Just a few years ago, college football players were little more than chattel to the NCAA. Jocks risked life and limb to bring glory to their schools, but were only paid in book learnin’ and free meals, while the colleges and the NCAA raked in millions from ticket sales, merch and TV rights.
Then, somebody sued somebody else and the economic model of intercollegiate athletics was sacked for a loss by the courts. It was decided that those who do the work on the field of athletics should be paid for their labor. Man, talk about a socialistic worldview!
Nowadays, through NIL (name, image and likeness) rules, elite college athletes can switch teams through the transfer portal and scoop up mounds of cash and fabulous prizes for themselves for wearing one jersey or another. The notions of “student athlete” and “amateur competition” have become nostalgic memories of a more innocent, less capitalistic time.
The bargaining power of elite athletes has grown exponentially, and smart collegiate sports programs are adapting to this new reality.
Deion Sanders, head football coach at the University of Colorado, was among the first to build a gridiron program via the new rules. Only God and the IRS know how much money the CU Buffaloes have invested in their team. The results have been dramatic if uneven, but the die has been cast.
If the University of Wyoming wants to compete against major teams in big-time football, it must pay attention to this new milieu, and be prepared to open its big, fat Brown & Gold wallet. But that will be a bitter pill for the Wyoming Freedom Caucus to swallow.
Given the Freedom Caucus’ disdain for all things UW, and their avowed push to de-fund the institution, I foresee a problem.
I can appreciate the Freedom Caucus’ bellyache with DEI on campus, pinko professors and dudes in sororities. After all, why does a Western land grant university need a quotient of female subsistence hunters from Burkina Faso or androgynous potato planters from Peru in its student body to be legitimate?
If the Freedom Caucus, in its conservative zeal, wants to trim those budget items, then I don’t think most folks in Wyoming would quibble. But they’ll shoot themselves in the foot if their efforts result in Cowboy football becoming a Division II program.
Think about it. If CSU avails themselves of the new economic reality and pays quarter-ton linemen to play for the sheep, along with quarterbacks who can throw a grape through a concrete wall, the rabid Cowboy faithful will demand that UW up its game likewise.
If the Freedom Caucus balks at beefing up the Pokes, and instead just wants to fund more resin and new riggings for the rodeo club, they’ll find themselves crosswise with folks who live at the end of those dirt roads in the Big Empty. That is NOT an ox that the Freedom Caucus wants to gore.
The new UW football coach, Jay Sawvell, reportedly received threats of bodily harm after the team got crushed in the opener against Arizona State. THAT is how rabidly Wyoming fans want the team to win. If the Freedom Caucus stands in the way of our Pokes beating a team with a demonic presence for a mascot (Sun Devils) next time we meet them, they can expect to draw upon themselves the ire of the faithful.
If winning requires the investment of the considerable sovereign wealth of the Cowboy State, then the Freedom Caucus is well-advised to swallow their conservative pride and pay the piper.
Otherwise, they’ll incur the political wrath of the REAL “good ol’ boys club,” the one political entity in Wyoming that can crush them like bugs – the Cowboy Joe Club.
Selah, and Go Pokes!
Rod Miller can be reached at: RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com
