Posted on 11/12/2011 8:49:23 AM PST by Publius804
Good post. The problem is certainly the leftist bent of most colleges. This is the most asinine article I have ever seen regarding college sports. Will is a Rino idiot who was the last one picked for dodgeball.
College team sports have led to the rise of group activities, self-organizing systems theory and practice, service learning and the demise of individuality in favor of school/group identity.
I specifically remember NOT choosing to study with a professor because I heard that person say that she did not produce ‘clones’ of herself. I thought that she must be doing exactly that and was outta there fast.
With Mr. Politically Correct, Roger Goodell, as its commissioner, I'd hardly consider the NFL a conservative-leaning institution.
Having been around college football players for decades, I agree that they are more disciplined than most college students but their personal ideologies are as diverse as the rest of the student body.
Seriously? Have you looked at what is going on at our college/university campuses?
I've worked in academe for 25+ years so I'm probably more aware of what is transpiring on college campuses than you are. I've worked at a WAC, 2 Pac-12, and a Big XII university, all state schools. The typical student is not run through the horror cases often cited. When my son enters the university in a couple of years, there are a couple of classes and a couple of professors which I will have him avoid. These are a small, small minority on campus. I'm in the College of Business and the majority of my colleagues are moderate to conservative and the same is true in the College of Engineering. Even in the ghettos of the university, liberal arts and education, I know several unabashed Christians and conservatives. While my school has a reputation of being more liberal than the state, it is not liberalism run amok. Conservatives and Christians are not belittled and ridiculed.
College athletics are NOT the primary problem with our universities.
I didn't say it was the primary problem. I said there were lots of problems (as there are with all institutions) of which college athletics is one. College athletics doesn't generally relate directly to the primary mission of the university. The monies that it sucks out of the university are counter-productive. I enjoy college athletics but do I believe that most universities would be better places if sports were de-emphasized. Absolutely. Universities shouldn't be farm teams for the NFL and NBA.
At the University of Colorado I knew it was a different world when back in the early 80’s when the Flatirons Club (athletic boosters)gave money to the University so the library wouldn’t lose it’s accreditation.
You are exactly right. It’s the obscene profits from television that have corrupted college football. I’m sure even before TV, major colleges were proud of their teams, and there was a lot profit and status from a successful football program. But now there is so much money that some football programs are more important than the academic mission.
TV coverage itself has changed. It used to seem like the announcers were covering a sporting event. Now they sound like they are promoting an entertainment industry.
“In general, football players tend to be more conservative than most other establishments on university campuses.”
College football players are overwhelmingly Black.
Young, college educated Blacks vote 90%-95% for the Democratic Party.
Off hand, I can’t think of a single Black football player who has publicly endorsed a Republican presidential nominee.
I can instantly think of a dozen white coaches and white players who have made that public endorsement.
Check the details.
Almost all the contributions came from white owners, white management, and white coaches.
In comparison, NFL players, both white and black, made very few political contributions and for much smaller amounts of money.
I personally think that we should revisit college sports regulations. The NCAA is obviously not out of control enough.
After all - “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”
Two years ago the president of the University of Texas at Austin whined to the legislature that if they didn’t exempt UT from the Top 10 Rule (all state universities follow it and it was UT’s fault it came about in the first place) that the Longhorn Football would no longer exist. Sure like that would ever happen. UT could close every educational department on campus and they’d still have football. But, hey, thanks again to all those libs for wasting weeks/months/years of legislative sessions and my tax dollars on that.
George, if you haven't noticed:
Tenure for Leftist Elitists Threatens Education!
Regards,
GtG
Will is a snob. Nobody wants to watch the chemistry majors juggle test tubes in a stadium on Friday night. Talent is talent, on or off the field.
The only shameful thing about college football is the ruse that these young guys are students. They’re not. The vast majority aren’t even student-athletes. They are athletes. Keeping their spot on the team is a full-time job.
They should be paid well for their services. Most of them will never, ever have the chance to make the kind of money they’re generating right now for ESPN and colleges. Completely uncompensated. Their bodies will never be the same. Oh, they have a chance to get a “degree”? Make me laugh — the kind of degree an athlete who works sixty hours a week can earn is worthless.
If you’re gonna wring your hands over college football, it should be because an army of young men are being terribly exploited with wage and workplace violations that would never be tolerated anyplace else.
"I will not permit 30 men to travel 400 miles merely to agitate a bag of wind."
Barry Switzer once said that we either start paying the players, or ban college sports.
He is right. The schools no only exist to provide a venue for sports. And this goes right one down to the high schools.
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