Has college football become a campus commodity?

Armen Keteyian: Why subject your team to this?

Mike Waddell: There'll be more people watching this game tonight than perhaps have ever watched anything to do with Towson University in our history, going back 146 years.

But then a funny thing happened on the way to the slaughter, the sacrificial lambs didn't lie down. With five minutes to go in the first half, the nobodies from North Baltimore led mighty LSU, 9-7. But at halftime, Towson head coach Rob Ambrose wasn't gloating.

[Rob Ambrose: Now, any of you sons of bitches that are smiling cause you think we did something. I'm gonna kill ya. It's a 15-round fight, not five. You got it?

Team: Yes sir.

Rob Ambrose: What the hell are we waiting for? Let's go.]

LSU's talent would eventually prove too much, but Towson never stopped fighting, right to the end. An eventual 38-22 loss on the scoreboard, but a win for the Towson University brand.

[Mike Waddell: Way to go buddy!]

[Mike Waddell: You couldn't buy this type of an advertisement nationally.]

Even at a place like Michigan, one of the top academic institutions in the country, football is the front porch to the school and a magnet for donations to the entire university.

Dave Brandon: This is a huge giving season. Our development folks have actually done statistical research on how much of the giving takes place during the football season and it's a disproportionate amount.

Armen Keteyian: Disproportionate, how much?

Dave Brandon: I think the number is somewhere between 60 and 70 percent. And that's why, in many cases, you see universities who drop football bringing it back. Because that magnet works.

[Brady Hoke: Everybody got that? That was a good win.]

With all this on the line, believe it or not there is no more important hire a university can make these days than its head football coach.

[Brady Hoke: This is Michigan for God's sake...]

In Michigan's case, last year it was little-known Brady Hoke, a "character counts" coach who has revitalized this storied program. Hoke is the last to admit to the pressure he's under to win. But like most coaches, his life speaks for him.

Armen Keteyian: Average day, when do you get in here?

Brady Hoke: 5:45.

Armen Keteyian: An average day, when do you leave?

Brady Hoke: Oh, 9:30, 10, 10:30 sometimes.

Armen Keteyian: The Alabama game started around 7:15 Texas time. How much did you eat that day?

Brady Hoke: I didn't.

Armen Keteyian: Why?

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[donnadiehardrattler]

yes its a commodity.

[60_Min_Fan]

Very disappointed with the way this important story was told. Where were the hard hitting questions? Where were the uncomfortable moments? We might as well have been reading an airline magazine. Mike Wallace where are you?

[lquiltz]

I would like to know what classes the athletes are taking, besides "basket weaving" and what are the grades??? The training is more stringent than those of the pros - oh that's right they all want to be pros so they can get the $100 million contract like Drew Brees, while our troops are in Afghanistan at what $2500 a month so the football players can get the big bucks. I enjoy football but this has become ridiculous!!!!
Lorrie

[dash_bannon]

I was disheartened when I watched this story on 60 Minutes last night. While I see college football as a means of increasing revenue for colleges and universities, there was nothing mentioned about how the football programs only bring in more money for football and sports.

While athletics is important, so are academics. College sports as big business defeats the purpose of college; namely education.

Second, I saw one athlete signing a football jersey with his number. With all the revenue being brought in, how much are the athletes getting in exchange? U of M brings in millions and earns it off of the backs of the student athletes. It's unfair that the university is making so much money and all the students get is a scholarship. They're underpaid.

Lastly, what about the other students and other programs? If all colleges are going the way of U of M, does that mean an erosion of academics? I realize studies in physics or humanities doesn't fill stadiums, but in the long run those programs benefit communities far more than football.

[dash_bannon]

Also, what happens to the schools that don't have a major sports program? How are they supposed to survive and get funding? Colleges and universities are to serve the public by providing higher education for communities. Football and sports are simply entertainment.

[TomWayburn]

I have been a Michigan football fan since my father took me to the 1941 Michigan-Notre Dame game at Michigan stadium. In those days, deep pockets could get you closer to the 50-yard line and closer to the action; but, no matter how much money you could afford to spend, you sat on a hard wood bench. (Please correct me if that's not true.) In recent times, I see more and more that I don't like until I am very close to giving up college football altogether as a bad idea. For example, the chance that someone will be seriously injured has become the certainty that someone will be seriously injured. But, the real problems comes from aiding and abetting an unsustainable consumerist economy represented by television advertising (nearly all false) that is destroying the world. The strong and wrong pizza salesman is simply the last man in the world whose influence I would tolerate in an educational institution. Sadly, the universities of the United States are morally and intellectually bankrupt and very close to the breaking point of the "academic bubble". Attending the modern American university has become financially ruinous and no longer a reasonable choice.

[TomWayburn]

I have been a Michigan football fan since my father took me to the 1941 Michigan-Notre Dame game at Michigan stadium. In those days, deep pockets could get you closer to the 50-yard line and closer to the action; but, no matter how much money you could afford to spend, you sat on a hard wood bench. (Please correct me if that's not true.) In recent times, I see more and more that I don't like until I am very close to giving up college football altogether as a bad idea. For example, the chance that someone will be seriously injured has become the certainty that someone will be seriously injured. But, the real problems comes from aiding and abetting an unsustainable consumerist economy represented by television advertising (nearly all false) that is destroying the world. The strong and wrong pizza salesman is simply the last man in the world whose influence I would tolerate in an educational institution. Sadly, the universities of the United States are morally and intellectually bankrupt and very close to the breaking point of the "academic bubble". Attending the modern American university has become financially ruinous and no longer the reasonable choice.

[Mathion]

With so much emphasis on sports - money, "glory" and moronic alumni basing donations on sports - is it any wonder college is fast becoming an expensive justification to entertain America?

It sure as hell isn't educating them.

[Ceallach425]

The story stresses the importance of having your football team on National TV. To that end, CBS has a reporter who grew up in a wealthy Detroit-suburb cover the story. Somehow, the reporter makes michigan the centerpiece? Michigan has been irrelevant over the last 5-6 years - this story focused on the recent drastic changes in college football.
If any Big10 school was reported on, it should have been Ohio State. Also, what about the negative financial impact Penn State faces from their disgraced coaches?
What about any schools from Florida or the PAC-10?

I'm a Big10 school alumnus too, (not UM or OSU) and I couldn't help notice the bias by having a reporter who grew up a Michigan fan create this story. The reporter also attended SDSU, the same school Hoke resigned as coach to take michigan's job.

To an avid college football fan, it made no sense to focus the story on michigan.

[sarcastical]

"It has become a full-time job -- hasn't it." (as CBS reporter wanted it confirmed)

After the above, the same reporter & a CBS photog are in San Diego.
Being documented in being trained with/by the "U.S. Nay Seals" as reporter said it.
WHY SHALL U.S. TAXPAYERS PAY FOR THE(IR) TRAINING; AS NOT ALL U.S. CITIZENS ARE 'FOOTBALL' SUPPORTERS.

Why Not Have The 'Football Players' Serve Their Own Country.
Which They Never Have They Never Have The Nerve To Do.
By (starting out via) Each Serve Their Turn, On Probation. One Player, At One TIme.

[Buekeye_Ernie]

The story is wrong about alumni base. Ohio State has the largest alumni base in the country.