Fan speak 9/15/08

Money games

I realize that many smaller colleges play larger schools in a money game, and I see nothing wrong with that. What I do have a problem with is where that money goes. If the football players put their butts on the line and take a shellacking, the money received should go to the football program, not put into a general sports fund and divvied out to all programs. Neither should the football program get a cut in funding to counterbalance the funds from the money game. I'd like to see an accounting of what was done with the $250,000 the football players earned by playing Mizzou.

More money

It is sickening to watch major universities such as the University of Missouri play early season football games against small college teams like Southeast Missouri State. I can understand Southeast's point in that it gets a big paycheck, but the large universities use it to make themselves look better in the rankings. I would like to see the University of Missouri drop a few notches. Maybe from now on it might try to better its schedule.

Big vs. small

There have been several articles concerning the Southeast Missouri State vs. University of Missouri football game. In most of the articles, it was noted that Southeast should not be expected to be competitive against Missouri, a larger school, and the Redhawks certainly were not. In high school sports, smaller schools play much larger schools on a regular basis. Not only are they competitive, but the smaller schools sometimes defeat the larger schools. What's the difference? Is this just more excuses for Southeast's athletic department?