(07-20-2017 10:01 AM)MplsBison Wrote: You think state lawmakers should be making football schedules???? Good grief, get a hold of yourself. They have much, much better things to be doing than worrying about college athletics.
Yikes, where to begin...
"Making schedules?" No. That's not what's happening here. This is about just getting a game or two. Are you telling me even THAT is too much?
These are children spending their parents' money, right? Then, yes, the states are not out of line pushing this on THEIR (and our) institutions.
If the exposure enhances enrollment across all state institutions, then **** yes, they should. It's bad practice if states don't even request it of these schools.
Equally bad a practice is a conference telling schools how to schedule when there can be some developmental benefits from such games. Like I referenced earlier about rivalries like Rutgers-Colgate (or Rutgers and a couple of the Patriot League schools who it used to frequently see), or potential benefits of Penn State-Lehigh, and others potentially out there...there's value to these games because there's still identity and legacy tied to them, too. The Big Ten has been utterly TERRIBLE with the OOC and scheduling demands ever since expanding past its namesake; theirs is a horribly myopic philosophy that has cost its member schools and, by extension, the conference itself untold money.
The signals this stuff sends is exactly what's wrong in higher education, and like what's discussed in the UNC and Louisville scandal threads, or the Horizon one with UIC's issues with its governing body. That is, only one campus can get the resources. The rest can shove off. Accountable to nobody but themselves...and this silly conference that thinks WAY too high of itself.
And, you're really talking to the wrong sort about what I should expect from my government. If it enhances and promotes, and, thus, betters ALL of my state institutions, provides a boost to local economies, provides local and regional interest...why shouldn't I, or anyone, not want that for their state? It's the VERY thing that made football so popular.