th school and its looking more and more likely that it will be Missouri. I could certainly be wrong and the SEC grabs an ACC school, which is very possible.

The PAC 12 definitely seems poised to be at least taking Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. 3 schools has been outspoken against Texas joining and that's Arizona, Arizona State, and Colorado. It will be very interesting to see which way this goes.

The elephant in the expansion room is Notre Dame. There was a few reports out last night that said if they was forced to give up its Independent Status they would prefer to join the ACC over the B1G. Thing is if the Big East remains in its hybrid form, Notre Dame won't be joining a conference for football for a long long time. But if the Big East does split, I picture Notre Dame at least playing its basketball and nonrevenue sports in the new Catholic League.

With that said, I really don't see the B1G or the ACC expanding until Notre Dame decides to join one or the other, or if the ACC loses a school to the SEC.

Its a dog eat dog out there. And unfortunately only the strong will survive this mess that college sports has become. Greed and corruption is killing the game as rivalries are lost and may be never played again. I worry if the Backyard Brawl is going to be played again. Its just a sad state man.

Good luck to everyone's favorite team, and I hope you all make it to the other side.

Blackhills Picks Week 4

Clairton 60 Char Houston 0
Brentwood 45 Avella 10
Fort Cherry 42 Carlynton 7
Serra 21 Bentworth 17

Blackhills Picks Week 3

This week we start Conference play.

Avella 7 Fort Cherry 45
Bentworth 0 Brentwood 35
Calynton 0 Clairton 60
Chartiers Houston 42 Serra 0

A fairly easy conference week as the top 4 schools from the Blackhills should roll very easily.

Some Things We Learned as the Blackhills and Big 7 are entering Conference Play

Clairton... The Bears are as dominating as always. Its going to take a very, very good team to knock them off.

Coach Matt Grey, via Josh Yohe from the Mckeesport Daily News, on the Bears "Gray said he will be surprised if Clairton doesn't win its fourth consecutive WPIAL championship this year.

"I know Sto-Rox is supposed to be really good, and I haven't seen Rochester yet," he said. "But I know that no other team has skill like what you saw today" 

Sto Rox... The Vikings opened up the season strong with wins over South Allegheny 49-0 and Carlynton 40-6.  The Big 7 is obviously going to go down to Sto Rox and Rochester. 

Rochester... Until Rochy is knocked off, they'll always be the favorites in the Big 7. With as much talent the Rams has, I just don't understand why they use an ultraconservative offensive style. A strong defense will shut their offense down. Against Fort Cherry for example, they for the most part was getting shut down. Take away a squib kick returned for a TD and a fumble the 2nd offense play of the 2nd half for Fort Cherry, we're talking about a 21-12 win for Rochester.

Fort Cherry... I really don't know what it is with this team. They certainly have the talent/ skill. And I'm not sure if they was using a new Center or what, but I've never seen so many fumbled snaps. And at the start of each half against Rochy, the Rangers seemed tight. For the most of the first half, Tanner Garry's passes was on the mark just to see the WR's dropping passes. The offense didn't get settled in until late in the 2nd Quarter when the offense marched down the field for a 30 yard TD pass to Tyrique Brown. The 2nd half started w/ a squib kick returned for a touchdown and a Time Out, and then a fumble. The game was suddenly 27-7. The good thing is that FC really didn't panic. For the most part I feel that FC stood toe to toe with Rochy, but they need some adjustments for the next time they play a school as good as Rochy.

I really can't speak much on the Tri County and Eastern Conference schools because they've basically been battling each other. So far Monessen and Beth Center appear to be the class of the Tri County. The Eastern is insane as Bishop Canevin destroys Avonworth and Avonworth follows it up with a 7-6 win over Springdale. We'll see questions answered about both Conferences during OOC games between each other.

Bigger Doesn't Always Mean Better

Call me a traditionalist. I personally hate this talk of 14 and 16 school conferences. I hate the fact that rivalries will be lost as well as other traditions IE Notre Dame's Independent Status.

I for one can understand Texas A&M's beef with Texas and can understand why they want to head to the SEC.

With that said what frustrates the hell out of me is hearing the chatter of 4 16 school conferences. (Personally I'd rather see the Big XII rebuild and rebrand itself.) 

Once conferences reach 12 I just don't see the "need" to expand. Conferences already has that lucrative championship game for one. So for schools to be added they have to at least bring in enough TV value so that the rest of the league's schools at least break even. If I'm a Florida and I'm making 20M a year why would I want to split the pie more and end up making 19M a year, for example.

