Tennessee Williams produced a literary gem in the 1950s when he wrote the play 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'. Censors in 1958 pressured the film version to be toned down because of themes considered objectionable. Though the movie was nominated for Best Picture and Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor were nominated for Oscars, the film's depiction did not do justice to Tennessee Williams.
One line in the film held up the author's message. When the main character Big Daddy asks his son Brick, "What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room? There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity. You can smell it. It smells like death."
That kind of odor is all over college sports these days. And it is caused primarily by two things, mendacity and greed.
The evolving saga of Texas Tech and its gambling quarterback Brendan Sorsby is far bigger than the eligibility of one player. While the eventual result might become a tipping point for college sports, the melodrama is but a symptom of greater rot.
Seattle columnist Mike Vorel explained the Sorsby mess well: "There are no rules in college sports that can’t be bypassed, no severe punishments considered permanent. In an era without viable enforcement, rules are requests. Guardrails are made of papier-mâché, trampled by money trucks. Without the means to make them matter, why make rules at all? Which is why Sorsby will play football at Texas Tech this fall."
Vorel's last sentence might be proven wrong, but the other three sentences are accurate about what too much of college sports has become.
Years ago, when Nick Saban talked about unrestricted free agency in college football and asked if that was what we (the college football world) wanted to become.
A bigger question is being asked for those with an open mind to listen. How much damage can college sports sustain before the passions of fans cool? If those passions cool too much, the financial bubble of big-time college sports will burst.
A reasonable guess is that when only teams spending the most money can win college football national championships, fan support will be adversely affected.
College sports are at serious risk. Tennessee Williams' odor of mendacity is widespread. Consider just two of many examples. Texas Tech's billionaire donor Cody Campbell is threatening litigation against teams, conferences, and the CFB Playoff for collusion that violates antitrust law. Campbell's deceit is that he is one of the loudest voices demanding that the federal government give college sports antitrust protection.
Then there is the Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz. Cruz boasts that the proposed 'Protect College Sports Act' would solve another dispute like the Brendan Sorsby one. According to Yahoo's Ross Dellenger, the proposed bill includes language to prohibit college players from making illegal wagers. The problem is that the bill offers no plan for blocking judicial opinions that override rules. If Cruz doesn't know his claim is bogus, he should. More likely, he knows and is lying.
What about Nick Saban's support
Alabama football fans may prefer that the Protect College Sports Act become law because Nick Saban supports it. But Saban may have concluded the circumstances are so dire that any action, however flawed, is better than no action. In speaking to the Senate committee, Saban called college football an "arms race," and added that in college football, there are "no rules."
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