Trickle-down Economics

You won't read here an endorsement of a return to one-platoon football, even though it seems fairly certain that if a latter-day Paul Hornung were to come along—a guy who could rush, pass, block, placekick, punt, tackle and intercept on a single afternoon—the hyperspecialized NFL (which, by the way, limits its teams to 47 players and somehow survives) would suffer in the comparison.

A further reduction in football scholarships—the first limitations came in 1973 when a 105-scholarship cap was introduced—would probably bring more parity and thus more prosperity to the major-college game. "The smaller teams will keep getting better," moans Bowden. "They'll get the players we can't get." Precisely.

Title IX is the law of the land, but it has languished largely unenforced. Now the public wants to see compliance. A recent poll of Georgians conducted for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed only 33% opposed to dipping into football budgets to fund women's athletics, even if that meant cutting back football scholarships. Last time we checked, Georgia loved its football and was hardly a hotbed of militant feminists. Eliminate 20, 15, perhaps only 10 scholarship players, and fans will still show up and tune in.

I know I wouldn't miss a handful of young men who weren't going to play anyway. You wouldn't miss them, either.