Tip-Off for 9/5/12 (featuring Gil Scott-Heron): HBCUs are allowing themselves to be played by the NCAA
(Sue Ogrocki/AP)
This game gave me good reason to lose my head…
The only numbers that were embarrassing in Oklahoma State’s beatdown of Savannah State last week was the $385,000 that Savannah State University signed up for to be a notch on a OSU Cowboys season that’s going nowhere. Oklahoma State is a Big 12 participant and the best they could do in their season opener was Savannah State?
Enough of this, We play the games on the schedule garbage! You want a BCS Championship earn it!
(Sue Ogrocki/AP)
Score 84 on Oklahoma…then dance! No points here fella…
As a member of the MEAC conference the Savannah State Tigers are an NCAA Division I participant. The school of about 4,500 boasts such alumnus as James E. Wright and Curtis Cooper and is the oldest HBCU in the state of Georgia. The athletic program is Division I across the board and dedicates about $2 million per year to its department.
I’ll just take a wild guess that Oklahoma State has ten times the enrollment and dedicates maybe $10 million to their football program alone.
Saturday’s contest (for lack of a better term) was an embarrassment for both schools as well the NCAA. OSU billionaire booster Boone Pickens expressed his wish for a tougher non-conference schedule. “I just think we can do better,” Boone said via the Associated Press. “Notre Dame’s already booked but I’d just as soon play Notre Dame. Everybody wants to play Notre Dame.”
Blame for scheduling the game was placed at the feet of conference realignment.
The Cowboys scored 35 points in the first quarter which was enough for coach Mike Gundy to pull his starters. OSU outgained the Tigers in yardage 682 to 139. Savannah State had more penalty yards (69) than rushing yards (58). The only statistic the visitors won decisively was time of possession. Mike Gundy said prior to Saturday that he wants to ”play the three easiest teams we can play and then play conference.”
Oklahoma State has won 23 games in the last two seasons compared to just two for Savannah State.
My issue is that HBCUs are viewed by the NCAA as more of a novelty than schools who are just as competitive on a smaller scale. Small cozy campuses, kick ass bands and easy wins on the schedule are all they see. Savannah State was 4-72 against competition from the Football Championship Subdivision which is a level below OSU’s Football Bowl Subdivision.
Savannah State saw the payout as a come up for the school but was the $385,000 carrot Savannah State snatched up with the quickness even worth it?
“We’re going to have to readdress that. You get paid for certain things, but I don’t know if at the end of the day, some things are worth the payments you get. But we’ll see. Those are conversations we’ll have. Said SSU coach Steve Davenport.
My impresssion is that many of these once-proud HBCU programs are being put into a position to choose between tradition and a dollar. They have become programs for hire that the NCAA reluctantly offers to partake in their bountiful spread but would rather have them settle for the crumbs that fall from the table.
Savannah State collects again this Saturday against Florida State.
The Lineup:
Surgery allows blind orangutan to see her babies (Yahoo).
C’s Jared Sullinger is staying away from tattoos (Pro Basketball Talk).
Iphone 5 on the way (In Flex We Trust).
Due to weather President Obama’s speech will be moved indoors (CNN).
The Carters celebrate B’s birthday (In Flex We Trust).
Here are the FIFA world rankings (Fifa.com).
Chef Charles Oakley (NBA).
Yanks cough up first place (Real Clear Sports).
Football is back (Real Clear Sports).
Chad Johnson returns for “Hard Knocks’ finale (In Flex We Trust).
Chicken soup for my Black soul!
Look deep underneath OK State:
From Wikipedia —
Pickens has been a major financial contributor to his alma mater, the Stillwater campus of Oklahoma State University (OSU). Through his contributions, Pickens spearheaded an initiative to create an athletic village just north of the existing campus. In order to do so, hundreds of homes were acquired by the OSU administration, one via eminent domain, and demolished using Pickens’ contributions.
Pickens’ gift remains the largest donation to a university’s athletic program in collegiate history. His total contributions to OSU come to over $400 million. Over $265 million, or 66%, of his donations have been towards athletics. Pickens also has made substantial academic gifts to Oklahoma State University, particularly to the School of Geology, which is named for him.
On December 30, 2005, Pickens made a $165 million gift to Oklahoma State University. The New York Times reported that “the money spent less than an hour on December 30 in the account of the university’s charity, O.S.U. Cowboy Golf Inc., before it was invested in a hedge fund controlled by Mr. Pickens, BP Capital Management.”[35] Pickens, who is on the board of the O.S.U. Cowboy Golf, waived any management fees for the OSU monies.[36] All profits of the fund go to growing the OSU gift. The gift is intended to help fund an upgrade of the football stadium and construction of an athletic village, but sparked controversy because OSU planned to use eminent domain to acquire residential property for the projects.[37] The donation comes after a $70 million gift from Pickens to OSU in 2003, which was similarly structured using O.S.U. Cowboy Golf, Inc.
On July 28, 2007 the Board of Regents of Oklahoma State University approved a resolution to move $28 million from the OSU Foundation into Pickens’ BP Capital Management company in Dallas. Oklahoma State has previously invested $277 million in the fund. Pickens has been waiving fees for the university’s investments with his fund.[35][38]
On May 21, 2008 Pickens donated $100 million dollars to academics at Oklahoma State University. The gift will be matched by the state of Oklahoma.[39][40]
In October, 2008 it was reported in the NY Times that due to the recent financial recession, some of Pickens’s gifts to the athletic department had seen a large decline in their market value while being managed in his hedge funds. The same NY Times article noted that due to the worldwide recession, most other schools and charitable organizations were also experiencing problems with investments. The article also mentions that Pickens’ management of donated funds had previously “turned $6 million into $31 million” for the school’s athletic fund.[35][41]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Boone_Pickens#Donations_to_Oklahoma_State_University
You think that is something. The SWAC schools are doing the same. Check the scores out. It is getting done every where. Oklahoma is playing FAMU (really?), Grambling is taking on TCU (Yes, the same TCU that are the 2010 Rose Bowl Champs), New Mexico played and smashed Southern, and Mississippi State beating down Jackson State) for pennies and a good tune for the black kids. Alcorn recently turned down the Troy State game for next year, and the coach was opposed to the James Madison game because they have to take a bus that Friday to Virginia to play a game on Saturday night (Note: Virginia is a 15 and a half hour drive from Lorman without stops). I know that the Mississippi State fan was cussing the year before last because Alcorn was only down 16-35 on Mississippi State in the first half. Which is competitive being the athletes they had at that time.
I usually don’t bother with these early season, non-conference games since they’re essentially exhibitions (or homecomings). A lot of these big schools do this against smaller schools (HBCU and otherwise) to appease fans or pad stats. While I like the sport of American football, it is a bit saturated in coverage, especially with all of the high school games being shown…O_o