Jim Delany And The Art of Face Control

by Scipio Tex on May 26, 2011 1:13 PM CDT

My weekly column on the SB Nation mothership is up.

The highlights include mocking the credulous Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN, metaphors involving killer whale pods, vampire bats, and cover charges at Da Club. Here's your teaser:

So Jim Delany has been feeling magnanimous. He is intensely interested in the plight of the student-athlete, that famously under-appreciated maquiladora laborer of the college landscape. Tell me: When will the major college scholarship athlete finally get a fair shake in a society that worships accounting majors, race-walkers, and ballooning enthusiasts? How long will their anonymity and oppression continue? When George Orwell wrote about the horrific conditions of English coal miners in Road to Wigan Pier, I can only assume it's because the Clemson SID wouldn't get him a press pass.

I welcome your feedback.

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Comments

Your analysis is accurate as always, but makes one critical assumption. Do I care more about whether Southern Miss gets in a bowl game, or whether the entertainers who work get fairly paid? Methinks the latter.

by Chase Wolfe on May 26, 2011 1:38 PM CDT reply actions

Anything in the blog post about Ray Small? Apparently, his extra $8.22 a day wasn’t enough.

by Frank the Plank on May 26, 2011 1:42 PM CDT reply actions

Chase -

Actually, I don’t mind if players get paid. I’m just amused at the media notion that they’re being serially abused or that Jim Delany’s primary motivations are student-athlete focused.

For me, it’s not really not about picking sides or creating a false choice, it’s more about knowing what Delany and Slive and others are up to and how it will change the college football landscape.

Frank -

I was just reading that on Burnt Orange Nation. Crazy stuff.

by Scipio Tex on May 26, 2011 1:54 PM CDT reply actions

Just read the article and loved it. The cover charge analogy is solid gold and is dead center to what Delaney’s up to.

Chase, college football players who put hundreds of millions of bucks into their schools’ coffers are not ever going to be fairly paid so forget that notion. Adding $250 a month is a token, bullshit attempt to hide an agenda and, if your son played at Southern Miss, I’d venture you’d have a different opinion.

by Frank the Plank on May 26, 2011 1:57 PM CDT reply actions

You should copyright the term “poll-tax.” Thats the kind of thing the media will glom onto. Cha-ching!

by Texastough on May 26, 2011 2:13 PM CDT reply actions

good article.

make it say: “when that charge begins its inevitable creep upwards”, however.

by goodwin on May 26, 2011 2:35 PM CDT reply actions

Question of the Day: Will Wojo be able to resist jumping head-first into the trap you just set for him? Very. Well. Done.

by W.W. McClyde on May 26, 2011 3:31 PM CDT reply actions

Scipio – is that pic outside of a club in NYC? Used to be called limelight in the 80s, more recently avalon.

by Topo Gigio on May 26, 2011 3:37 PM CDT reply actions

Delany’s transparent ploy is as obvious to the congregational delegations of a dozen western states that are tired of BCS machinations as it was to you. Granted Wojo missed the boat, but he’s an easily manipulated sports journalist. Delany learned the power of a few pissed off elected officials the last two times they danced with Texas. I suppose that’s why he’s pulling out the “it’s for the kids” line.

Even so, he would probably get away with it if the only victims were non BCS schools, but I suspect about half the BCS schools will lose money if this passes too. Colorado and Aggie seem to be prime examples of BCS schools who can’t seem to pay their bills.