TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After Alabama’s athletic director suggested last month that if college athletes were paid, many would spend the money on “tattoos and rims,” he clarified the statement as a “frivolous” reference to a recent scandal at another university. “We hope to educate our student-athletes,” he said, “that those are not wise investments.”
But should Alabama defeat Clemson in the college football national championship game on Monday night, it is the university itself that will shell out for ostentatious hunks of jewelry.
College football is, in some ways, bigger than it has ever been: more exposure, more money, even larger players.