1. More than 90% of professional football is played on Sundays, while more than 95% of college games are not played on Sundays. I didn't invent the Ten Commandments, but I like to hold to them and avoid as many sporting events as possible on the Sabbath. I completely respect and support the BYU standard of absolutely no college sporting competition on the seventh day. Less people working this day of the week is a great thing. Supporting college football more than professional is more spiritually sound.

2. Professional athletes choose the teams they work for only after many years of being drafted by a team in a forced selection mandated by the league. Therefore, many professional athletes end up playing and starring in cities and regions that they never would have chosen on their own. College athletes, on the other hand, decide which school they would like to join and give their loyalty to that institution of their own volition. Of course there are many cases of athletes coming out of high school and junior college where they are snubbed by their first, second or tenth choice and then later have a chance to prove their mettle in the heat of competition against that original choice. These are wonderful moments in the college game and it also happens in the pros, but again the professional game is by and large mercenary by definition. Universities attract true rivalries based on geography, traditions, philosophies, associations. i.e. (Miami vs. Florida St. vs. Florida, or Utah vs. BYU vs. Utah St., or USC vs. UCLA vs. U Cal-Berkeley vs. Stanford, etc.)

3. The consummate individual should be an Alexandrian or Renaissance man; not to mention that our society, perhaps the greatest human experiment the world has ever known, should produce men and women who are balanced and well spread among their interests and their pursuits. Intercollegiate athletics is a wonderful vehicle to help many people accomplish these goals. Not only are the 117 Division I football schools carrying out this task within a large spectrum of our country's youth in football and other athletic competitions, but most of the other smaller schools are also doing it, meaning that tens of thousands of college students are balancing their lives between their academic lives and their physical pursuits in any number of sports. These availabilities in college, including those given to the less privileged citizens who otherwise would not aspire to a college degree, are made possible through a collegiate system of donations and grants for scholarships and fund raising revenue. The number one fundraiser for college athletics is college football, particularly among the 117 biggest programs spread across the country.

4. Economically and equitably, our country has suffered from the injustices of slavery. Many of the black African descendants who were cross bred as little more than cattle for opportunity costs until the end of the Civil War 140 years ago (1865) have had to overcome a devastating cycle of poverty among the black population, even in the 21^st century. College football and other athletic programs (primarily funded by the biggest revenue sport, which is college football) have afforded hundreds of thousands of these young people and other underprivileged minorities and poor people the opportunity to get a college education and move out of the poverty cycle. While most of these youth will never receive a professional check from playing a professional sport, most of them will greatly benefit from attending college and moving on out of poverty with an academic degree.

5. As mentioned in the second point, allegiances to schools and their geographic or even philosophical connections produces a long held loyalty among alumni and their numerous fans. A purely mercenary organization that plays mostly on Sunday cannot hold the heart and hopes of those of us with higher motives in the long term scheme of things. Professional sport entertains and employs the best of the best at these skills, but ultimately something spiritual or ethereal in nature is found to be lacking.

A professional football team makes money as a profitable business. It donates some of its time and earnings to the poor and needy, but by and large remunerates itself, taking public tax dollars along the way, and profits its owners and those who work in their stadiums and sell their merchandise. This is a tidy economy: the 32 such NFL teams in the United States, the dozen or so Arena League programs, and the 8 European League corporations all do their part in entertaining the masses and paying and sustaining a few elite athletes who have developed these talents since high school and college. This is OK, but it is not like the college game. Apart from breaking the Sabbath too much and not allowing player preference due to the mandatory draft, the pro leagues are missing a vital part of the spirit of athletics.

A college football team often times is not a profitable business, or at least not in the sense that its monies collected fill its own pockets like the professional football teams. As previously cited, the major revenue sport at a number of major sports schools has many dependents apart from those individuals who gain their salaries from the institution of the collegiate football team. There are the numerous non-revenue making intercollegiate teams that the universities sponsor; many of them (usually half as required by NCAA rules) composed of female athletes. Also, the revenue earned by the universities from football goes to pay the college tuitions and scholarships of the athletes within their program and across the breadth of the academic institution. In other words, the college football program is the major bread winner among all amateur athletics, and this is based on only 11-15 events per year in the period of 4 months.

