If the Olympics were the SEC, Florida football would be good as gold

The Olympic marathon was inspired by Pheidippides, a messenger who ran 25 miles from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory of Persia.

“Joy,’’ he proclaimed. “We win!”

Then he dropped dead from exhaustion.

Along those lines, allow me to play Pheidippides for University of Florida fans. I have not run back to Gainesville from Paris, but I can say that the Gators defeated Brazil, Poland and Norway.

And Denmark, Jamaica, Greece, India, Egypt, South Africa, Argentina, Ireland, Portugal and 156 other countries.

Current, former and incoming Gators won 11 medals, which tied Sweden and Kenya for 16^th place. That included a performance so stirring that NBC briefly cut away from Snoop Dogg eating a croissant at a Champs-Élysées bistro.

Speaking of dogs, here’s the proclamation UF faithful have been dying to hear.

“Joy. We beat Georgia!

Yes, the Gators had four more medals than Georgia.

Take that, Kirby Smart!

(We realize the “Georgia” on the Paris medal tally is a country bordering the Black Sea. But after losing six of the past seven football games to the Bulldogs from that other Athens, why split hairs?)

Take an Olympic-sized bow, UF.

“It’s a big part of the identity of the University of Florida,” athletic director Scott Stricklin said. “There’s that old saying the we’re the Everything School.

“We have 21 sports, and football gets a ton of attention and pays a lot of bills. But there’s something special about the University of Florida sending 40 Olympians to Paris.”

Speaking of football and paying bills, Team USA better enjoy these good times while they last. There’s a looming crisis with Olympic sports, thanks largely to schools being unable to pay an impending $2.7 billion bill.

But before we get to the depressing news, focus briefly on these names:

Caeleb Dressel, Bobby Finke, Josh Liendo, Emma Weyant, Kieran Smith, Jasmine Moore and Grant Hollway.

Those Florida athletes combined to win four gold, four silver and three bronze medals. Holloway’s win in the 110-meter redeemed a disappointing silver in the Tokyo Games and established him as an all-time hurdling great.

But no performance in Paris was as clutch as Finke. The U.S. men’s swim team had won an individual gold in every Olympiad since 1904.

It was 0-for-Paris going into the final event. Was Finke aware of the 120-year-old streak potentially ending?

“Oh yeah, I knew,” he said.

Finke responded with a world record in the 1,500-meter freestyle. The streak will live until at least 2028 in Los Angeles.

But what will U.S. Olympic sports look like?

The pessimism is brought to you by the recent NCAA antitrust settlement. Schools agreed to pay $2.7 billion in reparations to former athletes. The plan also calls for current athletes to get about $20 million a year.

Power Four schools make a lot of money. They also spend a lot of money.

UF’s athletic budget is usually around $185 million. The money from football is plowed back into other programs and projects. There’s no profit at the end of the year.

“There’s not $20 million just laying around,” Stricklin said.

To come up with the money to pay athletes, schools may well start cutting programs. Stanford cut nine Olympic sports during the 2020 Covid budget crunch.

The pandemic’s gone, but the settlement fiscal woes are just starting. Colleges have been looking for federal help since the NIL revolution began. When it comes to Olympic sports, they have a good talking point.

The U.S. is the only country that combines athletics with higher education. It’s also the only major country that doesn’t give its Olympic organizations any money.

Developing athletes falls on colleges. And it’s not just U.S. athletes. More than 1,000 NCAA athletes from all over the world competed in Paris.

“We not only train Team USA,” Stricklin said. “We train the world’s athletes.”

Colleges spend about $5 billion a year on Olympic sports. We spend that much in two days just to pay interest on the national debt. Essentially, that money buys nothing.

A measly $5 billion out of a $6 trillion budget would buy a lot more Dressels, Holloways and Katie Ledeckys.

It’s too early to say where all this is headed, but something’s going to give. I just hope it’s not the collegiate pipeline to the Olympics.

For now, every American can take pride in Team USA winning 40 gold and 126 total medals. But Florida fans can really bask in the glow of Paris.

The Gators conquered Georgia on the world stage.

If I can write that again in three months, Pheidippides might drop dead all over again.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DavidEWhitley