Football Schools, Basketball Schools

The buzz in college basketball circles this week is that Florida coach Billy Donovan is the leading candidate to become the next coach at Kentucky, for as much as $4 million per year. That is a ton of money. With the money comes the pressure of being the head of Big Blue Nation, and a group of totally rabid fans.

It is very possible for a school to be successful on both the football field and the basketball court. Florida and Ohio State have a very good chance to play for a national championship in basketball, just as they did in football back in January. It is next to impossible for a fan base to be equally passionate about basketball and football. Traditions are built over decades, as is fan loyalty and passion. Florida, for instance, returned 750 tickets out of their allotment of 1500 to last week's Midwest Regional in St. Louis. We're talking about the flagship university in the nation's third largest state, with over 40,000 students and tons of alumni. But, while Gator fans are proud of their success in basketball, they are most passionate about football, where they won their second national championship in 11 years last season. If there were a bowl game in St. Louis, or even a college football playoff game there, I'm sure the Gators would sell more than 750 tickets. Ron Zook was fired as football coach for going 7-4.

The opposite exists in Kentucky. UK fills 23,000-seat Rupp Arena for the first practice of the season, at 12:01 AM of the first allowable practice day. They also fill the arena for the most pedestrian of non-conference games. Last Thursday, on the day of Tubby Smith's resignation, the message board at leading UK fan site www.catspause.com drew as many as 13,658 visitors at one time. This is more than the capacity of Florida's arena. Kentucky deserves credit, though, as they sold two-thirds of the seats for their football team's appearance in the Music City Bowl in Nashville.

Schools such as Kentucky, North Carolina, and Kansas will forever be basketball schools. They will have good football teams from time to time, but fans and alums eat, drink, and sleep hoops. Mack Brown went 10-1 with the Tar Heels in 1997, but missed out on the BCS, and took the Texas job, where he won a national championship in 2005.

Schools such as Oklahoma, Texas, and Alabama, among others, will forever be football schools. They will have varying degrees of basketball success. Texas has been to the Sweet 16 four times in the last six years. Texas and Oklahoma have been to Final Fours in this decade. But, for many fans of these schools, basketball serves as a diversion during the off-season of football. Basketball even competes for attention with football recruiting and spring practice.

Money will buy a lot of things, including coaches and the latest and greatest facilities. The big money generated by football helps bigger programs become more competitive in other sports. However, money can't buy passion.

More on this later, as Kentucky and Florida launch their bidding war for Billy Donovan.