BCS CHAMPS IN 2006!

We pulled a Homer. It took some time, patience and considerable luck to arrive at the 2006 national championship, but the odyssey was well worth the wait.

"We" is inclusive of the Duke football team and me--or rather, the program that I ran as its Zeus. I handled recruiting, scouting, quarterbacks, tailbacks, redshirting, scheduling, building up immunity to injury, severing and extending contracts, etc. The impossible mission which I chose to accept was that of building up a football empire in the shadow of Cameron Indoor Stadium. Our victory came, of course, in NCAA Football 2004, a video game that has allowed me to hear the echo of victory bells, and consequentially, the pangs of athletic success as well.

My increasing success on the field paralleled my growing fascination with the game. I found myself entrenched, consumed by my football program's development. But I became so pathetic that I opted for winning in a fictitious video game over my friends, over reading, and even doing my own hour-long workouts--something I'd never let my players get away with in the unending pursuit of getting bigger, faster and stronger. So to rectify the situation and return to normalcy, I quit cold turkey. In fact, my NCAA Football withdrawal has been tempered by my responsibilities for the paper (so maybe the football wasn't so bad after all...)

Right now, Carl Franks and his Blue Devils are basking in an optimism that is so thick it's suffocating; an optimism that has illuminated the program in the regional media thus far in 2003. And though a new attitude cannot win games, it has certainly rejuvenated an entire program.

"When was the last time you saw a Duke football player walk around with confidence?" senior defensive tackle Matt Zielinski recently told the Fayetteville Observer. "It's there. It's easy to say, but we see it in our workouts and practices. The confidence and discipline is there."

Duke is primed for its best season in nearly a decade, and if the predicted success is granted by the football gods, Franks and his players may return from the 2003 season with ever-growing potential and expectation, a positive seed that was planted back in 1999 when Franks took over for Fred Goldsmith.

Indeed, the family tree of Duke football does have deep roots--it just doesn't reach that high. If Duke continues to nurture the football program with money and cooperative admissions practices, it will be difficult to keep the Blue Devils down much longer.

But to what end? Senior fullback Alex Wade--one of the country's top scholar-athletes--recently commented that he and his teammates comprise a group that is focused on exceptional academic and athletic achievement. But if Duke can somehow transform itself into a power on the gridiron--in the fashion of fellow academic-athletic stalwarts Stanford or Northwestern--will the same balance exist?

Last week, I walked into a fall sports press conference, one that allowed sports journalists to mingle with representatives of Duke's soccer, volleyball, field hockey and cross country teams. Anticipating the usual cliche-trained quotes from athletes and coaches, I was pleasantly surprised by an overwhelming sense of optimism and honest sentimentality. And it wasn't superficial or unfounded, either--each fall sport has a considerable hope at winning a conference title in 2003. But has that mattered in the national media? Of course not. It's Duke football (and basketball in the winter) that holds the strings.

That is not an indictment of either football or the Olympic sports, but rather a precedent that has been set by our society. Football and basketball are, without a doubt, two of America's favorite sports (Nascar does not count--hell, train directors drive fast, too, but people don't gather by the tractor-full to watch them sit and steer). And with that popularity comes money--something that is yet to grow on the Duke football tree (like most other schools).

Regardless, universities funnel money into their football programs, hoping to cash in as the next power--Virginia Tech, which rode into the national spotlight on the winning wheels of Michael Vick, is an example of this phenomenon. But a recent report on the money-machine that has become big-time college football concluded that success in college football does come with increased spending, but it does not necessarily equate to more profits for an athletic program, or for the school itself. But the winning, in and of itself, can bring increased notoriety--schools enjoy increased exposure and enrollment when their football (and basketball) programs win. And clearly, Duke has reaped myriad benefits from Duke's winning basketball teams.

My primary concern, then, is that Duke--and more importantly, the rest of the country--is losing sight of the value of all of its college athletes. Do we put too much pressure on our basketball team to win-at-all-costs, and are we expecting too much out of our football program? And what of our Olympic athletes, who work just as hard and just as long, only to suffer the consequences of a less-interested and less-extensive fan-base? Shouldn't we take the magnifying glass off them so they can concentrate on studying, partying and just being normal? Perhaps that is easier for non-football or basketball athletes, and perhaps not. Or, as I'm certain others would argue, student-athletes are anything but normal--"they already get a free education, preferential treatment, etc."

Nonetheless, student-athletes should not have to train year-round; they should not be suspect to unfathomable pressures from their teammates, coaches, schools or their fans (see internet bashing sites, unhappy boosters, sportswriters like me, etc.); they should not be deified nor vilified, but they must not be overlooked.

Winning is a welcomed reward and sign of achievement--and as such, "sacrifice" should be a word banned from the sports vernacular.

I'm extremely competitive, but even I know that how a game is won or lost is more important that the outcome itself. So as much as I want the Blue Devils to enjoy the same success in football as I did with the video game, I just hope our athletes remain students first.

Yes, success in football would most likely equate to a tributary system of money that would flow into the athletic program and the school as a whole. And yes, money does often lead to better results. But money isn't everything--and winning isn't either.

Mike Corey is a Trinity junior and sports editor of The Chronicle. His column appears every third Tuesday.