Miami is Mercedes of football

IT'S time to put the money paid to college football players on thetable rather than under it.

In the wake of Miami's move from the Big East to the AtlanticCoast Conference, it's clearer than ever that big time college sportsare all about business.

You wouldn't expect workers to donate their labor, would you? Andif it's fair to bribe an entire university with promises of hugepayouts, why shouldn't prospective athletes get a cut of the cash?

The courting of football powerhouses is eerily similar to theprocess states use to attract new companies. Miami is the athleticequivalent of a Mercedes plant, and Virginia Tech is a Saturn-sizedcomplement.

The incentives thrown at universities to entice them to go - orstay, in the case of the Big East's blatant bribery attempts - arereminiscent of the nine-figure deal Alabama put together to lureMercedes and others like it.

For $200 million, Alabama got Mercedes. For $100 million,Tennessee got Saturn. For $17 million, West Virginia got a Toyotaengine plant.

It's sort of like the difference between a perennial top-10 teamand one that breaks into the top 25 every couple of years. You getwhat you pay for.

The Big East offered Miami $45 million over five years to stay inthe conference. WVU and Pitt are staying for free and would have beenon the hook for extra payments if Miami had stayed.

Ask the state's business community whether that sounds familiar.The shiny new company gets anything it asks for, but the longtimestalwart who has paid taxes and employed people for years getsnothing special.

Now we'll see the college conference equivalent of trickle-downeconomics.

The Big East's stars left for college football's Atlantic Ocean.So how will Big East officials react?

By finding a lake (in this case probably Conference USA) andstealing its biggest fish.

So Conference USA will find an even smaller pond (say the Mid-American Conference) and take the sharks from its ranks. By the timeall the leap-frogging is finished, the West Coast conference namedfor the Pacific Ocean will feel the waves.

So it goes with business recruitment.

Tennessee offers big incentives. Alabama and North Carolina offereven bigger ones. They get the best fish.

And by the time all the lines are cast, West Virginia is left withthe bottom feeders. Sure, they'll pull in a trophy catch every oncein a while, but the usual diet consists of really small fish or thoseno one else wanted.

Kind of stinks, doesn't it?

Chris Stadelman can be reached at 348-4834 or by e-mail atcstadelman@dailymail.com.