Posted on 05/04/2012 4:02:16 PM PDT by Theoria
In more than 20 years I've spent studying the issue, I have yet to hear a convincing argument that college football has anything do with what is presumably the primary purpose of higher education: academics.
That's because college football has no academic purpose. Which is why it needs to be banned. A radical solution, yes. But necessary in today's times.
Football only provides the thickest layer of distraction in an atmosphere in which colleges and universities these days are all about distraction, nursing an obsession with the social well-being of students as opposed to the obsession that they are there for the vital and single purpose of learning as much as they can to compete in the brutal realities of the global economy.
Who truly benefits from college football? Alumni who absurdly judge the quality of their alma mater based on the quality of the football team. Coaches such as Nick Saban of the University of Alabama and Bob Stoops of Oklahoma University who make obscene millions. The players themselves don't benefit, exploited by a system in which they don't receive a dime of compensation. The average student doesn't benefit, particularly when football programs remain sacrosanct while tuition costs show no signs of abating as many governors are slashing budgets to the bone.
If the vast majority of major college football programs made money, the argument to ban football might be a more precarious one. But too many of them don't—to the detriment of academic budgets at all too many schools. According to the NCAA, 43% of the 120 schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision lost money on their programs. This is the tier of schools that includes such examples as that great titan of football excellence, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Blazers, who went 3-and-9 last season.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Let’s be totally fair. Ban tenure for all so called professors in colleges. Make them actually year to year earn a living.
I admit that I attended a sports nut university, but there are multiple women’s sports at the University of Alabama that draw large crowds or crowds that fill the seats for the particular venues. I don’t think we could get 100K fans to a gymnastics meet, but you never know.
Let’s be totally fair. Ban tenure for all so called professors in colleges. Make them actually year to year earn a living.
“Eliminating college football won’t do anything to increase attendance at women’s sporting events.”
unless it means more beach volleyball
Exactly why it should be banned. /s
We should all play soccer. Soccer: The Perfect Socialist Sport
With a name like Buzz Bissinger, I picture him as the guy in the locker room whose job was to collect dirty jock straps. No wonder he’s carrying a grudge.
If a lad plays college football and studies something manly and worthwhile (engineering), he will be among the first kids picked for the good jobs upon graduation. When you play football, you don’t have to prove that you’re a team player, and that you can do difficult things. A spot on a college football team can outweigh being a calculus wiz.
I’ve seen it in my own family with my own eyes. As my son explains — engineering is for jocks who can do math.
As Donald Fagen sang, “Maybe he’s a fairy/You know I’m through with Buzz...”
Cool! More time and exposure for Lacrosse!
Mark
The author of this piece also wrote the book Friday Night Lights!
I am going to think it was Division 1. No, Division 1 s athletes don’t attend classes with the other students. They can’t. They would never be left alone. However, they take the classes online and do have tutors available. However, they must remain eligible grade wise to stay eligible. I cannot speak for the power houses of football and what goes on... but I can say 1A, Division 2 and 3 are much different. However, Division 1 schools are the players that you will see in the NFL and NBA.
College football brings money to the athletic department of a university. Precious little of that money actually makes it into what should be the “core brands” of a university: the service of knowledge (whether passing on old knowledge, usually called “teaching”, or uncovering new knowledge, usually called “research”, or in the case of land-grant universities which often have the most lavish football programs, spreading practical knowledge among the general populace of the state, usually called “extension”). Oh, yes, a winning season usually brings with it a slight uptick in unrestricted donations, but that is dwarfed by the donations to the athletic program per se. (I know whereof I speak: both my wife and I teach at land grant universities with big football programs — two different ones, in neighboring states — and in both cases my description holds.)
Try proposing a surcharge on athletic tickets, the proceeds of which go to fund the educational (or research) mission of the university and see how far it gets. (Hint: for an analogy, think about suggesting real deregulation of the energy industry in the Obama White House.)
Someone else is probably doing their work in that case.
BCS bowl teams are actually losing money on the bowl games.
“Ban tenure for all so called professors”.
Know what I would like banned? Ban the mandatory sale of books written or co-authored by the professor so they get $ from the students. Each class has required books... some of those books will have the professors name in it somewhere. Thus, the professor gets paid. Plus, they have this neat trick (told to me by a college professor) that they will change some of the wording/paragraphs and create a “new” edition. New editions have to be purchased as new and not “used” (lower priced). The professor makes $ again.
I would actually like to see professors who you can actually understand what they’re saying.
People who propose banning college football should be tarred and feathered and then forced to watch non-stop soccer.
Much of what happens in ‘higher education’ has nothing to do with academics. I don’t think that athletes should be able to take TV remote control 101 and get a degree, but I do think that athletics and education can coexist in a very synergistic way. Does this guy think that education will get better if there is no football? If so, why? It’s quite possible that alumni donations would go down, and thus for tuition to go up.
You mean forced to watch MLS Soccer......EPL Soccer Rules!
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