Photo courtesy of ibj.com
Last year the Bagpipe presented an article detailing the absurdity, chaos, and instability of college football. Unfortunately for those who thought the chaos would wind down, anything but that has happened in the past year. Rather, it seems like college football cannot catch a break.
What’s so chaotic about college football right now? Allow us to look and see what has been going on in the sport the past year.
First and foremost, traditionally one of the worst college football programs in history, Indiana University, won a National Championship last year. Not just that, but they managed to go undefeated while doing it.
Because Indiana literally did the impossible, this has sent a chaotic ripple effect to plenty of other programs around the nation, with the primary question being, “if Indiana can do it, why can’t we?” This has resulted in the pressure that college coaches are feeling being raised.
For many fans of schools that have not had much recent success, such as Vanderbilt, Maryland and others, their year was a bust or a failure if they cannot make the playoffs or the national championship game.
Additionally, lawsuits among lawsuits among lawsuits have plagued the off-season of college football. There have been almost 50 lawsuits from those who are arguing for more eligibility.
This stems from new eligibility rules that pertain to how many years an athlete can play while still in school. Because of this, some players who played in NFL preseason games attempted to come back to college, only for their attempt to come back to school to fizzle away.
Lastly, no one is really in control of the sport. This is not a joke. While the NCAA has various rules in place, they have struggled to enforce them, with plenty of local courts ruling over their rules.
If everything is devolving into chaos, what is the good in all of this? Well, for all those on campus who love this sport, college football is back, and none of the chaos from these things can affect the play on the field that is so enjoyable to watch.