The cost of big time college football

It should have been seen as a harbinger. The championship-hungry power brokers who tore down the idyllic and iconic Kenan Stadium Field House (seen in the center background in this 1927 photo) in a push for more seating and high-priced suites for wealthy fans should have seen it coming. If all you care about is winning, there is a price to be paid. They tore down the charming old Field House at the east end of Kenan Stadium, even though it had been there since the 1920s, when the stadium was built. They wanted an exclusive new edifice, one that would charm and fete the wealthy donors who were highly sought after to feed the big-time football program's hunger for big money for coaches and equipment. They wanted to close in the stadium, to make it a complete oval, like Michigan's stadium, or the Rose Bowl, or the Lowe's Motor Speedway. A few years before, they had cut down the trees and enclosed the west end zone with a huge, multi-storied football center, making Kenan Stadium, which had been built in a natural ravine with seats on each sideline, in a horseshoe-shaped stadium. The new facility was supposed to make Carolina football competitive with the Big Boys. That wasn't enough; only a complete oval would do for a Big Time College Football Powerhouse.

But just a week before the start of the 2010 season — in a nationally televised game, no less — the UNC Tar Heels are wondering whether they'll have enough skilled players to field a team. An NCAA investigation into players' relationships with professional sports agents threatens to decimate the team. Double-digit player disqualifications are being rumored. On top of that, the NCAA investigation led to a subsequent university investigation into irregularities involving a tutor of football players. There is even the possibility that last year's wins, which came after the allegedly illegal contact between players and an agent, might be vacated.

In just a couple of weeks, the Tar Heel team has gone from top-20 preseason excitement to potential disaster.

That's what you get when all you care about is winning. The old mission-style Kenan Field House has been demolished. It cannot be resurrected. I searched for a recent photo of the Field House and could not find any online. The closest I came was this photo of the building's demolition. The Field House had stood, with many renovations and additions, for 80 years. It had seen many championships and many All-Americans. It was good enough for those glory years, but it wasn't "Big Time."

Personally, I'd prefer to have the Field House back, along with a little integrity.