Another thing to look at is Bowl Revenue. If a conference is generating say 46M on 8 Bowls. With 12 schools they'd be generating about .479 in Bowl revenue per school. If a Bowl ISN'T ADDED, they'd be generating about $410,714 per school. Say a Bowl game is added worth 3M, they'd be making $389,000 per school. So unless you're averaging 2 BCS bids per year Schools would be making less money in Bowl revenue. And if Conferences end up going to 16 schools, Bowl Payouts per school would even be worse. Part of this is the reason why the Big East's Bowl Payouts per School is much higher than the rest of the Nation, because the Big East is splitting the pie 8(soon to be 9) instead of 12.

So with lower payouts due to Bowl Money distribution per school, that is even more money a given school needs to bring to the table for TV money to offset the losses.

Everything boils down to dollars and cents. And to be frank, I just don't see the financial benefits in 16 school superleagues especially when the big fish in the sea really is only Notre Dame and Texas. Schools like Florida State would bring intriguing matchups made for TV if it was added to the SEC. But what real incentive would it be for the ACC to follow the SEC to 14 or 16 schools. If Texas and Notre Dame don't go to the B1G 10, what incentive would it be for them to head to 14 or 16 schools.

I heard a four 20 scenario and that absolutely made no sense to me. Say the Pac 12 added Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State, who would the other 4 schools be that made expansion worthwhile. Boise State, and BYU would almost have to be considered. But who would the other 2 be. When we're talking about schools like Colorado State or Air Force(not to pick on those schools) being added to a 20 team conferences, that tells me how much sense this does not make. 

Now say Conferences head to 16 anyways but then schools learn they could make the same amount of money per school if they was in say a 8,9, or 10 team conferences. I could see a trend back to smaller leagues in the long term future, and not to a ridiculously huge 20 school Conferences.

9 or 12 school conferences makes the most sense to me. 9 because of scheduling and higher bowl payouts per team, and 12 because of the lucrative championship game. Anything above 12 just doesn't make sense; for reasons stated above.

Week 2 Blackhills picks

We'll learn a lot about the depth of the Blackhils as it goes head to head with the Big 7. 

Clairton 60 Western Beaver 7
Fort Cherry 21 Rochester 20
Char Houston 28 Shenango 7
Sto Rox 45 Carlynton 0
SS Beaver 28 Brentwood 24
Avella 10 Union 7
Neshannock 14 Serra 0
Cornell 35 Bentworth 14

The Big V(Big XII leftovers)

This is assuming Texas and Texas Tech head elsewhere, and Oklahoma and Oklahoma State head to the Pac 12. 

There are a few options for the Big V(Big XII leftovers: Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Baylor). You have the option of staying together and rebuilding the Big XII, going to the Big East, or maybe the MWC.

The Big East option:

For the Big East this is possibly the best scenario to date. The Big East picks up the St. Louis DMA and Kansas City DMA as well as parts of the Dallas/Ft Worth DMA.

This puts the Big V leftovers in the best basketball league in the nation and those 5 schools aren't that bad in football. Missouri and Kansas has had BCS appearances the past 5 years. Put those 5 schools with TCU and Lousville and we have a nice western division.

What bothers me about adding 5 more schools to the Big East is how do we manage a 22 team basketball league? We could have a 7/7/8 alignment or a 5/5/6/6 alignment. I'd prefer a clean split from the Catholic Schools to be honest.

The MWC option:

I'd say this is a very unlikely scenario, unless the MWC is offered a BCS(Bowl Championship Series) bid. You would create a 14 team league under the scenario as well. I think we're more likely to see the Boise State's of the world head to the Big XII than this though.

Rebuilding the Big XII option:

While this scenario is unlikely, this is what I'd like to see happen. For this to happen, the BCS would have to let the Big XII keeps its Automatic Qualifying Bid to the BCS.There aren't too many options out there, but there are options;

Boise State: Great football program, starting to get more and more National Respect. Academics are a little weak and has a small television market(but its national brand makes up for the weak TV market)

Houston: Decent football program in a large market, great recruiting grounds and allows Big XII schools 2 trips to Texas a year.

Memphis: Not so good of a football program but basketball is very good. Decent DMA and ok at best academics.

Colorado State: Decent football program that brings the Colorado DMA because its a State Flagship.

I'll leave it at those 4 for now. There may be better options than the 4 I proposed and their may not be.

On another front, Chip Brown is reporting that Texas is talking to the Atlantic Coast Conference(ACC) about membership. Its looking more and more likely that Texas is getting a little desperate; in my opinion. Could they be ringing the telephone at the Big East office in Providence next?