JUST AFTER NEWS that Bobby Petrino was involved in a motorcycle mishap, lied to the media about it, withheld information from his bosses, was found to have at least one mistress and eventually was fired as the Arkansas head football coach, Steve Spurrier opined on the situation.

It did not used to be this way in college coaching, Spurrier said.

Although not his intention, Spurrier provided a rather succinct and worldly look at the dramatic and altering landscape of coaching at all levels over the past decade or so.

In fact, coaching generally is not what it used to be in just about every sport and at just about every level. For the sake of argument, though, lets narrow the focus of discussion to coaching in major-college football and in all of professional sports.

There are no numbers to confirm this, but you have to believe there were fewer scandals involving coaches as late as the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the scandal then dealt primarily with violations of NCAA rules. If Bear Bryant was cheating anywhere other than in recruiting, it certainly was not reported.

Those were likely the last days of an era in which college football coaches were viewed as role models for athletes. Going back further, it is easy to romanticize about the days when Knute Rockne and Bud Wilkinson served as father figures to their players. They were leaders, bent on developing young men as much as winning football games.

Coaches really are not coaches anymore, at least not at the major-college football level and at least not in the way we used to think of coaches. As salaries for coaches have skyrocketed, and university presidents and athletics directors have ceded power to men wearing whistles around their necks, the profession has changed drastically.

Anyone who believes college athletics is about sports and the games that are played has not been paying attention. Every major college now operates a multi-million dollar business called intercollegiate athletics. Athletics directors are the CEOs of these businesses, and head football coaches mens basketball coaches at some schools are the chief fund-raisers.

Because winning games directly correlates to increased revenues for the business, it has taken the highest priority at most institutions.

If an athletics department can hook on with a top fund-raiser (coach) who can win games and championships, then that person is paid handsomely. In most cases today, the chief fund-raiser (coach) is paid many times more annually than the president of the school and its athletics director.

Read more here:
Morris: Coaching simply a business