A Nation Grieves for ... what, exactly?

I was planning to take today off, out of respect for our National Day of Mourning, but I figured that a 3-day weekend was enough. It’s a shame that our federal government didn’t feel the same. Former President Gerald Ford died last Tuesday. It took a week to organize a National Day of Mourning? I suppose we couldn’t mourn properly on a Saturday or Sunday, especially when there’s a Tuesday after a holiday coming up. Beyond the seriousness of the event, it strikes me as a scheme cooked up by a bunch of people who specialize in them. It must be nice to be able to vote yourself a pay raise and organize a four-day holiday for yourself. I’m in the wrong line of work.

Speaking of which…

College football coaches appear to be in the right line of work. Pardon me for thinking straight, but it strikes me as odd that an organization (the NCAA) who would have such stringent rules prohibiting athletes from accepting anything as meager as a suit of clothes would allow the coach of the same team to earn the kind of money that the University of Alabama is offering Nick Saban. This is from ESPN.com:

The [University of Alabama] offer is worth $35 million to $40 million, and includes many variables. It could run from eight to 10 years.
There are 11 college coaches who make over $2 million a year. There are four coaches in the $3 million-plus range, if you count USC's Pete Carroll, who made $2.93 million this year and should be over $3 million next year. Notre Dame's Charlie Weis, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops earn over $3 million.

I didn’t go to a big-time school as far as athletics is concerned, but it might frost me a little if I was asked to pay high tuition rates and saw that the coach of the football team earned 2 million bucks, especially when I have to pay $125 for a textbook or fight for time in the computer room. I like a good football game as much as anyone, but I would also like to know that my child or his professor was being given the same treatment as the football players or their coaches. Universities are institutions of higher learning, right?

I’m not that naïve that I have forgotten what athletics mean to schools, but if the NCAA is going to hold athletes to such a standard, maybe they should start to reign in the coach’s salaries as well? After all, the kids often come from poor families, and a $300 suit means as much to a kid as a big salary does to a coach. It strikes me as hypocrisy, and I bristle at that.

Maybe they should just pay the kids? After all, if universities are going to be free minor leagues for the NFL and NBA, and provide profitable programming for TV, then maybe the kids should reap some of the benefits that the professional leagues and television networks do?

This is usually where people tell me how wrong I am.