- LIV Golf’s merger with the PGA is all about the Saudi government’s desire for legitimacy.
- What’s to stop Saudi’s public investment fund from targeting other sports — namely college football, which doesn’t have a union contract?
- PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan is the best example of how millions of dollars change people’s minds.
Only 10 weeks until the 2023 college football season. Conference summer meetings will be held in July and players will begin arriving in six weeks. So why write a college football column when nothing of substance is happening? Because what’s unfolding on the world stage of professional sports is a harbinger of what’s to come in college football. The warnings are there. The distinction between professional and amateur sports has all but disappeared, and the threat to college athletics is greater than at any time in history.
How did we get here?
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Start with the Professional Golf Association (PGA), the monopoly association for professional golf. You know by now that LIV golf, part of a $600 billion Saudi company called the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and its spokesman, Greg Norman (who is paid $100 million by LIV), recruits golf’s best players to play at various tournaments, guaranteeing them tens of millions of dollars just for participating. Winning results in huge bonuses. Now, you may be pure capitalist and believe that one’s services can be sold to the highest bidder, but what about when that bidder is from Saudi Arabia? Women in that country regularly experience discrimination. Human rights violations are part of their history. What about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist who was allegedly murdered by Saudi agents at the Saudi consulate in Turkey in 2022? And 15 of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, although the Saudi government has consistently denied any involvement. Is this the country America wants to do business with?
Clearly, PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan didn’t mean it when he referenced the victims of 9/11 to pressure many PGA members to accept the LIV “blood money” and defect. He was on record that the PGA and LIV golf would never merge. Faces of the game like Tiger Woods and Rory McElroy had sacrificed hundreds of millions of dollars and pledged their allegiance to the PGA.
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Then a few weeks ago the hammer fell when the two sides, while pursuing their issues in court, announced a merger. Are you kidding me? Monahan, now known as Benedict Monahan, became the biggest hypocrite of the 21st century. The Saudis never wanted to profit from this endeavor; they demanded legitimacy, access and acceptance from the establishment. Influence was their goal, and that is the danger. This merger indirectly compromises the legitimacy of our golf and our way of life. That’s why Congress and the Justice Department announced an investigation. Good luck with that. The point here is, when is enough enough?
But that’s not all. Soccer is the most watched sport in the world. The Saudis have bought teams in Europe and instantly changed them from perennial losers to winners (see Manchester City). The great Cristiano Ronaldo once signed a three-year contract worth $200 million annually to play in Saudi Arabia. Karim Benzema opted out of his $30 million contract with Real Madrid for $150 million a year to play in the Kingdom. Finally, Lionel Messi, captain of Argentina’s World Cup championship team and recognized by many as THE GOAT, was reportedly offered a three-year, $1.5 billion contract by the Saudis. He shunned the offer to come to America and accept an estimated $200 million a year (both Apple and Adidas provided most of the compensation) to play for Miami FC. But he remains on the Saudi payroll as an “ambassador” for about $30 million.
So what does all this have to do with college football?
Everything. The PGA dropped the white flag, saying it cannot compete with these outrageous sums of money, and decided to cut their losses. You can save the political argument about accepting money from the Saudis or any other country that does not share our values for another conversation. It’s simply about the divisive effect big money has on the sport. If Saudi Arabia decides to start a professional basketball league, here’s saying they have the cachet to do so. How does a league compete if salaries jump tenfold? Remember AFL, WHA and ABA. LIV golf is interested in spreading its influence and having a legitimate world stage and audience to promote its agenda.
The most vulnerable of all the popular sports in America today is college football (college basketball is also part of this vulnerability). Any entity (Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.) – foreign or otherwise – could compensate top players for establishing relationships dedicated to promoting their interests. Nike, Adidas, FOX, ESPN, etc. already do this; we just haven’t identified it as a threat. But college football, played by men under 21, remains the most vulnerable because it has no collective bargaining agreement — and therefore no limits on what a third party can compensate an athlete under the NIL. Some players are already earning $1 million to $3 million. What if Saudi Arabia decided to use its unlimited resources to pay the top players $10 million plus a year? Is it realistic? Let’s hope not.
That’s why, last Wednesday, a contingent from the SEC, including Alabama coach Nick Saban, arrived in Washington to speak to members of Congress about the need to regulate compensation under the NIL. Don’t expect Congress to do anything anytime soon. NCAA? Fuhgeddaboudit. There is only one viable solution: Unite the players and negotiate a CBA that addresses the NIL and limits the influence outside influences can have. Yes, a salary cap. Hard or soft, there is no other alternative to save the competitive balance that the game is losing. Stop the crazy belief that college football players are amateur athletes and declare them professionals.
Time is not on our side and without dramatic changes the exploitation of young, highly impressionable men is inevitable. Otherwise, domestic and foreign corporate resources, assets, support and capital (all code words for money) will influence college-level players to establish an agenda to manipulate the innocent and spread the influence.
This is the dangerous world we live in.