There are just 10 weeks until the 2023 college football season. Conference summer meetings in July and players arriving in six weeks. So why write a college football column when nothing significant is happening? Because what is developing on the world stage in professional sports is a harbinger of things coming to college football. The warnings are there. The distinction between professional sports and amateur sports has all but disappeared and the threat to college athletics is greater than at any time in history.
How did we get here?
Start with the PGA Tour, the association for professional golf. You know by now that LIV Golf, part of the $600 billion Saudi named Public Investment Fund (PIF) and its spokesman, Greg Norman (who is paid $100 million by LIV), recruits golf’s top players to play at various tournaments, guaranteeing them tens of millions of dollars just for participating. Winning results in huge bonuses. Now you may be a pure capitalist and believe that one’s services can be sold to the highest bidder, but what about when that bidder is from Saudi Arabia? Women in that country regularly experience discrimination. Human rights violations are part of their history. How about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist who was allegedly assassinated by Saudi agents at the Saudi consulate in Turkey in 2022? And 15 of the Sept. 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, though the Saudi government has consistently denied any involvement. This is the country America wants to do business with?
Clearly, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan didn’t think so when he referenced the victims of 9/11 to pressure many his members from accepting the LIV “blood money” and defecting. He was on record that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf would never merge. Faces of the game like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had sacrificed hundreds of millions of dollars and pledged their allegiance to the Tour.
Then, the hammer fell when the two sides, while litigating their issues in court, announced a new deal. Monahan admitted he would be called a hypocrite by his own players. The Saudis never wanted to profit from this endeavor; they craved legitimacy, access and acceptance from the establishment. Influence is their goal and that is the danger. This merger indirectly compromises our golf’s legitimacy and our way of life. That’s why Congress and the Justice Department announced an investigation. Good luck with that.
The point here is when is enough…
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