You make HOW MUCH?

You know those dodgy 1980's movies starring John Cusack and the never-ending fight of the underdogs versus the smarmy college sporting team? The movie where on a shoestring budget the underdogs come good and trounce the sneaky, dastardly and downright cheatin' big college team?

Well, whenever I was watching those movies I could never figure out why the big college team cared so much about winning. Sure team pride and all that, but really? That much?

And then in later years I never quite managed to figure out what the big deal was with getting a sports scholarship was. Sure - having the average cost of US$30k tuition for a 4 year degree paid is a big incentive. (source: Cnn Money Story) But I never quite managed to figure out why the college was offering such a deal on sports tuition - not to mention the reports of buying the college atheletes cars, helping them 'pass' their degrees and assorted shenanigans.

The cost in and of itself must be phenomenal when you consider the fact that, whilst you have 11 players on the field at any one point in time, the average college grid iron team has 125 players. Up to 85 of these players can be on a scholarship according to caps set in place by the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association).

Why so many players? Rugby Union has 22 members in a team - with 15 of those on the pitch at any given point in time. Substitutions are supposed to be more of an injury thing - although that is changing with not a little bit of controversy - the usual rumblings of diluting the purity of the game played in heaven etc. I won't bore you with the details. In American Football you have much more of a play-by-play thing - with an offensive, neutral and defensive team. You set the play up, run it and then reform at the end of it all for another play. So you send in a different mix of 11 people per play depending upon which 'play' you are going to make. There is also a whole process of coordination - with coaches on the sidelines as well people at the top of the stadium watching a birds eye view and radioing down to the appropriate coach. And even (sacrilege) the coach being able to communicate by radio to the quarterback on the field.

So - where am I going with this? Well I found an article today that outlines just why colleges are willing to bear all the cost of this. According to (CNN: Money Story 2) the top 10 college teams raked in annual revenus ranging from US$25million to US$45million. Notre Dame earned US$9million from TV rights alone - and is 'worth' some US$101million. College football stadiums range in size from 60,000 to over 100,000 seat stadiums.

And there is the answer - sure professional football is big business as I always assumed it was - same deal in Australia. But what is different is that college football is also big business - not just a prestige thing for the college itself.

I promise that the next post will return to more geeky topics...