Shakin' that money tree

So Jimbo Fisher is off to Texas A&M, where the Aggies will pay him $75 million over the next 10 years to coach a bunch of college kids who get in trouble with the NCAA if, say, they sell the bowl swag the NCAA itself said they could have.

The world is a crazy place, and that's a fact.

For example: There are piles and piles of cash in high-end college football, but no one in charge seems to regard that as sullying the academic mission of the university until the generators of that cash try to rake a little for themselves. Then, oh, heavens does the lucre turn filthy. Words like "integrity" and "education" get bandied about. We're told student-athletes who try to cash in on their status are rank opportunists taking advantage of a system that already rewards them with a "free" education.

And yet somehow rank opportunists like Jimbo Fisher who cash in on their status aren't taking advantage of the system. That's because that is the system.

And so he bails on Florida State, and his players and staff, before the season is even over, and no one bats an eye. It's not like he's Christian McCaffrey -- who, to a fair bit of condemnation, decided to pass on Stanford's bowl game last year to prepare for the NFL Draft. After all, McCaffrey was abandoning his team to secure his own selfish future. Fisher was merely ... abandoning his team to secure his own selfish future.

You see the difference, right?

Of course you don't. That's because you don't look at the world through squinty eyes while standing on your head. High-end college athletics has already patented that pose.

Want to know the kicker to the whole Jimbo Fisher saga, for instance?

Buried deeply in the story announcing Fisher's signing was this gem: The man he replaces, Kevin Sumlin, was making a mere $35 million across six years. Which sounds like a gargantuan deal until you consider Fisher's stupendously gargantuan deal. It also means he'll walk away with a $10.4 mill buyout.

But if one of his players tries to sell that watch he got for playing in the Texas Bowl last year?

Oh, heavens.What a stain on college football that would be.