Follow the old University of Chicago example? Questions for you

HarrisburgDave

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2021
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Is it time to deemphasize college sports?
I don’t see a place for Universities to operate professional sports teams. How about you?

Do you think it would be a good thing to stop building massive facilities, paying tens of millions to coaches, and supporting an expensive athletics department?

Would you be a fan of student/athletes playing club sports and representing their school? How about a new NCAA with rules and real enforcement provisions supporting a voluntary amateur sports system?
 

Nitwit

Well-known member
Oct 12, 2021
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The Ivy League is not a bad model. They have competitive sports but without athletic scholarships. I can’t see it happening though. I think maybe 30 or so major programs would spend and be the majors, and then there would be everyone else.
 

EddyS

Member
Oct 25, 2021
224
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Absolutely. Do away with athletic scholarships and the fantasies surrounding college sports.
We can fill our affinities needs elsewhere.
Why do you think they call them student athletes and not athletic students.
 

fairgambit

Well-known member
Oct 12, 2021
1,697
5,625
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Is it time to deemphasize college sports?
I don’t see a place for Universities to operate professional sports teams. How about you?

Do you think it would be a good thing to stop building massive facilities, paying tens of millions to coaches, and supporting an expensive athletics department?

Would you be a fan of student/athletes playing club sports and representing their school? How about a new NCAA with rules and real enforcement provisions supporting a voluntary amateur sports system?
I would welcome de-emphasis but there is too much money involved to expect any meaningful change.
 

Nitwit

Well-known member
Oct 12, 2021
1,481
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I would welcome de-emphasis but there is too much money involved to expect any meaningful change.
I’m being a little facetious but it’s all about the beer. The advertising money pays for TV to broadcast big time college sports and as long as people like their Budweiser, it’s not going away.
 
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Nohow

Well-known member
Oct 25, 2021
1,189
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Is it time to deemphasize college sports?
I don’t see a place for Universities to operate professional sports teams. How about you?

Do you think it would be a good thing to stop building massive facilities, paying tens of millions to coaches, and supporting an expensive athletics department?

Would you be a fan of student/athletes playing club sports and representing their school? How about a new NCAA with rules and real enforcement provisions supporting a voluntary amateur sports system?
No, no and no. Just because the athletes are getting their share, why weren’t you complaining before that? Just stop following big time college sports and follow the Ivy League, it’s an option.
 

BobPSU92

Well-known member
Oct 12, 2021
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“Coach saban, here at the university of alabama, we are planning to deemphasize football.”

 

Moogy

Well-known member
Nov 23, 2021
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No, no and no. Just because the athletes are getting their share, why weren’t you complaining before that? Just stop following big time college sports and follow the Ivy League, it’s an option.
I know I've been complaining well before the athletes were "getting their share," and I follow PSU because I went there, and was a student-athlete. Under the current system, I have absolutely nothing against athletes "getting their share." The problem is the current system sucks.

No coach should be allowed to contact a prospective student-athlete until that student-athlete has applied to, and been accepted at, the university. That consideration for acceptance should be blind to their athletic acumen. The only exception to this communication ban is one boilerplate informational packet at the beginning of their junior year. No more redshirting, greyshirting, medical exceptions, etc. You have 4 years of athletic eligibility, which starts tolling when you first enroll. And you can't be older than 22 to participate.
 

GrimReaper

Well-known member
Oct 12, 2021
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I know I've been complaining well before the athletes were "getting their share," and I follow PSU because I went there, and was a student-athlete. Under the current system, I have absolutely nothing against athletes "getting their share." The problem is the current system sucks.

No coach should be allowed to contact a prospective student-athlete until that student-athlete has applied to, and been accepted at, the university. That consideration for acceptance should be blind to their athletic acumen. The only exception to this communication ban is one boilerplate informational packet at the beginning of their junior year. No more redshirting, greyshirting, medical exceptions, etc. You have 4 years of athletic eligibility, which starts tolling when you first enroll. And you can't be older than 22 to participate.
No major issue with that, but even the Ivies don't go that far.
 
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Moogy

Well-known member
Nov 23, 2021
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No major issue with that, but even the Ivies don't go that far.

Oh, I know there's an exactly 0% chance of anything even close to that happening. That's just my perfect world scenario. You could see that every movement in the world of college athletics was less toward amateurism, and more toward professionalism, and all the fans would welcome the changes as they rolled in, not seeing the boulder picking up momentum down the hill ... and, suddenly, when the kids, rather than the programs, started to benefit from the professionalism of college athletics, those fans were up in arms that this just wasn't the college sports they knew and loved anymore. Der.
 

GrimReaper

Well-known member
Oct 12, 2021
6,419
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Oh, I know there's an exactly 0% chance of anything even close to that happening. That's just my perfect world scenario. You could see that every movement in the world of college athletics was less toward amateurism, and more toward professionalism, and all the fans would welcome the changes as they rolled in, not seeing the boulder picking up momentum down the hill ... and, suddenly, when the kids, rather than the programs, started to benefit from the professionalism of college athletics, those fans were up in arms that this just wasn't the college sports they knew and loved anymore. Der.
It's probably more complicated and nuanced than that. For their shortsighted reasons, the nimrods who run our universities spawned a creature that in many ways wasn't of the university. Now, it's coming back to bight them on their collective asses. Can't say that I'm particularly sympathetic.
 

IrishHerb

Well-known member
Oct 13, 2021
428
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I would welcome de-emphasis but there is too much money involved to expect any meaningful change.

There is a lot of money involved, yes. But how many schools are actually making money from their athletic programs? I seem to have read recently that many are losing money, and only few are actually profiting.
 
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fairgambit

Well-known member
Oct 12, 2021
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There is a lot of money involved, yes. But how many schools are actually making money from their athletic programs? I seem to have read recently that many are losing money, and only few are actually profiting.
I agree most athletic departments lose money, but athletic programs drive alumni pride which translates into more ( and larger) donations, marketing opportunities, etc.
Beyond that, the money I am talking about goes beyond the University level. I saw an estimate that 10 billion dollars will be bet on March Madness this year.
 
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IrishHerb

Well-known member
Oct 13, 2021
428
604
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There is a lot of money involved, yes. But how many schools are actually making money from their athletic programs? I seem to have read recently that many are losing money, and only few are actually profiting.
 
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