Thursday, December 08, 2005

Signs of sanity

Picked up my tree-killing news medium this morning and was greeted with this story.

Full disclosure: I am a graduate of New Mexico State. I am a proud Aggie. Yet I was never a fan of these "money games," as some people labled them. Others of my ilk would refer to these contests as "prostitution." According to the powers that were, these games would yield a significant amount of money to the football program and the athletic department. Playing against big-name opponents would also bring additional recognition to NMSU.

Huh?

As you may suspect, I didn't buy it then (these games began around 1989 or 1990, IIRC) and I still don't believe these games are beneficial. (Save for the contest in 1999 which saw my Aggies beat ASU in Tempe.) What does it do for the morale of the players to get the stuffing beat out of them by schools such as Texas, Alabama, UCLA, etc.?

And what of all this money? It might buy top-of-the-line training equipment for the guys of the gridiron, but years of these big payouts never has resulted in a consistent winning team.

I don't care if it costs 300 grand. Kudos to the NMSU athletic director for making a move in the right direction.

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