College Sports & the problem of quitting

People get addicted to things. Drugs. Alcohol. Sex. And once they are, it is hard to break the chains that bind them to that addiction.

And so it goes with college sports. Part Two of the series on colleges and sports. Is it worth staying in Division I knowing that the college has no chance of winning the big game? Or might not even be invited to the dance at all?

But the hoped for savings are called “illusory” because the presidents and administration have to keep the alumni happy. It's not about the students attending the college or their hopes and dreams for the future. Nope. It's keeping the alumni happy.

Can the Library and History programs at UB and I'll be very unhappy. And my giving will stop. Will the administration be happy then?

Can I please have whatever drugs they are taking? Or at least be told what drugs they are taking?

St Bonaventure evidently can keep its team in Division I because of external funding – like alumni giving and corporate sponsors. Better idea – take the alumni giving and use it to keep full time faculty and let the corporations underwrite their own teams. Look at their stock prices and reported profits. Why should they be worried that the star players might not be on the team because they couldn't keep up their GPA? Let the corporation foot the bill and then they won't have to worry about all that academic stuff.

And how many communities have sporting arenas and complexes that sit around unused? (Another great waste of money.) The teams can use those to compete in. Let the colleges use the “illusory savings” from not having to waste money on sporting programs that chew up students like bubble gum at a county fair and spit them out like tobacco juice at a baseball game to fund full time faculty that help students graduate and succeed. More graduates with jobs means more donations.

I have met too many former college athletes that never graduated. And those scholarships and loans were given out because? Someone tell me please? And how much money do these drop outs donate to the colleges? Please tell me that?

And the colleges that are “making it?” No one has any names to give. At least not in the article. If this was such a lucrative venture for the colleges, then give us names of colleges that are actually making money off of their sporting programs. According to David Zirin (I believe) there are exactly six (6) Division I football programs that are self sustaining. Out of how many football teams?

And all the money to sustain these programs has to come from someplace. It's called student fees. Colleges spend big bucks hoping that they will win enough games, get to the big dance, and win the big one and see a profit come from the team.

Like a David Copperfield show, this is an illusion. Bu the debt that is hanging over college students' heads – from the drop outs to the graduates – is a bigger threat than a college will face from canning its sports program. The $1.3 trillion in student loans that, if defaulted, will send the world into a depression that will make 2007-08 look like a walk in the park is very real according to the economists that no one wants to listen to. And with people in that much of a hole and danger, college becomes even more difficult to afford. And the donations that are needed to keep the colleges going will dry up.

Either that or they will cut academics more and fund the sports programs with whatever they get their hands on. Like a junkie selling off family heirloom jewellery for the next high. What happens when there is nothing left to sell?

College sports has been described as a sacred cow. No one wants to slay it, but they know it is going to die one day. The Drake Group wants to get legislation passed that limits the amount of money that colleges can charge students to subsidize their sports teams. The correct answer is: None.

With the crisis in education that colleges are facing – students not graduating, not enough teachers for courses that students need, and sports costing even more every year, colleges need to look at why they exist and what their purpose is.

Is is career preparation and critical thinking?

Or keeping people happy, entertained, and stupid.

I know too many people with college debt that are not happy, certainly not entertained, and feel pretty stupid about going to college because they never completed their degree or could have done better at a community college program.

And they don't donate to alumni funds either. Most of them are barely making it, so donations of any kind aren't happening.

So, where do these colleges that are trying to live the illusion go?

I say they wake up from the dream and start to live in reality before reality gives them a rude awakening.