College Football Coaching Buyouts

I hate college football. I mean, I like college football, but I hate college football. Let's go back a few years. The first football games that I attended weren't Pittsburgh Steelers games. I have no idea how expensive Steelers tickets were in the early 80s or how easy it was to get tickets, but I attended several University of Pittsburgh football games during that time. My Cub Scout troop even got group tickets once or twice. Plus, Pitt Stadium was probably about a mile from my aunt and uncle's place, so we parked in their parking lot and walked to the stadium. While I don't remember the 1976 championship season (I was 1), the team was really good in the 1980s with All-Americans Dan Marino, Bill Fralic, Hugh Green, Mark May, and Jimbo Covert. As I got older, I was fortunate to get to watch other amazing players like Ironhead Heyward, Curtis Martin, and Larry Fitzgerald. So I do like college football.

With all of that written, let's be honest here. There are 130 Division I Football Bowl Subdivision teams, and of these teams, only about 15 teams have a legitimate chance of winning a national championship each year. First, you have to be in a power-5 conference (or have a very lucrative contract with NBC) to have a chance to win. UCF has proven to be an excellent team over the past two years, yet, they haven’t been invited to the college football playoffs. Then, you need a lot money. Money to hire the best coaches and for state-of-the-art facilities to recruit the top high school players. To have all of this money, you need a massive stadium and a large donor base to support the program. While I'm probably missing a few schools, here are those that have a true chance of winning each year, according to various betting sites:

Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, USC, Florida State, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Auburn, Penn State, and Texas. I guess you could add Stanford, UCLA, and Miami in here too. That's the list.

Now here is my problem. Each year, colleges that are not on this list fire their head football coaches and pay millions of dollars as a buyout, settlement, or per the terms of the contact.* Mike MacIntyre was fired by the University of Colorado and has $10.3 million remaining on his contract.

Texas Tech, Kansas, North Carolina, Charlotte, East Carolina, and Central Michigan are just some other schools that fired their football coaches recently. These are public institutions. Where is the money coming from? Taxpayers? Increased student fees? Here’s my new rule: If you’re not one of the 15 or so teams I mentioned, you’re not allowed to pay millions to coaches who no longer coaching at your school. I have no idea how this could be implemented, but why let details get in the way of a good and fiscally reasonable idea!


* The Louisville Courier Journal published a story in October 2018 showing that fired coaches in 2017 got over $70 million in buyouts.

Second Favorite Sports Team

Recently, The Moose (now 7) asked me to name my second favorite baseball team. I replied the San Diego Padres, he said oh, and that was the end of our conversation.

His question got me thinking. Can you have a second favorite professional sports team per sport? Almost ten years ago (man, this blog is old!), I asked who you would choose if you are forced to cheer for a professional football team other than the team you currently support. This is a variation of that question. There is nothing forced here. You probably have favorite NFL, MLB, NHL, and/or NBA teams. That is the team you always want to succeed. In many cases, there is unconditional love and loyalty involved (and the teams know this which is why they sell so much merchandise and can require season ticket holders to purchase personal seat licenses). Anyway, my first question is can you have a second favorite team? This is a team that you want to do well but who you would never support over your favorite team. My example from the 2008 blog post was the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Miami Dolphins. I'm always going to support the Steelers, but I like the Dolphins since they employed Pittsburgh legend Dan Marino as well as two people that went to my high school, Jason Taylor and Lousaka Polite. (Yes, everything comes back to Pittsburgh for me.)

In case you're wondering, the Padres are my second favorite baseball team from my time living in San Diego in the late 90s. I got to watch Tony Gwynn, one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, play regularly and followed the team as they reached the 1998 World Series, including attending a NLCS game against the Atlanta Braves.

Although they are now division rivals with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Columbus Blue Jackets would qualify as my second favorite hockey team. This has more to do with history rather than the current team as I lived in Columbus when the team first came into existence. I saw many games during the team's inaugural season while working as a beer man roaming the upper level. Geoff Sanderson, Ron Tugnutt, and Espen Knutsen for life!

Please note that I'm leaving college sports out of this discussion since there are so many schools and affiliations. For example, I support the University of Pittsburgh teams and remember going to football games at Pitt Stadium as a kid. I also attended graduate school at The Ohio State University, so I root for the Buckeyes. My brother is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island, so I was all in when the Rams were in the men's NCAA basketball tournament last month. (I could go on here about my affiliations with George Mason University, San Diego State University, Duquesne University, and others, but I'm getting off topic.)

So can you have a second favorite professional team, and if so, who are your second (and first) favorite teams?


Photos by the Miami Dolphins and Getty Images.

Pittsburg: City of Champins

Ryan Buchan, an intern at The Tahoe Daily Tribune, wrote an article in Saturday’s paper about professional athletes and fantasy sports. I’ve taken portions of the article and included them below. Please let me know if you notice anything unusual.

More than 15 million people play fantasy sports and spend about $1.5 billion annually, according to an article that appeared in the “Texas Review of Sports Law.”

Fantasy sports have taken over the fan world, but have they taken over the world of current and former proffesional athletes?

“I think a lot of guys play fantasy sports,” said Dan Marino, a former NFL quarterback.

Marino, however, said he does not play fantasy sports even though he gives advice on selections and chooses a fantasy player of the day in part of his job with CBS Sports.

“It is not that I don't enjoy what is going on, I don't really make it a priorty,” Marino said. “But maybe I should.”

Jerome Bettis, former Pittsburg Steelers' running back, said he agrees that there are a lot of athletes who are involved, but he is not one of them.

“I never got into fantasy sports because as a player people got mad at you for things you did, and I never understood it,” Bettis said. “I have always been against fantasy sports.”


