Terrance’s Take: Money games not worth check

There is, without question, a major divide between so-so Power 4 football programs and even the best HBCU football programs.

That was never clearer than this past weekend, when a lineup of SWAC versus Power 4 schools – otherwise known as Monday Games – produced some of the most lopsided results it seemed like ever.

Southern came into the University of Houston and took one on the chin to the tune of 77-6. It was just as brutal in Miami, where Florida A&M got destroyed by the Hurricanes, 77-7. Grambling State got roughed up – literally – by TCU, 63-7, and Prairie View couldn’t keep up with Baylor in what became a 44-3 loss for the SWAC West favorite. UTEP, which isn’t classified as a Power 4 school, still had its way with Texas Southern, defeating Texas Southern 51-10.

The final on the scoreboard: SWAC 33, Them 312.

It brings us back to the question that grows louder every year, with Power 4 schools adding more money to their coffers to pay their student-athletes than the entire budget of an HBCU football program: Is it time to abandon this idea of money games?

If you base it on this past weekend, which also included Howard’s 55-0 loss to defending national champion Indiana, it’s beyond time.

Prairie View coach Tremaine Jackson doesn’t make a habit of coming up with excuses and deliberately forges through situations he can’t change, but he is still no fan of these so-called money games.  His reasoning is that the resource divide is too great for HBCUs to be competitive against the Power 4 schools and the other FBS programs.

“I don’t agree, let me say that. I don’t agree that we should play those people,” Jackson said to me during Monday’s SWAC Coaches Zoom Media Call. “And the reason why I don’t agree we should play those people is because our fundraising efforts, our alums, our people who talk about these things on media boards, and Instagram, they don’t donate the money that those schools donate.

“I think we can (compete), but we don’t value college football the same way those people do. It’s evident. We value classics and homecoming. Since that’s all we value, then we should not play these games.”

Consequently, the money has to come from somewhere for HBCUs to support their athletic budgets, non-revenue-generating sports, and even the bands we so cherish. Reportedly, Florida A&M received $740,000 from Miami, Prairie View took in $400,000 for the quick bus ride over to Waco, UTEP paid TSU $350,000, and Howard banked a whopping $1 million to get spanked by the Hoosiers.

First-year Florida A&M coach Quinn Gray was blunt when I asked him what his team got out of going to Miami and taking the beating that it did.

The check!

“As it relates to being brutally honest, right now we can’t match up with the likes of Miami,” said Gray, who lost five offensive linemen this offseason because he didn’t have it in the budget to pay them. “Miami has a $44 million collective to be able to pay players. Our budget here at Florida A&M is about $12.4 million, and they have a quarterback that is making $6.5 million, and they have about five players who make what is equivalent to our whole athletic budget.”

Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who took on his first head coaching role at Southern during the offseason, said the game at No. 22 UH felt more like an exhibition game because his team couldn’t compete at that level. His tone was more complimentary to his team on Monday as he discussed the difference in the game.

“I heard coach Tremaine speak, and what I challenged the guys with was just going out there and competing,” Faulk said. “Talent is not required to give effort. You don’t have to be the fastest, you don’t have to be the strongest, you don’t have to jump the highest. You just have to go out and give it your best. I believe we did that. We competed.”

Grambling State coach Mickey Joseph, who openly blasted the idea of money games after his team got pummeled by Ohio State last year, told me that there are levels to these money games and the dollars must make sense.  While many of these scheduled money games predate the current SWAC coaches, Joseph says the school president consults with him before accepting them.

You get the sense, though, that just because Joseph objects doesn’t mean the game won’t happen. Economics does weigh into decision-making, too.

“He keeps me in the loop on who I want to play,” Joseph said to the Defender. “And sometimes, you know, he has to make the right decision for the university sometimes. But he makes sure that he keeps me in the loop.

“If I say we don’t want to play them, then most likely we are not going to play them. I’m only going to move this train for a good piece of money. I think that is fair.”

But what doesn’t seem fair is the price these student-athletes have to pay for their scholarships, which don’t come with the hefty paydays from revenue sharing or NIL. Jackson said his team came out of the Baylor game healthy. Joseph couldn’t say the same. In fact, he is grateful for the bye week before he has to meet Jackson’s Panthers in the State Fair Classic in Dallas next week.

Joseph admits that if he had had to play a game this week, he would have had to play some third- and fourth-stringers. He also wasn’t shy about admitting that he took his quarterback, Reginald Johnson, in and out of the game to protect him from injury by the bigger and stronger Horned Frogs.

“He’s healthy,” Joseph said. “A lot of kids are not healthy who stayed in that game.”

Jackson says while he doesn’t like the money games, he won’t complain about them because it sends the wrong message to his players about conceding. Against Baylor, Prairie View actually struck first, jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a 25-yard field goal, and then held the Bears to just 10 second-half points.

“Tremaine Jackson is not going to teach a group of young men to ‘Whoa is me’ into life,” he said. “When we wake up in the morning, we should expect to win. And since that is how we are built over here, then I don’t know any other way.

Interestingly, Jackson envisions a day when the divide between HBCUs and FBS PWIs isn’t so wide. But a lot has to happen to get to those days.

“The way I was raised, you attack those things that you cannot control, and you make them turn in your favor,” Jackson said. “Eventually, one day, one school is going to make a decision to do the same things that others do, and we are going to beat those people.

“I don’t know when that day is going to come, but somebody in this realm is finally going to make a decision to put their money where their mouth is and go and do that. Hopefully, it’s Prairie View A&M. We are out there. Our administration does a lot of great things, and so hopefully we are sitting in a situation where we can get a $20 million roster. That’s going to happen. I just don’t know when.”