I have a friend down in Wichita that has loved Texas A&M football as far back as he can remember. He always had a positive outlook on their games and years, even when they were not doing very well. He is their 12th Man in Wichita. I would love to pick his brain about their quarterback, Johnny Manziel. Johnny Manziel became the first freshman in college football history to win the Heisman Trophy. He made a name for himself with his play on the field last year. He did the same this past off season with run ins with the law, making money for signatures, and other things a nineteen or twenty year old would most likely do. Personally, I think he is exciting to watch play football. He is like a kid in a candy store. Just out there having a good time. But, being a big name in the sport comes with big responsibilities which he has not handled well. He is not the only student athlete that has had problems, he is just in the news right now because FOOTBALL!
Looking at their record from 2001-2011, the Texas A&M football team has eight more wins than losses. There were up years where they won eight or nine games and down years where they won four or five. So over the last decade, they have done okay for themselves. There were no standout seasons with only one or two losses. The best year was just in 2010 when they finished 18th in the country with a 9-4 record. And then there was last year. Manziel's freshman year. The big move to the SEC. All of a sudden, they go 11-2, beat down Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, and finish 5th in the country. The Aggies and their fans are on top of the world. All of this in his freshman year? What can he do in the next two years before leaving for the NFL? Is a national title in the future? All he has done has been a distraction for the college and the football program during the off season.
So with all these distractions, why would A&M want to keep him around? Winning is great. They are in the conversation of the nation as they are ranked in the top ten in the preseason rankings (which don't really mean anything because it's the PRESEASON!) Despite what any division one college says, football isn't about winning. It's about making money. A&M will deal with the distraction that is Johnny Manziel because he is good at playing a sport and can get people in the stadium to watch. They can ride the roller coaster of Manziel-mania (is that a thing?) to another BCS bowl game because of the money that will come in as a result. But what happens if he is deemed ineligible this year because of what he has done? What happens if he is dismissed from the team? Are they still a top ten team? Teams are more than just a quarterback, but they do run the team on the field.
Another reason to deal with the distractions is that A&M knows that they only have a few years of greatness before they fall back down to being a .500 team again. They will deal with it because they are going to try and capitalize on it. Not only with getting money for the school, but with recruits as well. Top tier high school recruits are going to look at successful programs because they want to get to that next level. They may say they want to go to a school with a winning program and help to carry on that tradition, but many of them have dollar signs in their eyes. If they can get these top tier recruits, they can continue to reap the financial benefits. The minute they start to slip down the rankings or start losing eight or nine games a year, they won't being going to those big bowl games and will start to not make as much money as they were when Johnny Manziel was playing.
If you want to find a college that wants to talk about winning over making money for the school, go find a division two or three school. Go find a junior college where local kids go get an education and get to carry on their local legacy as a football player. Are there div. II and III graduates playing professional sports? Absolutely. At the rate of the div. I schools? Don't kid yourself. Or better yet, go to a division one school and go talk to a sports team that doesn't create revenue for their school. Don't talk to the basketball program at Kentucky or Duke. Don't talk to the football program at Alabama or Michigan. Talk to a water polo team or a ski team. Go talk to sports program head that don't have a professional level. They are invested in their sport and winning. The kids in those types of programs don't worry about making millions of dollars playing their sport. They worry about getting an education and moving on into adulthood.
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