Hell2DaNaw.com

INDIANAPOLIS - NCAA President Myles Brand announced today that as part of the new Collective Bargaining with the NCAA Players’ Association, a Salary Cap will be instituted beginning in the 2008 season. Details of the agreement, including the cap figures, are not available at this time.

Some observers are calling this the biggest development in the college game since the popularization of the forward pass or the creation of the Bowl Championship Series, which removed all controversy from the yearly awarding of the National Championship.

Under the new salary cap, teams would be limited as to how much money they could pay each player. Lately the problem had gotten out of hand, as their was disparity between the payrolls of teams in major media markets like Nebraska and teams in smaller media markets like Temple. Blue chip recruits would be offered millions of dollars to attend college for up to three years instead of entering the NFL draft directly out of high school.

Reactions to Dr. Brand’s announcement were mixed. One proponent is Boise State head coach Chris Petersen, who overcame mid-major status to beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. “This is definitely the beginning of a new era of Boise State football” Petersen said. “Prior to this we had to go to great lengths to increase revenue, like painting our field blue. [Former Boise State coach and current Colorado coach Dan] Hawkins had to leave because his eyes were hurting too bad. Also, blue is an unappetizing color, so all of my linemen were too skinny.”

Will Boise’s trademark trickery change as a result? “Oh most definitely. The only way we could beat a big team was by using Jap Plays. No self respecting coach wants to win that way. There will be no more cheating from us now.

“Except of course for putting steroids in the guys’ potatoes.”

The players, on the other hand, are very frustrated by the new rules. One of them is former Ohio State receiver Anthony Gonzalez, who created controversy before the BCS Championship game when he said that players were not properly compensated. “Wat joo talkin’ bout, mang?” Gonzalez said from his hypoxic tent when asked for comment. “Arriba. Andale.”

One major program that could be affected is Notre Dame, which paid a $51 million posting fee to win the right to sign QB recruit Jimmy Clausen. Still, coach Charlie Weis approaches the new rule with his typical aloofness. “It really doesn’t matter. Even if we can’t take advantage of the payroll we had throughout our championship period of the late 1990s, we still have other resources to attract players. I mean, why go to USC or Miami when you can come live in South Bend, Indiana for four years?”