I’m a little concerned by the paucity of Michigan mentions in this thread.
Go Blue!
Pfft. Michigan. :dubious:
Clarett pretty much made his own bed. After getting the boot, he then sued the NFL over their eligibility requirements and lost, at which point he was no longer NCAA eligible. I’m not sure what Mike Shanahan was thinking drafting him, but the Broncos released him before the 2005 season anyway. Then, of course, he got arrested several times, had that bizarre incident with a hatchet, four guns, and a bottle of vodka in the car while wearing kevlar, has allegations that he has connections with the Israeli mob, and finally wound up in jail.
I’m not sure any other college athletes have managed to get themselves in that much trouble.
Didn’t he have 2 hatchets, or knives? Who says I need two hatchets???
Gee, what part of football is big bu$ine$$ did you think didn’t refer to money? 
Because most division I football teams make a metric ass-load of money. There is little, if any, difference between the facilities at a place like Ohio State and a place like Minnesota.
After Michigan wins the national championship, they’ll take the NCAA basketball title as well. I think. Umm… we kick ass at football!
I don’t think so buddy. We are going to smack you around in the Horseshoe, then Oden is going to lead us to the basketball title.
Over 90% of National Football League players come directly from college football programs. The other 10% is made up of people with other situations:
[ul]
[li]Guys who played college football but didn’t go directly into the NFL.[/li][li]On rare occasions, guys who didn’t play college ball for some reason but went on to play semi-pro and then went into the NFL.[/li][li]Non-Americans who came into the NFL with some special talent. This category is overwhelmingly place kickers, though I do remember one or two punters also coming in. Nearly all the kickers who came in played assoc football, but a few played rugby league or union. It strikes me that a punter came into the league from Australian Rules.[/li][/ul]
What a great thread this is… lots of good info (I see that Exapno Mapcase is a student of the history of higher education as well).
The only thing I’d add is that tradition, reputation, and how that school’s players fare in the NFL greatly affect a team’s fortunes. Legendary coaches like Pop Warner, John Heisman, and Walter Camp came along at a time and revolutionized the game. Those early teams - the Harvards, Armys, and the like - had a huge advantage over the lesser schools. College football was also fairly unregulated in the early days, and there was/is widespread cheating. Perhaps the most egregious example was Southern Methodist University, who allowed boosters (alumni and fans of the school) to pay players over $60,000. They were slapped with the “death penalty” and banned from playing the 1987 season, had no home games in 1988, and lost a ton of scholarships. SMU was a powerhouse - Eric Dickerson and Craig James were household names - but it has never recovered from such a cataclysmic punishment.
The NCAA regulates the number of scholarships a school can give to student athletes, which is supposed to level the field somewhat. Schools that have a good record of placing players in the NFL (Miami, Florida State, Notre Dame, USC, Michigan) will attract blue-chip players. Schools that play in prominent conferences (Big 10, SEC, Big XII, ACC) and play on TV will also attract recruits. We’ve already discussed the significance of facilities, a fancy stadium, and generally being treated like cock-of-the-walk in the town in which you play.
The importance of being the big school in a football-rich state has been noted (Florida, Texas, Michigan, California; most of the southern states) but schools like Miami and Oklahoma in the 1980s and 1990s took on the outlaw role, recruiting fine athletes and brewing an aggressive attitude. Oklahoma tanked after Barry Switzer left (and also was penalized for his shenanigans) but is resurging under Stoops. Miami seems to be tanking now. With the media, NCAA, and other schools scrutinizing each other’s movements, it’s pretty much guaranteed that schools that (egregiously) cheat or are labeled with the dreaded lack of institutional control tag will be penalized by losing scholarships and/or being banned from postseason play. Often those schools will institute a punishment themselves to avoid the wrath of the NCAA - nobody wants to go through what SMU did (though it’s unlikely the NCAA would ever institute the death penalty after the SMU disaster). Kids won’t go to schools where they won’t be on TV or get to play in a bowl
This is a true SDMB reply - thank you! 
Ta.
I’m surprised more Rugby Union players don’t go into American Football, since I gather the money is pretty good.
