I was going to post this in the thread on Scarbo's "Trial balloon/Hindenburg" article, but it's kind of a different topic. Check out this exchange I found in the comments:
Uab_Blazer Wrote:It is a shame how many people miss the entire point of college athletics. Football was not invented to make money. It is just suppose to be a game. University's do not (or at least should not) have football programs to make money. The sport exist at the collegiate level to provide entertainment to alumni and students.
abrellbama Wrote:Wrong! It is provided to provide entertainment to the masses and in exchange they receive full scholarships. There is no way they could afford the scholarships without the money from the masses.
And there it is. Black & white, directly and succinctly stated by a fan of a Cartel school. It's so backwards I don't even know where to begin in ripping it apart. Academics is now, and apparently was always supposed to be (to be fair, the Bammar doesn't say anything about the beginnings of football on college campuses), an extension of athletics...and, specifically, college football.
The University of Alabama: Creating a university the football team can be proud of.
(05-15-2013 02:21 AM)blazr Wrote: [ -> ]I was going to post this in the thread on Scarbo's "Trial balloon/Hindenburg" article, but it's kind of a different topic. Check out this exchange I found in the comments:
Uab_Blazer Wrote:It is a shame how many people miss the entire point of college athletics. Football was not invented to make money. It is just suppose to be a game. University's do not (or at least should not) have football programs to make money. The sport exist at the collegiate level to provide entertainment to alumni and students.
abrellbama Wrote:Wrong! It is provided to provide entertainment to the masses and in exchange they receive full scholarships. There is no way they could afford the scholarships without the money from the masses.
And there it is. Black & white, directly and succinctly stated by a fan of a Cartel school. It's so backwards I don't even know where to begin in ripping it apart. Academics is now, and apparently was always supposed to be (to be fair, the Bammar doesn't say anything about the beginnings of football on college campuses), an extension of athletics...and, specifically, college football.
I agree with you but the cat certainly isn’t going back in the bag. $$$$ has so much of a hold on college sports at all levels and with the amount of money being thrown around its not changing anytime soon. We can say is just the Power 5 but its everyone from Division 1 all the way down to the Division II level. If you want to watch pure athletics your best bet these days is the Division 3 route.
As I pointed out in my thread posted on the B&G Forum, The #1 conference for spending for general students is the Big 10 with its median school spending $19,225 per pupil. For spending per athlete, the median school in all FBS schools is $91,936 and the median school for all FCS schools is $36,665. These figures were for 2010, the last year for complete figures. The median school in the SEC (which is #1 among all conferences) spent about $163,900 per athlete that year. I would doubt our two BCS schools are at or below that median school's level.
Don't tell me that "you can't solve a problem by throwing money at it". You just have to care enough to throw the hefty amounts necessary to solve the problem. The SEC is #7 among the conferences in general student spending.
If you check that thread, you will see that the difference in general student spending between the #1 conference and the lowest conference is only about $9,000 whereas the SEC spends over $35,000 more per athlete than the #2 conference, the Big 12.
Anyone who doubts which is "the tail" and which is "the dog" is ignoring the facts of how money is invested in each category.
I think they natural evolution that we accepted was that college sports exists to reflect positively on the university by bringing pride and positive public exposure. This is a direct connection to the ancient Greek philosophy of gymnastics being equally important to academics. Even the Rhoades Scholarship, one of the most prestigious academic awards, emphasized athleticism (heavily devalued since the inception).
Positive public exposure is still a powerful and noble endeavor, the strongest reason for many universities that don't break even. I wouldn't know 1/10th of the universities that exist today if it wasn't for college sports.
However, the money is now just as if not more important for the select few.