GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Gators have their highest GPA ever as a football team. They went more than a year without having any players arrested and, under outgoing head coach Will Muschamp, had just 15 arrests or citations during his time in Gainesville (compared to more than 30 under Urban Meyer).
Yet, Gators fans are miserable.
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The FSU football program is clouded by allegations of domestic violence, sexual assault and cover-ups by the local police department. The face of the program, star QB Jameis Winston, has been accused of everything from rape to stealing crab legs and soda, yet only missed a football game after students saw him stand on a table screaming a sexually explicit phrase in public.
But the Seminole fan base, as a whole, is living in a state of euphoria.
The reason why is simple: FSU is winning, and winning big, while UF is not.
The Gators are finally saying goodbye to Muschamp and, frankly, they probably gave him a year more than he deserved. AD Jeremy Foley praised Muschamp as a person and said he was proud to call him a friend. While he may not be cuddly, Muschamp has handled his ouster with class and dignity and has shown why he is one of the most respected people in college football.
But Muschamp also knows this: none of that makes a bit of difference in the business of college football.
I don't know Jimbo Fisher. I've never covered even one of his games. But I do know that he is running a program that is being blitzed by publications such as the NY Times, and one national writer Clay Travis calls "the most corrupt program of the 21st century." It's also currently the most successful program in the one area that matters in college football: on the field.
This is nothing new. Rumors of corruption within successful programs have existed for years. One might actually argue the growing business of college football has actually placed more scrutiny on corruption, and that programs may actually be cleaner now than they were years ago. But that doesn't change the fact that, ultimately, the business is based on winning, not graduating or public service or even simply staying out of handcuffs.
In 2010, Meyer's last season in Gainesville, "USA Today" released an article titled "Florida says arrests shouldn't define its program overall." They got their wish: they don't. No more than Muschamp's "cleaner" years define his Gators program as a success.
Being nice gets you nowhere. I've heard from a number of Canes fans that Al Golden is "too nice." Frank Beamer is one of the nicest guys in the world, not just in college football, but many Virginia Tech fans are ready to see him go because his teams aren't winning anymore. No program is defined by its graduation rate or hours served feeding the homeless or visiting sick kids in hospitals. Is that fair? Of course not. But life isn't fair and college football certainly isn't.
Ideally, I'm sure Gator fans would love a team full of choir boys with straight "A"s that also finishes 12-0. But when choosing between the two, great guys or great players, the choice is painfully obvious: 4.0 GPAs with four wins just isn't going to cut it.
Foley says that high character and high integrity will be very important in who UF brings on as its new head coach. But in the end, only one thing will truly matter: does he win? If not, all the character and integrity in the world won't matter.
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