What would a top kicker earn in America? (I think a top English rugby player might get £250,000 a year = $475,000 / year)
A Rugby stand-off (roughly equivalent to quarter-back) should be able to:
- pass (but only backwards)
- run + dodge
- kick (both between the posts and from hand)
- tackle (but not as much as his teammates)
Would a kicker who could do other things not be a useful weapon in American Football?
Kickers are so highly specialized that the only time anything other than their kicking ability would be useful would be in trick plays or botched snaps. In fake field goals it’s generally the holder that will pick up and throw (generally a trick field goal winds up being a passing play) or run the ball, but I suppose there could be a direct snap or a lateral to the kicker. Fake punts are often direct snaps to a runner or a passing play from the punter. But it’s so rare that any of these plays will be called in a game that I’m sure teams would look for a strong, accurate leg over any sort of passing ability.
The Three Stooges also did a short which went the other way. They were mistaken for “The Three Horsemen”–local college stars, and brought in to play a professional game. “Don’t worry, the promoter said. No one will hear you play, and no one will see you play.” So the sign outside the large stadium said: Football Today. Positively No Admittance!"
For an interesting look at football just before the introduction of the forward pass, try to find a copy of “Football For Player And Spectator” (1905) by Fielding Yost, the great Michigan coach from the eary 20th century.
A top kicker can earn about $1M/yr. Adam Vinatieri, a very well regarded place kicker, got a 5 year contract with a $3.5M signing bonus, plus annual salary. I don’t know if he’s the highest paid, but I’m sure he’s up there.
Even though it’s counter intuitive, kicking is so highly specialized that they even have different players for different kinds of kicks. Most teams will have one punter (kicks from the hand) and one place kicker (kicks from the ground). Some teams even split the place kicking duties between a long kicker, for kickoffs where distance is more important than accuracy, and a field goal kicker, where accuracy is most needed. Believe me, if they could find one guy who was top notch in both types of kicks, they’d happily give that extra roster spot to a non-kicker.
The one additional skill that kickers can use is tackling. Most of them are laughably inept, and risk injury when trying to tackle a breakaway return, or commit a penalty because they don’t have proper form.
What if one broke.?
What has not been mentioned is that on the surface college football is supposed to be amateur. However some schools pay atheletes under the table to get them to play for their school. There is a governing body that oversees this and administers penalties. It is very busy. Most big programs cheat. If you pay enough ,you can turn a program around quickly. Basketball,because it has a smaller roster is easier to do. Football you pay the stars. Give them jobs and cars . Jobs that they get paid but dont have to work. There are tons of stories . We try to pretend its not as big as it is.
I can’t say much to most of this, but I can tell you, as part of the teaching staff at Penn State, we don’t go easy on the football players. In fact, not only do we have to fill out evaluations of how they’re doing at intervals throughout the semester, the football players I’ve had in my classes tended to be pretty motivated to do well in class.
Certainly Paterno has a reputation of being strong on academics, both in holding his players to academic standards and in donating money and support.
I’m not sure I understood this parenthesis. Are you saying that the “death penalty” was ]too effective? It would seem to me that burying S.M.U. would have given other potential violators a reason to think twice.
The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) is the governing body for college sports. It IS the league, and, as has been mentioned, it is divided into Divisions, which are then sub-divided into conferences, though some teams do remaining un-affiliated with a conference or “independent.” Several years back, the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) was adopted to determine the National Champion (or at least make that determination easier). The BCS uses a formula to give teams a rank. The Nos. 1 and 2 BCS ranked teams play in the Bowl Championship at the end of the year (the bowl championship game rotates between to Sugar, Rose, Fiesta and Orange Bowls from year to year – these are traditional “big” bowls).
Notre Dame hasn’t been year-in-year-out dominant for over a decade. The cynic in me thinks the West Wing plug is just that, a bit of advertising. NBC (the network that broadcasts The West Wing) has an exclusivity agreement with Notre Dame for broadcast rights to Notre Dame’s regular season games. Cross-promotion – GENIUS!
that wouldn’t explain the dozens of violations since then