Tag: Football (College)

How Is a College Football Team Different From Its Marching Band?

Robert McRae III has seen a lot. His grandmother, a civil rights activist in Los Angeles, often brought him along to rallies she organized and picket lines she walked — even to a gay pride parade with giant anatomical balloons that, he recalls with a smile, might not have been age appropriate. As a Dartmouth […]

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N.C.A.A. Investigates Booster Club Funding for College Sports

The N.C.A.A. is investigating the University of Tennessee’s football program for a potential recruiting violation involving a booster group in a significant escalation of efforts to rein in the rapidly expanding role of outside money in college sports, according to people familiar with the case. The investigation is focused in part on the use of […]

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Supreme Court’s Mixed Record on Overturning Precedents

It can sometimes seem that the Supreme Court is on a jurisprudential rampage that has left the legal landscape cluttered with the corpses of discarded precedents. In just the past two terms, after all, it has done away with the constitutional right to abortion and race-conscious admissions in higher education. Judging by oral arguments this […]

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In Alabama, Nick Saban Leaves Behind a Legacy Beyond Football

Throughout a national era of disillusionment, institutional failure and turmoil, Alabama football, of all things, has been a machine of astonishing consistency, humming for nearly two decades at peak performance. On a flinty gospel of hard work and discipline, Nick Saban, who took over as head football coach of the University of Alabama in 2007, […]

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As the College Sports Model Teeters, Michigan Tries to Keep a Balance

Growing up in Hawaii, Roman Wilson didn’t realize how much money was in college football until his senior year in high school when he took a weeklong recruiting visit to the mainland. His first stops were Cal-Berkeley and U.C.L.A. “Very nice facilities,” he thought. Then he visited Michigan. “Just the building alone that we get […]

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The Wild World of Money in College Football

David A. Fahrenthold contributed reporting. The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, […]

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I Was Transformed by the Best Cult Ever: Michigan Football

I went to Ann Arbor, Mich., for a journalism fellowship because I was stuck in life. An outside observer might say I was depressed, unhappy and a little too obsessed with my dog. I felt isolated and lonely — part of the psychological epidemic that followed the pandemic. Dozens of people told me two things […]

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The Best Teams That Money Could Buy

In late 2021, the once-mighty Texas Longhorns had just finished a 5-7 football season, losing six straight games for the first time since 1956. “We need bigger humans,” said Steve Sarkisian, the team’s coach. That off-season, Texas found a new — or at least, newly legal — way to recruit them: cash. A new tax-exempt […]

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At What Point Should College Athletes Be Considered Employees?

Brandon Outlaw sat on a witness stand for two days this week and described what it was like to play football at the University of Southern California. His fingerprints were scanned when he arrived for meals at the athletes’ dining hall to make sure he was there. He received text messages from anonymous class checkers, […]

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How College Football Is Clobbering Housing Markets Across the Country

The Georgia Bulldogs — the two-time defending national champions — draw some 90,000 spectators to Sanford Stadium for six or seven home games every fall, essentially creating an alternate market for short-term rentals that lasts about three months. Real estate investors are buying and building homes for fans who will pay hundreds or even thousands […]

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Florida State, 13-0, Snubbed By College Football Playoff Committee

The metaphorical white puffs of smoke sent up by the College Football Playoff selection committee on Sunday signaled that the panel had chosen the four teams that would vie for this season’s championship — and that Florida State, unbeaten champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference, was not among them. This caused smoke of a different […]

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Dr Pepper Halftime Scholarship Giveaway Error Draws Ire of Fans

The Big 12 Championship game between the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday evening delivered the kind of controversy-mired barn burner that inspires legions of college football fans to pack stadiums and jam sports bars every weekend. But the real competition, it turned out, was not between the football teams (Texas won […]

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How Rich Donors and Loose Rules Are Transforming College Sports

The key to recruiting top college football players these days is not just a lavish training facility or a storied coach. It is ensuring the chance for them to hook up with a new type of operation that can pay them eye-popping sums, collected from wealthy boosters who can often write off the donations, for […]

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Michigan State Seeks to Fire Football Coach Amid Sexual Harassment Case

Michigan State University said it would fire its head football coach, Mel Tucker, amid an investigation into allegations that he sexually harassed a woman who visited the school to educate its football team about sexual misconduct. The school had already suspended him earlier this month. In a letter sent to Mr. Tucker on Monday, the […]

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His Team Was a Chaotic Punchline. Then He Found a New Spot in the Sport.

The University of Louisville football team’s fortunes are unlikely to rise and fall on the squat legs of Mario Agyen, a 5-foot-7, 190-pound, walk-on running back who joined the team in the middle of last season after an end-of-summer tryout. Still, amid the daily reminders of where he stands in the team’s 114-player hierarchy, Agyen […]

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Michigan State Suspends Football Coach Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations

Mel Tucker, the head football coach at Michigan State University, was suspended without pay on Sunday amid an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, university officials said. A report in USA Today, published early Sunday morning, detailed allegations that Mr. Tucker harassed Brenda Tracy, a prominent advocate against sexual abuse, after they teamed up to […]

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