Follow the money: college football
① America's college football season kicks off today.
② Across the country—but especially in the South and the Midwest—brightly coloured fans will fill massive stadiums (the University of Michigan's holds over 107,000) to scream for 18-to-23-year-olds playing the pre-professional version of American football.
③ The game is big business: television rights are worth hundreds of millions, generating huge sums for universities.
④ The highest-paid coach, Nick Saban of Alabama, made more than $11m last year.
⑤ To his fans, he is worth it, engineering a stunning come-from-behind win on the last play to take the national championship, his sixth, from Georgia in January.
⑥ The only ones who don't get paid big bucks?
⑦ The players: they are traditionally amateur "scholar-athletes", and are allowed to receive only tuition, room, board, books and a tiny stipend.
⑧ Most hope they might one day score a contract in the National Football League.
⑨ Most won't.
⑩ Hopefully they at least get an education.
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