* Debuting head coach Willie Taggart called it a “nightmare.” Not everyone would agree. It wasn’t that good. Taggart’s USF Bulls were routed and embarrassed by McNeese State, 53-21, Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium. Yes, THAT McNeese State, a 3-touchdown underdog 1-AA team that was supposed to come to town for token opposition in exchange for that $400,000 guarantee.
Among those most interested in that shocking result: the fledgling American Athletic Conference and the University of Central Florida. The AAC, USF’s new home, is what morphed out of the old Big East. It has lost luster and will not have an automatic BCS bowl berth after this season. It didn’t need this credibility hit.
As for UCF, it is now in the same conference with the school that felt it was slumming by playing the Knights from 2005-08 and has kept them off the schedule despite UCF’s lobbying. Now they are fortuitous peers–and must meet. On Nov. 29, USF will travel to Orlando to play UCF, which defeated Akron, 38-7, in its opener. You can bet UCF has had it circled for a while. You can bet it’s emboldened. Nobody wants to be the second-best team in the I-4 corridor.
*Once again the issue of compensating big-time college athletes is in the news. Here’s the bottom line.
First, if schools would only recruit legitimate student-athletes, that would take care of half the problem. Student-athletes understand the value of a diploma, exposure in a public arena and a life time of key contacts to help leverage or launch a career. An education can be its own reward to those inclined to consider the concept. But most big-time football and basketball programs are convinced they can’t compete at the highest levels without lineups top-heavy in mercenaries.
Second, the schools, television networks and the NCAA hype high-profile players. Player names, numbers and visages are marketing staples. Until recently–as in Heisman huckster Johnny Manziel–player autographs had been common-practice perks for alums, boosters and assorted fans. When players are treated as commodities and note that their head coach makes 10 times what the president of the United States does, they often act accordingly. Especially the sham “student-athletes” marking time until they can leave early and “graduate”–to the pros.
* This Sunday the International Olympic Committee will make the call in Buenos Aires as to what will be the last sport allowed into the 2020 Summer Games–to be held in Tokyo, Madrid or Istanbul. The final three supplicants making their case: a baseball-softball tandem, wrestling and squash. No, that’s not a typo. Squash.
* Sure seems a stretch that Bobby Riggs would have conspired with mafia sorts to throw his outrageously ballyhooed 1973 match against Billie Jean King. Among the understandable doubters: BJK herself. Actually, she’s insulted by intimations that she couldn’t have beaten Riggs, 29 years her senior, without a mob fix. Although if memory serves, she wasn’t insulted enough to not participate in the ultra-hyped “Battle of the Sexes” that seemed to equate a world-class, career-prime female tennis player with a 55-year-old hustler/has-been with a pitty-pat serve.