Now football season’s underway, both college game and pro.
Big money has transformed them both, a fact we all should know.
Pro football has, for decades, been a plaything of the rich.
But now that’s true of college too, which makes my hemorrhoids itch.

The college game has NIL, that their star athletes use
To make big money playing ball; professors get the blues.
Some college players make as much as their pro counterparts.
It’s no surprise that academics have not won their hearts.

A player’s Name, Image, and Likeness may turn into cash.
Too often classroom studies will get tossed into the trash.
Star athletes often will leave school before they graduate.
For any job besides football, they’re a poor candidate.

Now, college football has become pro football’s minor leagues.
The players are not students, other athletes, their colleagues.
They’ll let the other students study to earn their degrees,
While athletes dream of stardom and avoiding injuries.

But, even for the best of them, careers don’t last too long.
Accumulated injuries may lead to one’s swan song,
Immediate arthritis, then the dreaded CTE. (1)
One sees himself sink into mental disability.

So, what of student athletes? Can that status be restored?
What would it take to get the rich alumni all aboard?
For they like to see winning teams on weekends on TV.
And future Nobel Prizes? Meh. Those fill them with ennui.

So, paying players’ “salaries” and broadcast revenues,
In short, big money governs now; that’s always been the muse
Of our Western Society. That’s true for centuries,
From Roman “bread and circuses” to our modern disease. (2)

(1) CTE, Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which leads to dementia, is seen
with alarming frequency in ex football players and boxers. It is caused by
repeated sub-concussive blows to the head, suffered both in contests and in
training. These two sports probably cannot be made safe.
(2) Bread and circuses: panem et circenses, in Satire X by Juvenal, ~100 CE. The
idea is to keep the people amused.