Sports USA Radio

By Brian Golden

It has been a momentous week in college football.

More to the point, it has been a sad week in college football.

Nebraska's move to the Big Ten Conference, after Colorado's acceptance of an invitation to join the Pac-10, will begin the utter destruction of one of College Football's greatest new traditions since  1996, the Big XII Conference.

Tradition is the very foundation of College Football.

We are watching that tradition get ripped out of the ground and jackhammered into pulverized concrete.

All of this, for 30 pieces of silver: fools gold in new conference television networks.

Tom Osborne, Nebraska's athletic director, didn't need a slide rule to  understand the impact of $22 million each Big Ten school received from the Big Ten Network in 2009.

But somebody may need a road map, or an ethics GPS, to understand why the Cornhuskers will spend future Thanksgiving weekends playing Indiana or Illinois instead of Oklahoma or Colorado.

College Football's ascendance during the last 25 years of NFL franchise free agency has owed precisely to tradition, and new generations of fans buying in.

The Rams might forsake Los Angeles. But UCLA and USC never would.

The natural drama and passion of College Football has only escalated since 1984, when courts struck down the NCAA's monopoly on television rights.

The events of this summer treat tradition the way Ndamukong Sue treated Colt McCoy in the Big 12 Conference Football Championship Game last December.

Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech in the Pac-10? But not their ancient Lone Star State rivals, Baylor?

When it's pointed out that Oklahoma State is in Stillwater,  that's not a tributary of the Pacific Ocean.

Generations on the Plains have grown up dreaming of playing in the Nebraska-Oklahoma game, or the OSU-Oklahoma Bedlam Series, or  the Texas-Texas A&M civil war.

It's going to take a long time for Oklahoma State-Arizona,  Texas A&M-Washington State or Nebraska-Northwestern to generate similar pathos.

Since 1994, when Barry Alvarez put Wisconsin back on the Rose Bowl radar and  Sports USA College Football Analyst Gary Barnett made Northwestern matter a year later,  the emergence of new powers  under the current system has been exciting.

The rise of Rutgers, West Virginia, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh has given new legitimacy, and pride, to the Big East.

The Atlantic Coast Conference long ago outgrew the image of Florida State and the Seven Dwarfs.

Boston College produced the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft in quarterback Matt Ryan.

People figured out where Boise State and Fresno State were, and why they mattered.

Kansas and Missouri's annual Border War, and Pitt and West Virginia's  Backyard Brawl, suddenly took on national championship implications.

All of this was wonderful and  further elevated College Football.

Then there was the synthesis of the Big Eight and the Southwest Conference that produced the Big 12.

The Plains and the heartland no longer needed to look east or west to seek  excellence. Great new rivalries were born.

With the building of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, the Cotton Bowl became relevant again.

The talk was that Jerry Jones' Palace in Dallas would earn the Cotton Bowl status as the fifth BCS Bowl, and a spot in the annual national championship rotation.

By cleaving  to tradition, College Football exploded in popularity and prosperity. The image of ivy-colored walls remained largely intact.

Not now.

Those are dollar bill-covered walls now, festooned with garish satellite dishes.

The explosion this summer is going to take a long time to clean up.

I TOLD YA SO --  When  Coach Pete Carroll left USC for the National Football League's Seattle Seahawks in January, I told  my Los Angeles media colleagues it  was an evacuation in advance of a Category 5 hurricane.

The "5" referred to the No. 5 worn at USC by Reggie Bush.

To be sure, five years and $35 Million to run your own NFL operation were powerful reasons to bolt north by northwest, too.

Still, the NCAA's anvil dropped on Heritage Hall June 10 confirms my suspicions about Carroll's intentions.

After four years of investigation, the NCAA nailed Troy for a lack of administrative oversight that betrayed the very nature of amateur athletics.

(We'll pause here for the guffawing to subside. Making the announcement the same week College Football threw away tradition for money, you understand, is the kind of amateurism enhancement the NCAA is interested in.)

Meticulously dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's, the  NCAA banned USC from bowls for two years, stripped a total of 30 scholarships over the next three seasons,  and vacated all USC football victories from  December, 2004 through January, 2006.

That would include USC's  BCS National Championship won in a 55-19 blowout of Oklahoma  in the 2005 Orange Bowl.

The Downtown Athletic Club didn't ask for Bush's 2004 Heisman Trophy back.

Yet.

Hey, what's the rush?

The NCAA hasn't decided whether to ban USC from national TV for the next two years yet, either.

Those two shoes could yet drop on Troy.

Oh. Did we mention the University of Southern California's ENTIRE athletic department is now on four years' probation?

Just checking.

Dr. Steven Sample, the university president, is on his way into retirement. Mike Garrett, USC's athletic director, could be running a delay pattern right behind him.

Bush, who was cited for a year's rent-free living  by his family in a new home courtesy of a sports agent who sought to represent him, signed for $60 Million with the  NFL's New Orleans Saints.

Carroll got $35 Million.

USC stands to lose millions of dollars.

It's already lost an incalculable amount in  respect and honor.

For a second straight year, someone other than USC will represent the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl.

At least it won't be Texas Tech or Colorado.

Yet.

LATEST ON THE POSSIBLE NFL LOCKOUT -- While College Football headlines have been fouled with the odor of money, the National Football League kept right up.

The NFL Players Association filed a complaint with special master Stephen Burbank of the University of Pennsylvania challenging the validity of television rights contracts that stand to pay the NFL $5 Billion whether or not the 2011 season is played.

Combined with not paying an estimated $4.4 Billion in players salaries during a potential lockout, the NFLPA contends the league has set up  an extraordinarily profitable situation in the 2011 season.

The current collective bargaining agreement lapses next March.

The union asked the special master to place the NFL's 2011 TV monies into escrow.

The two sides are set to resume negotiations later this month.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello pointed out that the deals with ESPN. FOX, CBS NBC and DirecTV were negotiated during a particularly difficulty downturn in the economy.

"The contracts grew league revenue to fund higher player salaries and benefits," Aiello said.

Our Sports USA NFL Insider, erstwhile labor attorney Mike Florio, has more at ProFootballTalk.com.