Jim Mora isn’t very subtle.
Whether he’s yelling at a writer for making an ill-timed phone call or deflecting questions away from his team’s disappointing loss, the UCLA football coach is a master at the art of handling postgame press conferences in a brusque, no-nonsense manner.
Still, it was slightly surprising following Saturday’s upset loss to Arizona State when Mora suddenly turned a question about UCLA’s letdowns at the start of classes into a tirade against the team’s future schedule.
His complaint? The Bruins’ upcoming Thursday night games against Stanford and California in back-to-back weeks.
“It’s unbelievable,” Mora said. “We’re calling these kids student-athletes, and yet we’re going to force them to miss six days of school so they can play two football games on Thursday nights in a row. I think it’s truly an injustice.”
Mora certainly has a point, so I want to first establish that – in a perfect world where athletes’ educations are prioritized above both athletic achievement and corporate coffers – he is completely right.
The world of college sports, however, is far from perfect.
Four years ago, the Pac-12 signed a broadcasting partnership with ESPN and Fox for $3 billion total. UCLA receives over $20 million annually, amounting to $240 million over the 12-year contract.
That media deal is the whole reason for Thursday night games. The Bruins wouldn’t make any appearances on ESPN College Football Thursday Primetime without that deal. The athletic department also wouldn’t receive an annual eight-figure paycheck without that deal.
So, no, student-athletes shouldn’t be missing six days of school with back-to-back midweek games, but isn’t that part of the consequence of treating a college organization like a professional one? Bad schedules happen, somebody gets the short end of the stick and huge money continues to get thrown around.
Mora, with his $3.47 million annual salary, isn’t against the system that produces Thursday night games, yet he’s clearly upset with this year’s schedule.
“I think it’s a complete injustice to our young men,” he added. “I don’t know whose idea it was, but it’s a bad idea.”
In his three years as UCLA’s head coach, Mora has had one Thursday night game each regular season, and the Bruins are 3-0. He’s never felt the need to complain before, but the coach decided to speak out when the midweek games are in consecutive weeks.
And with fair reason.
No other Pac-12 school has more than a single Thursday night game this season – not to mention having two in a row. That’s a poorly made schedule if I’ve ever seen one, and Mora justifiably feels slighted.
I still have a problem with Mora’s argument. He is advocating for student-athletes to be treated as students while the whole system capitalizes on the fact that they are athletes.
The main point within all of this: Students should be able to attend classes – whether they’re a football player, a women’s tennis player or someone like you and me – but athletes nationwide agree to play college sports under the condition that their schedules will be crazy.
Primetime games on Thursdays are a natural result of a system driven by giant media deals and a ravenous national audience. If Mora truly wants the NCAA to treat its student-athletes more like students, the whole system has to change.
If he’s just upset about the consecutive weeks, well, he’ll just have to talk to whoever makes the schedule.