College Athletics Rant

kevhed72 · March 2019

So I saw where the first woman was offered a "non kicker" football scholorship (sorry kickers!)...so good for her. But then I started thinking about the hypocrisy of major college athletics and how football and basketball all revolve under the guise of competirion and building better human beings...when it all comes down to the almighty dollar. Look at Kentucky basketball...most of those kids dont stick around for four years, and ever earn a degree. You see kids recruited from Sweeden or Eqypt who never would have attended a school like Kansas until the university went out and found that kid. I dunno....people who say ' I only follow college football because ....' are only kidding themselves. The NCAA has just done a better job of masking the hypocrisy than the NFL....which, if you think about it....the NFL doesnt pretend to be doing anything else than selling pro football to fans. Lastly...you have kids in other sports such as swimming which, if lucky, get a 1/3 of a scholorship and work just as hard as the "headcount sport" athletes...but back to that almighty dollar I suppose. I say all of this as Im on day 4 of a big swim meet in Knoxville....waiting for Sunday night finals. End of rant. 🖖

tonyb · March 2019

I hear ya man, but lets face it....swimming isn't bringing in the revenue that basketball or football does for colleges. Almighty dollar wins every time bro.

obieone · March 2019

Here's some fun facts, that'll make you scream:
William Bryce stadium, in Columbia SC, host's the University of S.C. 'Gamecocks'
It seats 80,000 people, which is twenty thousand more than the New England Patriot's Gillette stadium.
AND, this team has NEVER WON a national, conference or EVEN A DIVISIONAL championship!
On top of that, they go to BOWL GAMES WITH A LOSING RECORD?!
You wouldn't believe how much $ is WASTED in college sports.

kevhed72 · March 2019

I will say....Tennessee has one of the better facilities I have been to

displayname · March 2019

You think the almighty dollar is bad at D1 school sports, you should see how the "academics" are run. The kids who want a good education can certainly get it, and many do. But in a revenue sport (mostly football/basketball) the expectations of kids being pushed through is ridiculous. If you talk to students who played non-revenue sports, most of them will have stories about some of the football and basketball guys. I know where I went to school there was at least one non-starting defensive football player who was legally illiterate, yet was still somehow in his 3rd year of being eligible to play. You don't hear about that on ESPN.

aprazer402 · March 2019

Just this past week Nebraska announced it was now free of any outstanding payments to any coaches. They mailed Bo Pelini his last monthly check of $128,009. He received a total of $6.54 million from NU. Mike Riley was paid off in a lump sum of $6,253,393 in Dec. 2017. The former athletic director Shawn Eichorst was let go and he was paid $762,439.

I think all the huge TV and cable contracts (money) have destroyed any remnants of so-called "amateur" athletics especially in the top sports, football and basketball, even at mid-level colleges. This really started rolling back in the 1960's with more and more sports being broadcast.

Many prize "student-athletes" are still given unbelievable treatment, even with the NCAA watching.

There was lobbying by Tom Osborne 25 years ago to be able to pay players.

It's very sad IMO. But I'm still a Husker fan.

nooshinjohn · March 2019

kevhed72 wrote: »

I will say....Tennessee has one of the better facilities I have been to

Paid for with profit-sharing revenue from basketball and football, within the athletic department and donations from VIP alumni that want their name on a building.

displayname · March 2019

nooshinjohn wrote: »

kevhed72 wrote: »

I will say....Tennessee has one of the better facilities I have been to

Paid for with profit-sharing revenue from basketball and football, within the athletic department and donations from VIP alumni that want their name on a building.

I don't know if this is the same at all schools, but I appreciated that our swim team's facility was part of the rec center that all students had access too. Same with our Tennis center. If you try getting on the football field as a regular student you'd probably have criminal trespassing charges.

tonyb · March 2019

displayname wrote: »

You think the almighty dollar is bad at D1 school sports, you should see how the "academics" are run. The kids who want a good education can certainly get it, and many do. But in a revenue sport (mostly football/basketball) the expectations of kids being pushed through is ridiculous. If you talk to students who played non-revenue sports, most of them will have stories about some of the football and basketball guys. I know where I went to school there was at least one non-starting defensive football player who was legally illiterate, yet was still somehow in his 3rd year of being eligible to play. You don't hear about that on ESPN.

Nothing new there, it's been obvious for years. All one has to do is listen to some of these NFL players who can't string a sentence together or use proper English.

It's one of those things that gets by with a wink and a nod, while claiming to be doing the right things. Everyone knows it, but nobody cares, because the dollars are more important than the morality. That's the reality, not the rhetoric these schools spew.

sucks2beme · March 2019

The tuition at the university of North Texas shot up 40% in a couple of years.
They completed a lot of new athletic improvements at the same time.
1+1=2. Welcome to most colleges where all athletic costs get passed along to students and parents. No controls at all. Add parking costs(no car and you still pay it)
a bus pass (even if you don't ride it) and about a hundred or so more things.
No wonder the new generation is upset about college costs.
My guess is most of it goes online and the whole current college
system collapses under it's own weight.

tonyb · March 2019

Maybe the proper question to ask is....if student tuition is reflected in these sports upgrades, what benefits do the students get out of it ?

Just sayin'....because if all these sports programs bring in x amount of revenue, shouldn't tuition be....cheaper ? Or is all the benefits being grabbed by salaries/benefits of administration and coaches. Hmmm

mhardy6647 · March 2019

Look at the rate of increase of fully-loaded tuitions over time compared to inflation*

Then, look at the endowments of the big private universities

Don't get me started...

____________
* Oh, and may I add -- some folks will say almost no-one pays sticker price for those schools. Well, maybe almost no one... but I can vouch for two kids who did (albeit with considerable help from scholarships -- but no financial aid).

displayname · March 2019

tonyb wrote: »

Maybe the proper question to ask is....if student tuition is reflected in these sports upgrades, what benefits do the students get out of it ?

Just sayin'....because if all these sports programs bring in x amount of revenue, shouldn't tuition be....cheaper ? Or is all the benefits being grabbed by salaries/benefits of administration and coaches. Hmmm

Unfortunately even if the athletic contributions went to just keeping tuition at a level rate, the cost of going to school still skyrockets with major sports programs. Big sports leads to higher football ticket prices, and higher enrollment. That creates a housing shortage, and the cost of living goes up. At some big football schools there isn't enough on campus housing to support even 10% of the student body. The cost of living goes up exponentially as you get closer to campus. The cost/sqft of living near campus can rival living downtown in a major city. This forces lower income students to live further off campus, generally work off campus, and require investment in a vehicle.
Needless to say, I'm not a fan of the college athletic systems, particularly at D1 schools.

College Athletics Rant

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