After listening to talking head sports radio today, it’s time to shut this ignorance down and close the athletics department.
If getting a fully paid college education, room and meals, and the ability to make money off advertising opportunities isn’t enough, then the University has a responsibility to the taxpayers to just end the Bull ■■■■. Universities exist to provide opportunities to students to pursue academic studies and like skills - not to chase a sports dream that is tantamount to trying to win the lottery. House v NCAA is a bridge too far. If these kids “think” they’re pros, then go be pros.
Been progressively distancing myself from college sports over the last few years because the combination of rabid price increases and the impact on overall higher education. Transfer portal and NIL has finalized the transition to professional corporate sports and the universities need to sell them off and let them sink or swim like other businesses. If a university wants to sponsor a team for advertising they can do it like Les Schwab.
I’ll miss the sports I loved 20 years ago but in the end I want my University to be a bough higher learning.
I’m a lot more concerned over the fact that in our nation a huge percentage of students exit college with staggering loan debt that may take many years to pay off (and other young people from working class families can’t even consider college) than I am that some of the athletes on full ride scholarships are just not getting enough $$$ in addition to tuition, books, housing, food, stipends, etc.
It also raises a question I used to have to discuss with elected officials regarding services. I think it applies to the University of Utah.
“In light of the changes, should the University be in this business anymore?”
Making students add to their debt load to pay “fees” that subsidize what has become a professional sports and entertainment department on its face is appalling, and it is likely those fees are only going to get worse. In short, this is a no bueno.
In a time when we need to be making higher education more affordable and accessible, operating what has become a professional sports franchise is simply no longer sustainable. The University needs to cut bait, and the sooner the better.
From The [expensive, paywalled] Athletic this morning, in its breakdown of how the College Sports Commission is now forming in the post-House era:
“Judges can rule. Policies can change. Accounting firms can require a login. But Buddy Booster is going to find a way to get that recruit for their program.”
Bingo. On the one hand, this is all just a moment in sports history that none of us has any ability to control or affect in any way. We’re all accepting the inevitable. Reminds me of the Kubler-Ross steps of mourning any loss. We’re losing college athletics as we all have known them throughout our adult lives.
So the stages of grief after a loss are denial, negotiation, anger, depression, and acceptance. We can pass through those steps one by one, in order, or through several or all of them at once. It looks like most of us are somewhere between depression and acceptance.
I’ve seen private equity companies come in and essentially wipe out the company that was purchased. Ergo I see private equity as a bane to the world, and even worse for whoever brings them in. So, I suspect college athletics as we know them are not going to last. My guess is that by 2030 things will be hugely different, and not in a good way, than they are now for college athletics.
Enjoy college sports now, cuz I’m pretty sure something bad is on the way.
Private equity = squeeze every last drop of potential profit out of something by whatever means necessary while leaving it a shell of what it originally was or destroying it entirely.