By MONTE DUTTON

This is no new refrain from me.

The problem with college athletics’ relentless consolidation is that it doesn’t leave enough glory to go around.

Most fans believe their favorite school is inherently superior. It has intangible qualities that separate it from everything else. I am at least as guilty as anyone.

This, however, is a comforting myth.

It’s similar to a commercial. Three considerations are in play: (1.) money, (2.) money and (3.) money.

How about success? For instance, Clemson in the Atlantic Coast Conference is more likely to win the national championship than Clemson in the SEC or the B1G. I would call it the Big 10 if it had 10 members.

In recent years, the ACC football championship has run through Clemson. The Tigers haven’t won them all, but they’ve had the team to beat.

If Clemson joins the SEC, the title will not immediately route through the S.C. Upstate. Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Tennessee and Texas A&M will be deploying their troops every year, not to mention Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Washington, Oregon, Southern California and UCLA in the B1G.

Have you ever read William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech? It was in 1896. Here’s the most famous part:

“You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

Or the ACC.

It is my belief that, if a college, a business, a church or a government bases every single decision on money and money alone, that entity will sacrifice its soul. Basing them 75 percent on money works.

I saw this in NASCAR and predicted it long before it happened. In the 1990s, when the sport was booming, I wrote several times that the sport’s best and brightest were trying to kill the goose that laid golden eggs.

It was a tough old bird, but they got her.

Hardly a day goes by in which someone doesn’t tell me a familiar tale about how he or she used to watch every NASCAR race on TV and half a dozen in person. Now that onetime fan doesn’t know who won on Sunday and where the next race is.

For the first 15 years that my job was writing about races, people at home would walk across Broad Street just to tell me how much they loved them. For the final five years, they still ran me down to tell me how sick of it they were getting. Now it’s almost a foregone conclusion.

The most recent such conversation was with a Rock Hill grandparent at Tuesday night’s Junior American Legion game in Clinton. I told him I used to write about NASCAR, and away we went.

When I was a kid, Six Flags Over Georgia had a haunted-house ride. At some point, a voice like Boris Karloff’s reverberated through the creepy set: Go back! Go back! The bridge is giving way!

They played quite an American Legion baseball game in Simpsonville on Wednesday night as the homestanding Golden Strip Post 271 Warriors (8-3) snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, 5-4, in eight innings, over Greenwood Post 20 (5-10).

Laurens’ Hunter Nabors’ two-out single both drove in the winning run and made himself the winning pitcher.

Nabors, who played short until he moved to the mound in the seventh inning, collected the only hit of Golden Strip’s three-run eighth. The Braves took a 4-2 edge in the top half, but two Greenwood relievers combined to provide five walks, totaling 39 pitches, 16 of them strikes.

All three runs scored after two were out.

Nabors went 2/5 at the plate. LDHS teammate Owen Pridgen doubled and drove in a run in four trips. Avery Madden was 1/1 with an RBI and two walks.

In the opposite dugout, Laurens’ Jackson Martin walked three times.

The Warriors have won three in a row. The Braves have dropped five straight. They meet again in Greenwood on Thursday at 7 p.m.

One Clinton player, Brett Young, singled in the game’s first run, and another, Carson Glenn, pitched 2-1/3 innings of perfect relief to pick up a 6-1 victory for Chapin-Newberry Post 193/24 over Anderson Post 14.

The game was tied 1-1 when Glenn arrived on the hill in the fifth inning.

Brady Yarborough put C-N up for good with an RBI single in the sixth inning.

In the top of the seventh, Cooper Raines put the game away with a three-run homer.

Jacob Kirkus took the loss.

Chapin-Newberry (10-7) guns for a sweep of Anderson on Friday at Newberry College, beginning at 7 p.m.

Advertising alone will not keep me going. I rely on readers who like the coverage I provide to make contributions.

Please donate whatever you consider appropriate via Venmo at DHK Sports. You may also reach me by mail at 11185 Highway 56 North, Clinton  29325.

If you choose, make a monthly donation via Patreon. The Laurens County site is here. The Furman site is here.

Support the advertisers. They are all fine people who appreciate my attempts to restore coverage of local sports. They are dependable, and not too long ago, I sold a couple ads to folks who weren’t. I am thus cautious.

In the off chance you’d like to read my novels and other books, they’re available on Amazon and many prominent bookseller sites. You can read them on your phones and other devices for a modest cost. I make a bit more if you purchase the actual books, but what I mainly want is for folks to read them.

Sample my collection of short stories, Longer Songs (they were based on songs I wrote). Download it for 99 cents.

Photo galleries are posted on Instagram @furmanatt and @laurenscountysports.

Thanks for your support.