[Logophile]

As an alumnus of BYU, I think the university should consider dropping intercollegiate athletics entirely. At most universities (and I have no reason to think BYU is an exception), the athletics programs are big money-losers, which do little to enhance the teaching and research missions of the university.

There is a precedent. When Ricks College was expanded into a four-year school and renamed Brigham Young University-Idaho, the intercollegiate athletics program was scrapped. (I am told that BYU-Idaho has one of the best intramural programs around.)

If the elimination of athletics is seen as too drastic a step, BYU-Provo might follow the lead of the University of Chicago, one of the founding members of the Big Ten:

[President Robert Maynard] Hutchins heaped scorn upon schools which received more press coverage for their sports teams than for their educational programs, and a run of disastrous seasons gave him the trustee support he needed to drop football in 1939. The decision was hailed by many, but few other schools followed Chicago's lead. (Office of the President, University of Chicago)

In 1946, the University of Chicago withdrew entirely from the Big Ten. The university resumed playing football in 1969, and now competes as a member of the University Athletic Association (UAA) in Division III of the NCAA.

Playing in Division III has had no discernible effect on the reputation of the University of Chicago. Some 85 Chicago faculty and alumni have won Nobel Prizes. Personally, I would prefer a Nobel Prize to a national championship any day.

[Bad~Rodeo]

Not only did Hutchins buck the dominant trends in philosophy and instruction, he also challenged higher education's emphasis on intercollegiate football. Hutchins abolished the university's football team in 1939 because he believed students needed to focus on scholarship and Chicago should play football only if it could remain competitive with major athletic programs. This was a momentous decision as the Maroons were a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and once a national powerhouse under the famed coaching of Amos Alonzo Stagg. In fact, Stagg, who had retired from Chicago in 1933, had been the first coach in the nation to be a tenured professor, and his large athletics' budget was exempted from normal institutional review. Even as late as 1935, Chicago's Jay Berwanger became the first Heisman Trophy winner, but by 1939 Chicago's scoreboard indicated that the glory days had passed, including a 61 - 0 loss to Harvard. Therefore, despite the legacies, and partly because of them, after much debate the university dropped football.

University of Chicago!