MLB Caused Coordinated Slide?

About the turn of the century, both of my college football teams were about to begin a very uncharacteristic slide, and in retrospect, the culprit may have been Major League Baseball.

After Tom Osborne retired at Nebraska, former 'Husker player and longtime coaching assistant Frank Solich took over and things were going fairly well. After a very successful season in 2001 when Nebraska lost to Miami for The National Championship in The Rose Bowl, Heisman winning signal caller Eric Crouch was gone. Had things gone as planned, a scholarship recruit from Houston, Texas would likely be ready to lead the 'Husker ground game. But, the big dollars of Major League Baseball would sideswipe his move to Lincoln, and now Carl Crawford of the Tampa Bay Rays is one of the leagues best players.

Don't think Crawford has not given thought to what might have been. Many others including ESPN's Tim Griffin, have as well. And if Crawford had excelled as projected, maybe Solich would have had enough success to keep his job, although then AD Steve Pederson seemed to have it in for good ole Frank. Oh well!

And don't think my Seminoles got away. With the departure of Heisman winner Chris Weinke, a recruit from his same high school singed a letter of intent with Florida State. This player was all state in basketball, the state player of the year in baseball and the USA Today player of the year in football, and he is a Seminole.

That is until the Minnesota Twins made Joe Mauer a very rich young man. A chance to play for the home town Twins is something Mauer could not pass up, and he is the best player in the game right now. In fact, Mauer just signed a contract extension of $184 million.

Florida State began descending into mediocrity with the main culprit being consistency at the quarterback position. Lost Letterman blog ranks Mauer the best football guy playing baseball, and ESPN's Bruce Feldman wonders if Mauer destroyed the Florida State Seminoles

By the time FSU found a decent signal caller in Christian Ponder, the defense had finally collapsed after a decade of bailing out the offense. This, of course, led to the early retirement of beloved Coach Bobby Bowden.

Blame it on baseball. I, like many others, continue to wonder what might have been.