Greed and the Big 10

"What fascinates me is the sheer gall of an organization that makes its living off the free labor of college students and which already makes quadzillions of dollars from lucrative bowl games and merchandising and ridiculous ticket prices, and yet now has the chutzpah to say to Time Warner: 'Cough up $1.10 per subscriber every month and we'll let you broadcast games' ... It's emblematic of the way things are: no matter how much money is raked in it's never enough, no matter how loyal your customers you'll still find a way to screw them given half a chance, and one thin, red dime can never be left on the table."

Well-said, Tim Smith of Hilliard, who was writing in the Sunday Dispatch to the editor of the sports section. The headline for this column was: Big Ten Network lightning rod for seething OSU fans.

None of this is news to OSU football fans or anyone who's followed the incredibly greedy practices of this state-supported university. I mentioned it briefly 9/4/07 under the title "OSU - It's all about greed"

Where are the limits to these practices? Who controls the money-changers at our state's universities? Where are Ohio legislators and what are they doing about runaway enrichment of university administrators and sports programs? Or is it the other way: do the money-changers in fact control the state legislators? And where's Jay Hottinger when you need him?