Many alumni and donors who feel a particular loyalty or affection for their former schools and their academic aims continually fund the programs out of feelings of philanthropy and magnanimousness. Harvard and the other Ivy League schools do not delegate athletic scholarships to their football players or any other student athletes; nevertheless, much of the goodwill in receiving all the huge endorsements and donations that they receive are in tandem with their continual support of intercollegiate athletics, albeit less commercialized than many state and other private academic institutions which support football teams

As one can see, the college institution of football serves a wider purpose than the professional sport; college football is the biggest money making spectacle at universities, which in turn allow so many other athletic and academic programs to flourish in relative ignominy. Some might bemoan the fact the football program at say, Penn St., may take attention from their stellar volleyball team, but it is the exciting and heart wrenching game of football that gathers 100,000 people at their stadium five or six times every fall, as is inevitably their cash cow and high level medium of recognition nationally. Volleyball does not as a sport or institution the sheer numbers enjoyed by football.

6. College football teams make little towns where they compete an item, a more cogent unit of unity and civic pride. Who else would ever pay attention to Ann Arbor Michigan, Provo, Utah, or Lincoln, Nebraska?  What about Pullman, Washington, or Corvallis, Oregon? The college teams who reside in large cities make the metropolises where they play smaller, friendlier, more intimate places. After all, it's our school. All of the million residents of greater Salt Lake become like town high school rivals when the Utes and Cougars get together, either in Rice-Eccles or Lavell Edwards Field in Utah County. Los Angeles becomes equally divided as next door neighbors yell in consecutive fits during the big city yearly showdown. And nothing polarizes a state like the big inner state rivalries like Auburn and Alabama, Texas and Texas A & M, Georgia and Georgia Tech, Indiana and Purdue. The interstate rivalries are even more grandiose with animosity and vitriol: Michigan and Ohio St., Oklahoma and Texas, Georgia and Florida, Nebraska vs. everyone else.

Now if these names mean nothing to you, the reader, let me assure you there are millions of people who live for these games every autumn, who set up their entire weekends and football seasons around certain or all games, depending on their level of devotion and financial ability. There are millions of devotees whose heart rates and adrenalin counts rise higher during these three hours of the week in the fall each Saturday than any other time a year, workloads and family crises included. Millions strategize which games to see, which games will be televised, which road games would be fun to watch in the visiting stadium and whether they should buy the home package for season tickets. Let me include for members of the LDS faith that many general authorities plan accordingly, and not just members of the seventy.

Well, there you have a few reasons why I think that the college game is intrinsically better than that of the pros. For some it does not represent the best talent of football at its peak: for me it does, much as I would think Jesus a more compelling Savior prior to His resurrection rather than after His exalted state thereafter. A great pro athlete will evince all those skills later when paid +han when in the college game; some develop their talent while in school. Most of the great ones arrive at college highly heralded and have a shot at paid sports later. Others come out of no where and prove the college recruiters wrong; this is part of the intoxicating allure of college football.

As stated, I am from Bloomington, Indiana, and I actually lived in the peak Malllory years of the bowls! Plus I remember Corso and the Holiday Bowl. Against my later alma mater, ByU. (the issues with the letter after "x"). I have a lot of good to say regarding  this institution.

More later.

"y" 's are no+ available on my keyboard so I pas+e +hem in, af+er I do +he le++er af+er "S"! I did a bad spill las+ summer and jus+ re+urned +wo days ago. So now I copy and pas+e one le++er and do a plus or underscore and go back and edi+. I+'s a good mo+iva+ion +o review my wri+ings! Bear wi+h me!

Here is some+hing I s+ar+ed in 2004, pre FAMU and Florida In+erna+ional.

           The Greatness of a College Football Program

Growing up in one of the most college dominated towns in the country, if not the world, one can ignore or remain oblivious to the effects of the university programs and the influence that they have among a community and its surroundings. For example, the Indiana University School of Music is one of the best state schools in its field anywhere, and yet there are many thousands of people within a hundred miles of Bloomington who have never seen an opera, never participated in a jazz or orchestral concert, or have not even witnessed a student jury performance or recital. What a shame, and so many of them free of charge! Many towns are greatly influenced by the academic and sporting programs administered by their respective academic institutions, be they schools big or small.

