Today’s major colleges essentially are de facto corporate-industrial complexes, based solely on their No. 1 sports team on campus. That means if the school wins national championships in football, then its main corporate industry is football. If it wins national championships in basketball, then its main corporate industry is basketball.
As corporations seek tax shelters, major colleges seek privacy and privilege. That is to say, in many ways, the college life is anti-reality. In some respects, colleges are shelters of their own. Many of them harbor a Culture of the Cocoon, like the enclave of a gated community. That shelter mentality would help perpetuate the alleged criminality at Penn State and Syracuse.
Major college cocoons are often nestled within university towns — such as State College, Pa. The main employer in university towns is just that: the university. These colleges have their own meal plans, their own university police, their own game plans, their own protocol of governance, their own honor code, their own rules of engagement.
Those factors contributed to the Penn State maelstrom and the Syracuse soap opera that dominate the news these days. Those factors would make it easier for some to look the other way if child abuse is alleged. Hey, who wants to upset the apple cart? Who wants to take the gravy off the train? Especially when there is money and prestige involved.
Penn State had a program-changing coach, Joe Paterno, who put big-time college football and big-time money on the map at the school. Paterno, major college football’s all-time winningest coach, ultimately became an institution himself before he was fired on Nov. 9.
Syracuse has a well-respected Hall of Fame coach, Jim Boeheim, who won a national basketball championship in 2003. We’re still awaiting his fate as the Syracuse investigation, or saga, plays out. We will see if he keeps his absolute-power card.
Why are football and basketball so important at major colleges? Because they produce huge revenue streams, mainly through television contracts and athletic apparel deals.
It isn’t difficult to figure out that those with the most money also make the most rules. As more money floods in, then the bigger the floodgates. And in order to exhibit wide floodgates, these schools must do one thing well and often: win and win big. If they don’t … well, the money piles won’t be as deep.
So, the bigger the monetary floodgates, then the more influential are these gated communities. Look at powerhouse Alabama, which will be playing fellow powerhouse LSU for the football title in the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 9. Alabama has an eight-year deal for approximately $30 million with Nike apparel. Wear the Nike swoosh on your uniforms, and you make approximately $3.75 million per season.
Who’s bringing home the bacon for Alabama? That would be football coach Nick Saban, surely the most recognizable face on campus — and compensated well for it. When Saban joined the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2007, he signed an eight-year contract for $32 million; that $4 million each year could balloon to a possible $5 million per season with incentive clauses and performance bonuses. Just think of all the regular students who chose to attend Alabama to be vicariously associated with such a prestigious football program.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Alabama school president Robert E. Witt earned $611,000 in 2008 and then-Gov. Bob Riley $105,000. So who do you think controls the gates to the Alabama community and keeps fans chanting “Roll Tide”? It’s the coach of the No. 1 corporate-industrial complex on campus, Nick Saban.
With that, remember colleges essentially can lock their gates to outsiders whenever they want in most cases. Whatever the No. 1 coach says goes, more often than not; the No. 2 on campus doesn’t count. We know who has that unilateral power for lockdown mode.
Just observe the bizarre goings-on at State College and in upstate New York.
Gregory Clay (gclay@mctinfoservices.com) is assistant sports editor for McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
