Changes are coming in college sports

By By Stan Torgerson / guest columnist
June 20, 2002
Slowly but surely college football is changing. There are still 11 players on a team and touchdowns count six points. That's the same. The changes are behind the scene and they all resolve around money.
Everybody's in on it, everybody but the players. Coaches, school presidents, athletics director, all are coconspirators.
As a result there are now 324 schools that play Division I-A basketball. When the TV money is hacked up at the end of the season everyone of them gets a check in the mail. By the wildest stretch of your imagination not all of those 324 are legitimate I-A contenders but hey, it's share and share alike.
Also has USM always played a minimum of five home games against Division I-A opposition or have they had to go on the road to get games. Under this rule, the USM-Jackson State game couldn't be counted. Jackson State is Division I-AA. In the Mid-America Conference last year, six schools would have to forfeit their I-A status Kent State, Buffalo, Akron, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois and Miami (Ohio). They didn't average 15,000 per game in home attendance.