Clemson beat South Carolina State 59-0 on Saturday in the latest example that Historically Black Colleges and Universities "feel they have no choice" but to use their football players as "sacrificial lambs in guarantee games to fund their struggling athletic departments," according to Joe Nocera of the N.Y. TIMES. However, the one-sided scores -- and the "public humiliation and potential for serious injury that come with such mismatches -- make one wonder whether it is really worth it." Clemson led South Carolina State 45-0 at halftime, and the referees "went to the locker rooms to ask the coaches if they were willing to mercifully shorten the game by three minutes a quarter." SCSU was paid $300,000 for the matchup with Clemson, the school's "third straight guarantee game" after blowout losses to UCF and Louisiana Tech to start the season. The three games together earned the school about $1M, more than 10% "of its athletic budget." MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas said, “We are all Division I football, and over the years, FCS schools have served the FBS very well.” However, he "acknowledged that the primary motive for such games was financial." UConn professor Joseph Cooper said, "There is something wrong about writing a check to someone so you can humiliate them." Nocera noted without these games, smaller schools "simply would not be able to operate a full-fledged athletic program." Former Morris Brown College coach Solomon Brannan: "We have to do it because we need the money, and we're not getting it from anywhere else" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/19).
THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS? ESPN’s Bomani Jones noted SCSU was in an "unfortunate situation where they have to send the football team out to take beatdowns in order to balance the budget.” He said, "That game isn’t there to be a competition. That game is there so that Clemson can open those gates and make all that money from having a football game.” ESPN’s Dan Le Batard said, “There is never in college football this kind of overt business transaction -- this overt -- that feels wrong because one of the sides is literally getting trampled” (“Highly Questionable,” ESPN, 9/19). ESPN’s Israel Gutierrez said of the game, “It feels dirty. It feels like you might as well give them the money in front of everybody and then just say, ‘Hey, this is really just a business transaction. It has nothing to do with football’” (“Around The Horn,” ESPN, 9/19).
