Wanted: College football’s Dark Knight

Alright, that's it, I have officially had enough. I can't idly sit by and keep ignoring the obvious. It's time we all just accept it: College football has officially become Gotham.

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain" former American hero turned psychopathic half-marshmallow Harvey Dent once said.

Has there ever been a more seemingly heroic figure fall as heinously as Joe Paterno? It's as painful seeing a fired Paterno dejected and surrounded by a frenzied media as it was to see Dent lose his (cough) beautiful wife at the hands of the Joker. But the fact of the matter is, Paterno and Dent ended their respective stories as the bad guy.

Paterno was supposed to be the moral beacon for college football, but it turns out he could be considered one of the most morally reprehensible people in the industry.

But that's just the landscape of college football today. College football coaches have too much power, and that power is clearly a pervasive force to their ethical code — assuming there was one there to begin with. Coach's decisions are wreaking havoc to major programs like the Joker did to Gotham. Except instead of innocent bystanders swept up in the terror, fans are watching their programs go from stable to in ruins overnight.

The reason Batman was so effective was because he understood the problems facing his fair metropolis, and because he was able to act as an individual solely concerned with bettering the system. For this reason, NCAA President Mark Emmert cannot be the Dark Knight who saves the NCAA. It needs to be someone amazingly handsome, charismatic and he must love the game so much he would do anything to make sure it maintained, even if it were to his own detriment.

I know, I know, I just described myself, but first, let's play Captain Hindsight on this issue. What went wrong with college football?

There's too much money involved: Wazzu recently thought it was a good financial decision to hire a focus group to find out why people weren't re-upping their season tickets. Still think football programs don't have too much disposable income? (Is there a more obvious solution to anything in the United States than Washington State's attendance problems? Hey Cougs, stop putting an above-average high school team on the field and maybe people will come to the games. No need to poll the public.)

It's built upon flawed premises: How many college football players at top-rate universities like UW, University of Michigan or USC would've gotten into those schools without top-flight athleticism? Maybe one out of every four (an extremely generous estimation) of those kids could've made it into those schools strictly off academics. So, let's call it what it is: minor league football.

It punishes human nature: Players like Reggie Bush are going to school for football, not an education. So why is he being punished for his parents accepting an invitation to substantially upgrade their living conditions? They were supposed to turn down those benefits in the name of the almighty NCAA? That makes sense, because when I'm hungry, I take solace in the purity of amateur competition. And I know a lot of you say you wouldn't accept the benefits the Miami guys got, but I also know plenty of you would gladly accept those opportunities and another portion of you are lying when you say that you wouldn't want to party on a boat.

There's an unfair power structure: I'm nearly positive I'm the first person to ever say this, so brace yourselves: College football needs a playoff. It's because of the lack of a true postseason UW fans tell themselves that they have a historically elite program. You have one-and-a-half national championships under a system that never definitively named anyone champion. Just stop it. Only a 40 Days for Life'er would consider you a person when the Dawgs won their last "National Championship."

It puts bulls in a china shop: Putting football players — who are trained to be ruthless and thrive on being cold hearted — in the lawless landscape known as a huge state university is not a good combination. Have you read about the "people" on the Michigan State football team? How about the one where a group of 20 swarmed a dorm wearing ski masks, beating random people in their path looking for a frat boy they had a problem with? Charming story, really.

There are major changes coming to college football. The system is clearly broken and Emmert budging on the paying players issue bodes to be the beginning of a major overhaul.

The NCAA is clearly blowing it. You can tell by watching ESPN Tuesday — as Kirk Herbstreit puts on his best concerned face and Matt Millen feigns tears, Trey Wingo and all the NFL guys yuk it up and have a grand ol' time. I don't get it, why is everything crumbling at the collegiate level, but things are better than ever at the professional level? It's because those two ideas were never meant to be combined in the first place.

College football needs a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a Dark Knight, because without it, things are really messed up.