"Magic Tricks"

This doesn't look like it's a free education to me bruh!"

Yesterday I went off in the crazy Hot Joint entitled "FOUR What?" about how we're on the verge of ruining college football from the fans perspective. By using the bowls as the national semifinals you'll put a strain on the fans by asking them to travel during the holiday season two weeks in a row. Not to mention turning the title game into the "Super Bowl" where only Corporate executives can afford to go to entertain clients etc. Let's pump the brakes for a minute! What about the student-athlete bruh?

Everybody is excited about the possibility of the four team playoff and what that would mean to the sport in terms of revenue. Believe me player, it's going to generate some ridiculous bread. Can you imagine what the major networks are going to be willing to pay to get that game or games? They've already announced that the city that comes in with the highest bid will get the title game but guess how much the guys playing in the game are going to get? A big fat goose egg! A bag full of give aways and a "that a boy!"

This game will essentially be the Super Bowl a month earlier with all of the window dressings and the guy playing in the game can get kicked off of the team for taking a $100 handshake. Think of all of the cats that are making money off of this; the networks, the cities(restaurants & hotels etc.) hosting either the semifinal or the title game, retail(jerseys & merchandise) and the universities.

Let's keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! Don't give me the spill that the players get a free education bruh! That's the smoke and mirrors answer that doesn't fly. I grew up in the hood and I can see past that game. It's like doing a magic trick and telling me to pay attention to your right hand so that you can rob me with your left. The free education that your talking about ain't free. Those kids have to put in hard work everyday and still be productive enough to get that scholarship renewed every year.

 The freaking class that the kid is in is an absorbed cost to the university anyway! That class is going to take place whether there are 100 people in it or 101! The books are loaned to the player for the semester and have to be turned in afterwards. They aren't giving them anything. So don't try to tell me that he got a free education because it didn't cost the school a dime to throw the freaking kid into the class in the first place. Even if the kid graduates that degree will never make him the bread that he made the university in one year not to mention all FOUR years.

Let's look at all of bread the school will have made off of these guys by the time they leave in 3 or 4 years. The millions every week in ticket sales just for the regulars season games. The merchandising profits as well as the parking lot revenue and concessions, TV rights, video game licensing and merchandising just for starters.  We haven't even began to factor in the Final Four scenerio and all of that bread that has to be sliced up and served.

In my Mr Rogers voice putting my sneakers on voice, "Come on with me!" Let's look at how the semifinal during the bowl season will negatively impact the players. In the past when the kids made it to a bowl game it was a week long event for the team. The host city rolls out the red carpet for the guys and they enjoy themselves for an entire week. For example, if a team makes it to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans they'll show up a week before the game and check into a fancy hotel in the French Quarter. They would practice in the mornings and kick it the rest of the day. They'll have all kinds of activities planned for them to do etc.

Now that they potentially have another game to play the following week it's going to be business as usual. They'll probably show up the afternoon before the game and bail right after it's over. Everybody gets to enjoy the bowl but the players and everybody's getting paid but the players! If they're going to be called student-athletes then treat them as such. If this is professional sports then pay them because kids ARE going to take the money being handed out behind the dorm! Why, because they're the same kids that have been watching both hands while you're doing magic tricks bruh! They ain't stupid!

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Follow me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport