Today's College Gameday Kicking Contest Was The Biggest Sham Ever

The rules of sport and competition are simple.

There are winners, and then there are losers.

Or at least, that's how things used to be, but College Gameday just showed us that as long as you show up with a good story and call in a ringer, you'll be reeling in the spoils normally reserved for the victors only.

It's no secret I have had my qualms with College Gameday and its antics recently, but today the show sunk to a new low in terms of perpetuating the "participation trophy" culture that has become pervasive in modern society.

That's a lot of fancy words to say that someone walked away with $300,000 today after absolutely duffing one in Pat McAfee's Kicking Contest.

For starters, the minute this woman stepped up to the microphone and explained her kicking background, there wasn't a single person who assumed that ball was going through the uprights.

She mentioned multiple times that she had never kicked anything other than her brother, let alone a football, and her approach to the kick was a tell-tale sign this wasn't going to end well for our doomed Alabama fan.

Luckily for her, though, former Pro Bowl kicker Pat McAfee offered up a lifeline: if Kirk Herbstreit could throw the football through the uprights, she would be entitled to her $300,000.

That might sound like a fair compromise, but Herbstreit was a former college quarterback, and the uprights were only 35 yards away.

I've never played a down of organized tackle football in my life and I could throw a football through a set of uprights from 35 yards out on one knee, so it came as a shock to no one that Herbstreit nailed the throw.

We have to call this what it is at this point: it's a raffle.

There's no competition if this girl can flub the kick as badly as she did and still walk away with 300 large.

This is just yet another reason why I stopped watching College Gameday voluntarily: it's gotten soft.

Be happy this circus didn't show up to your campus, FSU fans, though your campus already has one of its own.

Anyway, congrats to Gabby on her life-changing money, and shame on you, ESPN!