I just don't think there is anything "college" about all this. These players and schools are so far removed from the real world it's not even funny. It's Phil Knight versus Les Wexner. It's money versus money, ESPN versus ESPN2. hype versus hype-ier. the more I hear, the less of a shit I give. I'll be rooting for Oregon, but I think osu wins handily... but my prediction is I won't know the result until I wake up Tuesday.
Except for the fact that Wexner doesn't give money to athletics. I think Oregon would be a lot better university if Knight worried less about buying them a football program and more about building them world class visual arts and medical centers.
Les Wexner and his wife would like a word with you
Doesn't disprove my point one bit. So his wife made a $5M donation to name an athletic building after him for his birthday, which admittedly I didn't know. That is literally a drop in the bucket in the context of over $200M in lifetime giving.
My point stands that Oregon would be much better off as a university if Phil Knight shared Wexner's philosophy and priorities instead of plowing over $200M into an athletic department, particularly for a university that doesn't have an endowment much bigger than Ohio's.
He and Knight do, however, share a fondness for sweatshop labor.