Who Killed College Football?
Who Killed College Football?
Suspect Number 5: Coaches & Agents
0:00
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:10:11
-1:10:11

Suspect Number 5: Coaches & Agents

The same guys who insisted money would ruin the purity of college football sure were happy to take as much of it as they could get their hands on

From its earliest days, college football has had a tense relationship with players and money. But it wasn’t until the market for coaches started exploding that the gulf between what coaches earn and what players cannot really started to look outlandish. Agents, of course, helped usher the age of absurdity in, by winning contract terms that gave their clients more and more, even if they weren’t successful. As their pay skyrocketed, coaches were mostly silent about structural issues popping up in the sport, and for good reason: the status quo was entirely too good to overturn.

Producer: Michael Henahan
Researcher: Alex McDaniel

Discussion about this episode