Southern Miss head coach Will Hall said the quiet part out loud when it comes to the importance of money in college football. He admitted that financial gain outweighed player safety during a loss to Kentucky on Saturday.
Although Hall’s comment was not anything we didn’t already know, his decision to speak the truth was ill-advised and it appears as though the university is trying to scrub the quote from the internet.
For those who aren’t familiar with the economics of college football, early-season “buy games” are crucial to the survival of lower-tier FBS and FCS programs. Power Four schools like Alabama, Washington, Florida State, Nebraska, Texas, Michigan, and Arizona pay smaller schools like San Diego State, Houston, Coastal Carolina and Kent State a lot of money to lose. They help boost the host team’s chances of reaching bowl eligibility and serve as a tune-up.
It doesn’t always work out that way, like when Auburn paid New Mexico State $1.85 million and lost at home, or when Baylor paid Texas State $375,000 for the same result. Although there have been a few embarrassing mishaps, the school shelling out the money typically walks away with a win.
In this particular instance, Kentucky paid $950,000 to Southern Miss for Saturday’s season-opener.
Will Hall made sure his program got that money!
The Wildcats beat the Golden Eagles by 31 points in a shutout. The visitors only managed to gain 131 total yards on offense. However, they only played 35 minutes of a 60-minute game.
Kickoff was originally scheduled for 7:45 p.m ET but weather pushed it back by 30 minutes. And then it became a whole thing.
Further lightning strikes in the area moved kickoff back to 10:05 p.m. The game was later called and ruled as final during the third quarter after another lightning strike at 12:30 a.m.
Head coach Will Hall spoke about the unfortunate circumstances of the game during a press conference on Monday. Southern Miss beat writer Dima Mixon first reported his eye-popping statement on delays in warm-ups and fear of injury with the time of the game.
We were extremely worried about injuries, that was our number one concern. Nutrition was a concern. But none of that tops getting that check. And to get that check, we have to play that game.
— Will Hall
Mixon deleted his post on X shortly thereafter.
This is a misquote, it’s important to hear the context. I’m generally typing first thing I hear. I went back and listened to it and took it down immediately.
— @dima_mixon
Except it was not a misquote. Those were Hall’s exact words, verbatim.
Here is the full clip in its full context:
update: this is not a misquote, it just made us look bad so it got deleted. https://t.co/2uaAlLkCuu pic.twitter.com/16s5R3Stgg
— Destiny Blackwell (@destinybwell) September 2, 2024
Why did Mixon delete his post? Why did he claim it was a misquote when it wasn’t?
You can draw your own conclusions…
Will Hall did not say anything that isn’t already accepted as reality. Money talks. These small schools like Southern Miss cannot keep the lights on without the paycheck from big schools like Kentucky.
The problem was that he admitted player safety was less important than financial gain.