I once met a man at the local Bloomington library who said he had moved to our town simply because of the music! He didn't play an instrument or sing in a choir, he only wanted to watch and listen to some of the best talent in the world. Obviously, there is a vibrant community of musicians and performers in my home town that garners acclaim both within the university and also abroad throughout the world.

Like many professional or artistic pastimes, there are innumerable sporting teams the world over that engage the passions of the people. If one has had the chance to live in any foreign country, one recognizes the overpowering spell of football, or soccer. I had read about the event called World Cup in 1986 the first year I read the magazine Sports Illustrated regularly, but until living in South America in 1990 I had no idea how big it was. There are few times when the world will stand still and hold its collective breath, even considering the Olympics, and this is surely one of those times. The World Cup is held every four years, much like the Summer Olympics, but many think it is bigger and more spectacular. Here in the United States of America we do not get a good picture of the absolute devotion that is paid to soccer games in general and specifically during the month of the World Cup.

But this article is not about soccer or football worldwide, and not even about soccer in the US or American football played here professionally; this is about American College football. This is a sport played at various levels during the years of amateur athletics for young adult men who play a game that is one of the most macho contests possible. Now, I am not suggesting that all athletic endeavors have to be macho. On the contrary, some sports such as tennis, volleyball, baseball and golf are not about contact but more about finesse and skill. On the other hand, physical sports such as boxing, karate, basketball, hockey and soccer are combinations of skills and physicality that can compliment each other: Michael Jordan was as good as he was because he had incredible skill and strength; he could overwhelm opponents with both finesse and physical power, as the sport required.

Now the game of football is a macho sport as I stated because it allows the players to do things as hard as they can while acting out mini-battles of strength, power, and finesse, not to mention patience and cunning. This game also necessitates every iota of instinct, adrenalin, reflexes and natural smarts, not to mention pre-game strategy, planning, and practice, with extensive physical and mental conditioning. Extreme discipline and superb cohesion of group activity is necessary to excel at it. Naturally, not as brutal or lethal as a real war, football is compared to combat since there is a complexity of tactics used on the gridiron like on a battlefield, and there exists varying components or "weaponry" that can be used on both offensive and defensive sides, just as evidenced in warfare from our history books up until the present.

Again, the game of college football is as stated: it is simply a game of sport that doesn't kill and only rarely paralyzes its players; although it manages to break many bones and joints and causes multiple concussions per match. The college game considered "amateur" is not so much a business as the professional cold and cutthroat moneymakers are in the NFL and Europe. The college game, though hazardous, should be said that it is not like serving in the police or fire department where men and women at the same ages put themselves at risk on any given job shift, potentially sacrificing their lives, sometimes for a yearly salary equal to that of some athletic scholarships offered by major colleges to its star football players. Despite not being a fight sport such as boxing or wrestling or even hockey, where blows are allowed or encouraged, football is an extremely punishing test of endurance.

Despite its differences from war and the dangerous livelihoods that are a part of  life for working in threatening environments aforementioned, college football does illicit some of the primal and visceral emotions that come to its players and fans when people are placed in mortal danger. These are the same extreme feelings of euphoria and despair like what is felt by those in more serious pursuits. In times of peace, football is our outlet for bloodletting, so to speak. But how much less drastic and morbid! Heartfelt cries of victory or defeat, that normally are saved for more serious occasions like actual battles for survival within the business world, daily hard work, and true fights for survival, almost always accompany college football. It seems to me that portions of the American population, especially men and older boys, have an innate draw to the hitting and pounding of football, and the game of football allays these needs. I think it is a constructive venture, especially at the university level. Let me explain why college is better than the pros.

It is the penultimate day of the year 2005, and I am back in the homeland! We arrived yesterday from South America, and it is great to be back among the time of bowls!

But as this is m_ first blog, so allow me to establish my sports priorities and how this affects the content. (Underscores ( _ ) are for the letter after X, which I will explain in the next blog.)

My loves in organized sports are as follows:

1) College basketball

2) College football

3) Pro basketball

4) Pro baseball

5) Pro football

6) World cup soccer

7) Summer Oylmpics

8) Pro tennis

9) Amateur sports and athletes, including high school

10) Everthing else, while much of it at times repels me

Why does his matter? I think any real fan can understand subjectivity, because that is he source of all passion and beat, which organized competition captures so excellently. And so these are the primary topics, yet not exclusively, of what I will write these Fox Sports blogs.