<p>Roll Tide!</p>
<p>Best game ever!!! Coming from a family of gators, this win was awesome! Roll Tide!</p>
<p>Watched with a huge group of Bama fans at Fox and the Hound…other side of the restaurant…Gator fans…didn’t know the special of the night was Gator…Roll Tide!!!</p>
<p>Roll Tide!</p>
<p>Great game, great win, and a great B’day present from Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide to yours truly :-)</p>
<p>ROLL TIDE!!</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Ah…Happy Birthday!!!</p>
<p>Roll tide! Watched the game at a grill&ale and had a great time rubbing the win in the face of Gator fans. A lot more Bama fans down here than I expected.</p>
<p>Trent Richardson for Heisman!</p>
<p>Roll Tide Roll!!!</p>
<p>And Happy Birthday to NJ and my hubby! What a great b-day weekend :)</p>
<p>Happy birthday, NJ! That win was a great gift!</p>
<p>My D got her acceptance in the mail yesterday, so she watched the game with extra interest.</p>
<p>Hmmm, guessing I should have gone with the ‘B’ packet. </p>
<p>Guess there will be LOTS of computers fired up and waiting at 0559 on October 30th in the hopes someone chooses to give up their ticket…</p>
<p>Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>Happy b’day to your husband Rose.</p>
<p>Congrats on the acceptance beth’s mom. Hopefully your daughter will choose to be a part of the UA family.</p>
<p>loring, that LSU ticket will be TOUGH and was the reason I suggested people pick package B. Make sure you’re on there right at 6am to get on the wait list. Even then it might not happen for you. </p>
<p>Try to line up a few students selling their ticket and inquire on Friday night if you haven’t come off the wait list by then. Hopefully you’ll get a ticket off the wait list or be able to buy one at a reasonable ($50) price if willing. That game will be epic if we’re both undefeated going in.</p>
<p>ROLL TIDE!!</p>
<p>Hate to be a party pooper, but doesn’t anyone else out there think that this college football thing is getting completely out of hand?</p>
<p>Paying coaches $10 million.</p>
<p>Forming a team from a group of kids, who are basically mercenaries, most of whom could not even get into the university under tradional standards.</p>
<p>Colleges make tens of millions of dollars, while 1/3-1/2 the players don’t even graduate.</p>
<p>I am a college football fan, but I would actually prefer that my kid go to a university WITHOUT a football team. One focused entirely on academics. Not one focused on running a quasi-NFL franchise.</p>
<p>If you hate to be a party pooper, why do you do it? What motivated you to come to this thread, see how much fun Bama fans are having celebrating a big win, and decide it was a good idea to preach? And do you really believe that the college experience should be focused entirely on academics?</p>
<p>The players are not “mercenaries” as much as they are kids who play football for schools purely because they love the game. Most of them will never make a cent playing professionally, and most of them know it. Is there corruption in college football? Absolutely. But for many of the players, an athletic scholarship means being able to get out of a bad neighborhood and into an education at a university that they would otherwise not be able to afford. As long as thousands of kids are offered this opportunity (and take advantage), does it REALLY matter that graduation rates aren’t as high as you’d like?</p>
<p>hahaha you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. No college coach makes 10 million a year.</p>
<p>Nick Saban brings more money to UA than UA gives to him. He costs UA NOTHING. In fact our athletic department gives money to the academic side of The University.</p>
<p>College is about more than just academics. Having fun and showing some school spirit and pride isn’t a negative in my opinion.</p>
<p>God forbid we give some of these kids a chance to get a college education. And last I checked UA graduated athletes at a higher rate than the regular student body.</p>
<p>Send your kid anywhere you want. This is a Bama board and we’re proud of our University and the football team which is a part of her.</p>
<p>This is the textbook definition of sour grapes.</p>
<p>I don’t think FLORIDAdad55 would be trashing college football on the Bama boards if the Gators had fared better! :D</p>
<p>His jort wearing wife beater stained ass just saw his team get dominated and now he wants to complain about big time college football. </p>
<p>Send your kid to MIT. I’m sure cheering on the chess club is a real hoot on fall Saturdays.</p>
<p>Do you how many academic scholarships and other related things the football team funds?</p>
<p>College football programs have produced Rhodes Scholars, Senators, and US Presidents. Gerald Ford a mercenary???</p>
<p>*I am a college football fan, but I would actually prefer that my kid go to a university WITHOUT a football team. One focused entirely on academics. Not one focused on running a quasi-NFL franchise. *</p>
<p>Your thesis is wrong-headed, but not unusual. Many wrongly think that because a school offers this fun Saturday distraction that it somehow means that the profs are teaching less in the classroom. Div 1 schools are not focused on football. It is just one aspect of a multi-pronged plan and vision for their schools. </p>
<p>I think it’s grossly unfair to make that claim. Usually these claims are made towards mid-tiers, yet schools like Stanford, USC, Notre Dame, UMich and other football tradition schools escape these derogatory remarks because of their higher rankings. Do you look down upon those schools as well because they’re not focused entirely on academics and they’re fielding football teams with specific goals of winning conferences, BCS bowls and championships?</p>
<p>That said, having winning teams brings in big cash to all these schools. Alumni and other donors make bigger donations when schools have winning teams.</p>
<p>Bama Football funds the other sports (including the traditionally money-losing women’s sports that would have to be funded using precious university dollars if football didn’t pay for them). </p>
<p>If you think that $10M per year is too much for Bama to spend on footbally coaches then you haven’t been doing the math. Saban will get paid around $6M this year…that’s a bargain…he brings in much more than that to the school. Winning big Div 1 teams are rainmakers. It would be naive to think the same money would come in otherwise.</p>
<p>Additionally, Bama is funding a good part of its merit scholarships with proceeds from Bama car license plates. Do you really think people would buy nearly as many Bama tags if Bama didn’t have winning sports? If you do, you’re sorely mistaken. There are about 4 million people in the state, about 80% are Bama fans. Bama tags are also sold in other states; I’m guessing that Bama nets some money from that as well. And, of course, there is the licensed spirit wear as well. </p>
<p>However, if you want to be ethically true to your point, don’t be looking for merit scholarships at big Div 1 schools because it’s highly likely those scholarships are directly or indirectly funded because the school has strong sports.</p>