College Football: Nick Saban is wrong. The FCS needs FBS games
Nick Saban went on SportsCenter and said FBS teams should only play FBS teams. Sounds harmless, but leaving out the FCS would hurt to college football.
Nick Saban is one of the greatest coaches all-time in college football, but he he was off base in his SportsCenter comments. On Wednesday night during the the six o’clock SportsCenter, Saban talked about many things, including scheduling. In particular he defended his stance that FBS schools should only play FBS schools.
Sounds harmless, right? But it is incredibly harmful. These smaller schools need these games to have college football programs. Just think about it. Many of those “cupcake” teams grow some of the greatest players to ever play at the next level. Think about an NFL without Jerry Rice, Walter Peyton, Deacon Jones, Terrell Owens, Robert Mathis, Jared Allen and more. It’s almost impossible to imagine. All those players named above are headed to Hall of Fame or already in it.
Some of these “cupcake” games turn into the highlights of these kids lives. Many of the kids on that Appalachian State team that beat Michigan didn’t play professional football after college. But that day in Ann Arbor was a special day for those kids, coaches and their families. One of those coaches Sean Elliot is now a head coach at a FBS school in part because of that game.
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A more recent example of this is the Citadel-South Carolina game in 2015. In the state of South Carolina, football is king. There are only three FBS schools are in the state: University of South Carolina, Clemson and newcomer Coastal Carolina. There are more FCS schools in the Palmetto State than FBS. Not every prep player will make it to those three schools, but still have aspirations to make it in college and earn a scholarship. One of their biggest dreams are to play at Williams-Brice or in Death Valley.
And on that day in South Carolina those Citadel Bulldogs did something they that would never thought they could do. They went to Columbia and played a team they probably grew up admiring.
I’d be remiss if left out the money. College football, for the most part, is a cash grab. We all love college football, but it is what is. Football teams bring in a lot of money for a lot of universities around the nation. In turn, that money can be used to give kids a chance to go to college. Taking away these games can almost make it impossible for those schools to have other sports at their schools. Taking away those games ultimately takes away higher education opportunities from many students not just student-athletes.
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Lastly, the institution of college football has forgotten why many players play the game. They play the game because they love being a part of something bigger than themselves. For people, like Saban, it’s eay to forget that football for some is just a way to earn a free education and play the game they love the most. Wanting to do away with that is truly sad for a coach most deem to be one of the greatest of all time.