Former Clemson coach Tommy Bowden is the latest person to publicly oppose Condoleezza Rice’s position on the College Football Playoff selection committee, saying that he doesn’t think she knows the game well enough because she hasn’t played or coached.
Tommy Bowden does not think Condoleezza Rice should be on the College Football Playoff committee
But he would vote for her for U.S. President.
Paul Frederiksen-USA TODAY Sport
“If the selection committee wants to get it right, and find the most knowledgeable people about the sport of football, go get people who played the game and preferably coached the game,” Bowden said at Monday’s Knoxville Quarterback Club meeting at Calhoun’s on the River. “... But just because she likes to watch football doesn’t necessarily mean she knows anything about football.”
Former Auburn coach Pat Dye has disagreed with Rice’s inclusion. So has ESPN analyst and former Georgia defensive end David Pollack, who said he doesn’t think any woman should be on the committee because they haven’t played the game. However, there are others on the committee who have never played at the collegiate level, including former USA Today reporter Steve Wieberg and former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese.
Rice has been exposed to a lot of football in her life. She was part of a coaching search at Stanford, and is a big college football fan in general.
College Football Playoff
Bowden said that he respects Rice as a person and a politician, and that this was strictly about football.
“I’m a big Condoleezza Rice fan,” Bowden said. “I’m Christian Conservative. I’d vote for her for President. I don’t necessarily agree that she should be on the committee.”
Ironically, Rice’s political career as Secretary of State in the Bush Administration is why some people don’t believe she should be on the committee. SB Nation’s Spencer Hall said Rice’s endorsement of torture is reason enough keep her off.
Here is a non-sexist case to be made against the selection of Condoleezza Rice as a member of the new College Football Playoff committee: she endorsed the use of torture. Note: not "enhanced interrogation techniques," or "extreme cuddling," but torture, a practice whose ultimate end is simply more torture.
This is a sport of unpaid labor working under sketchy contracts beneath the auspices of coaches and athletic directors taking an insane chunk of available wages. This is a sport in the throes of denial over a number of health and safety issues, including the idea that your brain might not work properly after even a limited amount of time spent playing it.
But even this filthy marketplace of confidence men and shell non-profits running profitable black market businesses has lines it won't cross.
Those same people will smile and applaud the bold choice of Rice without an ounce of irony, because this sport has so warped their brains that one minute they will side with the rules of the NCAA and the next minute against those of human decency, the Geneva Convention, and every tenet of even the loosest definition of human rights. I hate it when the stink of politics wafts over into college football, but some stenches should follow you wherever you go for the rest of your life, if only to warn others.
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