The first thing that jumps out is the reference to the Texas Review of Sports Law. Buchan is trying to be funny as there is no such thing. Silly intern!



Oh, perhaps you noticed a few misspelled words. I understand that spelling mistakes happen as I’ve probably misspelled something in this sentence. However, I don’t expect misspellings in an actual newspaper that “was founded on June 26, 1958 by Frank and Mary Chase” and “acquired by Reno-based Swift Newspapers, now Swift Communications, in August of 1975.” Maybe they are stilling using the 1958 version of Spell-Check.

Perhaps Buchan should do a little research before publishing his article. I don’t remember Jerome Bettis ever playing for the Pittsburg Steelers. Maybe I’m giving Buchan a hard time. I mean he is only an intern.



Someone must have reviewed the article before printing it, right? Perhaps, a sports editor? Well, “Steve Yingling has been the Tahoe Daily Tribune’s sports editor since September 1990. Only Nancy Hayden has been at the paper longer.” I am not familiar with The Tahoe Daily Tribune, but I have a feeling that the city of Pittsburgh may have been included at least once or twice in the paper over the 20 years. This would never happen if Jerry Micco was their sports editor (look at the fourth question)!

I know what you’re thinking. Why don’t I contact the Tahoe Daily Tribune directly to let them know about the spelling mistakes and errors? Well, I need to write about something!

Second Favorite Football Team

Let’s say that you are forced to cheer for a professional football team other than the team you currently support. Who would you choose?

Here are my personal criteria in picking a "second favorite" team:

1. They cannot be in the same division as the Pittsburgh Steelers.
2. They cannot be the Dallas Cowboys or New England Patriots.
3. There has to be some type of personal connection.

Based on these factors, if I had to choose a second favorite team, the winner would be the Miami Dolphins. Besides not being in the AFC North and not being the Cowboys or Patriots, the Dolphins certainly meet item #3. Former Dolphins superstar Dan Marino is from Pittsburgh and played for the University of Pittsburgh Panthers. In addition, the Dolphins have had a player from my high school since 1997 (Jason Taylor from 1997-2007 and Lousaka Polite this season). Plus, the always entertaining former Steeler Joey Porter is a current member of the Dolphins. Overall, how can you not support a team that was 1-15 last season and are now in the playoffs?

Therefore, as my second favorite team, I am very excited for the Dolphins and their fans (the Dol-fans) on winning the AFC East. I hope they crush the Ravens and will be rooting for them next weekend. Of course, if Miami defeats Baltimore, that means they would face the Steelers the following week. At that point, the Dolphins just become another Steelers opponent who I hope loses 51-0.

So who is your second favorite team and why? Please also include your favorite team if it is not the Steelers.

Miami Dolphins Playoff Information

About five years ago, I bought a Dan Marino jersey for my friend who is a HUGE Dolphins fan. Ever since then, I receive periodic e-mails from the Dolphins. When I checked my Inbox this evening, this is what I saw:

Dear Dol-fan,

All of us at the Miami Dolphins and Dolphin Stadium are excited about the performance of the Dolphins under the leadership of Coach Tony Sparano. The team’s outstanding play has put us in playoff contention as we head into the final game of the regular season. As a result, the National Football League has authorized us to make plans for a possible post-season game to be played at Dolphin Stadium on Saturday, January 3rd or Sunday, January 4th. Our players and coaches have appreciated our fans’ support all season long and the home-field advantage they have provided will be even more critical in the post-season.

If the Dolphins defeat the Jets on Sunday, the Dolphins will host the AFC Wild Card Weekend game at Dolphin Stadium on Saturday, January 3rd or Sunday, January 4th. As a Dol-fan, we would like to offer you the opportunity to buy playoff tickets before they go on-sale to the general public. The final announcement of this game, and if it will be played, will be made following the conclusion of the Dolphins vs. Jets game on Sunday, December 28th.

If you would like to purchase tickets to this game before the general public, please click here to take advantage of this special pre-sale offer which begins at 9am on Monday, December 22nd. When prompted, please insert the word “Partner” into the Password Box. Please note, in the event the Dolphins do not host a playoff game on January 3rd or 4th, you will be refunded the cost of the ticket and any other fees charged if you choose the TicketFast delivery method, which will provide you the opportunity to print your tickets online. If you choose either the UPS or in-store delivery methods, you will receive a refund of the tickets and the convenience fees but NOT THE DELIVERY CHARGES.

A deadline of Saturday, December 27, 2008 at 11:59pm (or until allocated tickets are sold out) has been set for this pre-sale opportunity and due to time restrictions the deadline cannot be extended as tickets to the general public will go on-sale shortly thereafter.

Thank you for your continued support of the Miami Dolphins and Dolphin Stadium.

Go Dolphins!

First of all, Dol-fan? Really? If there are any Dolphins fans out there, do you really go by Dol-fans?

I would write that this type of e-mail regarding playoff tickets was a bit premature. However, based on the fact that the NFL authorized this, I'm sure that the Patriots, Jets, Chargers, Vikings and Broncos all sent out similar messages today too. Well, except for the Tony Sparano and Dol-fan part.

P.S. Isn't the dolphin stuffed animal cute?

Puppy Bowl III

Puppy Bowl III is now airing on Animal Planet. New this year is the Tailgate Party where they have several dogs cooking up a BBQ and sitting on lawn chairs. I love the fact that Harry Kalas did the introduction and announced the pre-game line-up, which included Jackson pictured left.

In case you are wondering, yes, I am procrastinating from doing some cleaning around the house. Plus, this is more entertaining than watching the Super Bowl pre-game show where Dan Marino is currently practicing flipping a coin for the coin toss.