A surprising bit from the article:
only 24 of 230 Division I public schools generated sufficient revenues to cover the total costs of their athletic programs
A surprising bit from the article:
only 24 of 230 Division I public schools generated sufficient revenues to cover the total costs of their athletic programs
I used to work in higher education. I was in admissions at Directional U (we’re going to ignore that wasted nine months running a business school in Mauritius). I also used to write and post more on the problems of higher education, particularly the problems with borrowing money to attend college. There are a lot of people that do that better than me. I’m mostly going to leave it to them.
I am going to shift the focus a little.
I’m going to start posting about college and university athletic departments. When you look at a place like the University of Texas’ Athletic Department, it is sort of easy to see and understand how it came to be in its current state. If you had no knowledge of college athletic departments (such as is the case in Europe), you would look at this arrangement and wonder how it is allowed to exist. There is no good reason for the UT athletic department to exist. The State of Texas’ premier tax supported institution of higher education and research should not have attached to it such a large organization that adds nothing, or even subtracts from, it’s core purpose. I do understand that UT’s athletic department kicks money over to the general fund every year, but it is a rare exception among university athletic departments. UT is an exception, the vast majority of university athletic departments operate at a loss.
Most of the scholarship athletes do not belong in these universities. They just don’t have the academic chops.
A significant number of these athletes are criminals.
I am not alone in my thinking. Victor Davis Hanson: End College Football.
Disclosure: The Ace spent two years at Arkansas. The Deuce attends Ole Miss. I do watch college football, but really remain puzzled as to why it exists.
From the Dallas Morning News Sports section TV listings:
College football
Gator Bowl: Nebraska vs. Georgia 11am ESPN2
Heart of Dallas Bowl: North Texas vs. UNLV 11am ESPNU
Capital One Bowl: South Carolina vs. Wisconsin noon Ch. 8
Outback Bowl: Iowa vs. LSU noon ESPN
Rose Bowl: Stanford vs. Michigan State 4:00 ESPN
Fiesta Bowl: UCF vs. Baylor 7:30 ESPN
Does anyone but me spot a problem here? I can’t believe we have public, tax payer supported, institutions of higher learning with sports departments. But if we are going to have these public institutions putting on minor league football games, should we have to pay to watch them play out of town games? I don’t think this will play well with the state legislatures. Someone will complain and notice will be taken.
Out of all the schools listed above, I bet not one of them has a cash flow positive sports department. Maybe LSU. But none of the others. And I do know that Baylor is a private institution.
From Fake Sports Center. It made me laugh.
Of course you should also listen to the Auburn radio call. That website is kind of annoying, but still, what a great call.
It amazes me that we tolerate the corrupting forces of college football to be part of our major universities. From Cowlishaw’s column today:
I don’t have any excuse for our tolerance of all the people on the fringes of college football getting rich while the real people doing the dirty work merely hope it pays off somewhere down the line.