Ban College Football?
In the Wall Street Journal today, Buzz Bissinger, author of "Friday Night Lights," calls for a ban--an outright ban--on college football:
In more than 20 years I've spent studying the issue, I have yet to hear a convincing argument that college football has anything do with what is presumably the primary purpose of higher education: academics.
That's because college football has no academic purpose. Which is why it needs to be banned. A radical solution, yes. But necessary in today's times....
Who truly benefits from college football? Alumni who absurdly judge the quality of their alma mater based on the quality of the football team. Coaches such as Nick Saban of the University of Alabama and Bob Stoops of Oklahoma University who make obscene millions. The players themselves don't benefit, exploited by a system in which they don't receive a dime of compensation. The average student doesn't benefit, particularly when football programs remain sacrosanct while tuition costs show no signs of abating as many governors are slashing budgets to the bone....
I actually like football a great deal. I am not some anti-sports prude. It has a place in our society, but not on college campuses.
I'm still collecting my thoughts on this, but to be honest? Half the reason I decided to post it was to see how Dave Carter would reply. Dave's never less than entertaining, of course. But when he's good and mad? Dave's a thing of pure beauty.
- Comment (111)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (7)
Comments:
Sep '10
Re: Ban College Football?
Buzz Bissinger, author of "Friday Night Lights," calls for a ban--an outright ban--on college football:
Unfortunately, with the exception of Hillsdale and too few other institutions, a more accurate declaration would have been:
A more productive debate would be about what students are truly learning for the time and money spent and whether everyone really needs to go to college.
Edited on May 8, 2012 at 8:38amNov '10
Re: Ban College Football?
If college football were run on some kind of ethical, equitable basis, the case against it would fail. But then it wouldn't be college football as we know it: a free farm system for the pros; a cash-cow for some few; an exploitative road to nowhere for those who don't make it to the pros; a scandal to those who witness the suppression of felonies committed by valued players. I personally couldn't care less: there are far more important things to get exercised about on college campuses. But the monumental denial exhibited by the fans of college football would be appalling if the subject were more important.
Aug '10
Re: Ban College Football?
I'd be a little more sympathetic to his argument if he didn't single out one sport.
Surely any argument against college football is equally valid when discussing basketball, field hockey, gymnastics, golf, skiing, baseball, softball, track & field, swimming, wrestling, chess, etc, etc, etc?
Mar '11
Re: Ban College Football?
Here here why should tax payers pay for other entertainment and student go into debt (athletically fees are part of tuition) so some athletes who will never get a degree get to go to college for free so they can train to may hundreds of thousands of dollars for a few years playing sports. College sports in general is that way. I think all sports at college level should be club sports. At the time I went to the 6th college in the U.S. and Hockey and Rowing were club sports that were not paid by the athletic program but through fund raising and student paying fees to participate. I think all sports need to go that way.
However adults love tax payers parents and students paying for their entertainment that is why new stadiums/arenas paid by tax payers only Billionaires and millionaires richer under the guise of being good for the local economy (which is total B.S.).
UF is getting ride of their computer Science degree. Why don’t they stop funding all sports programs first. The premium engineering school in Florida getting ride of Computer Science yet no sports my tax dollars at work.
May '10
Re: Ban College Football?
Ronaldus Maximus
A more productive debate would be about what students are truly learning for the time and money spent and whether everyonereally needs to go to college. · 8 hours ago
Edited 7 hours ago
I agree fully. In this respect, many college students are not any better than your average student athlete. However, there's one big difference. Most of those students who probably shouldn't be wasting their time in college are wasting it on their own time and their own (or their parents) money. Why should others get to do the same at no cost, simply because they play a sport? Particularly when there are plenty ofstudents who are competent academically and also paying out of pocket.
Nov '10
Re: Ban College Football?
Misthiocracy: I'd be a little more sympathetic to his argument if he didn't single out one sport.
Surely any argument against college football is equally valid when discussing basketball, field hockey, gymnastics, golf, skiing, baseball, softball, track & field, swimming, wrestling, chess, etc, etc, etc? · 1 hour ago
Equally valid? Do you truly think the industry that is college footbawl is on a par (heh) with college golf? Basketball, yes: once again, a free farm system for the pros, and a similar list of ills we associate with that other game. But chess? How many millions do the schools invest in chess? Where is the professional chess track that these "student-athletes" are being groomed for? Where the millionaire coaches? To be sure, if people want to pay for this stuff, I say let them. But spare me the paeans to the noble virtues allegedly enshrined between the goalposts. The callous and even ugly realities of this branch of the professional sports industry tell another story.
Apr '11
Re: Ban College Football?
Why do we love college football? Because it's just so much fun. The tradition, the marching band, the spectacle, the (classic, not new-fangled) uniforms, the importance of the regular season games...there's just nothing like it. Is it perfect? No. Are there ugly aspects? Yes. Does college football make the list of the top 100 (1000?) things wrong with America? No.
See this little defense of the seriousness of sports posted at the start of last season. Taking off on Fr. James Schall, I invoke Aristotle in defense of the Sooners and the rest of the schools/teams that play the world's greatest game.
Aug '10
Re: Ban College Football?
MMPadre
Misthiocracy: I'd be a little more sympathetic to his argument if he didn't single out one sport.
Surely any argument against college football is equally valid when discussing basketball, field hockey, gymnastics, golf, skiing, baseball, softball, track & field, swimming, wrestling, chess, etc, etc, etc? · 1 hour ago
Equally valid? Do you truly think the industry that is college footbawl is on a par (heh) with college golf? Basketball, yes: once again, a free farm system for the pros, and a similar list of ills we associate with that other game. But chess? How many millions do the schools invest in chess? Where is the professional chess track that these "student-athletes" are being groomed for? Where the millionaire coaches? To be sure, if people want to pay for this stuff, I say let them. But spare me the paeans to the noble virtues allegedly enshrined between the goalposts. The callous and even ugly realities of this branch of the professional sports industry tell another story.
So, college sports should only be banned if they're popular? It really has nothing to do with their lack of educational value?
Apr '11
Re: Ban College Football?
To quote myself from the above-referenced old post:
Aristotle said somehwere that the closest many of us will ever get to true contemplation is when we take in the spectacle of a contest. A great game allows us to glimpse the divine in that it shows us in stark relief something excellent that need not exist, but does. Something beautiful that exists only for its own sake (despite all the money involved)... Bob Stoops put it more succinctly: A big game, the feeling you get just before kickoff, "Lets you know you're alive." Just so.
Anyway, Schall's essay is worth a read for the college football fan seeking to understand why he is pulled to that stadium every Saturday, and also (especially?) for the non-fan who may think we are all crazy rednecks. We may be rednecks, but I don't think we're crazy.
Sep '10
Re: Ban College Football?
Kofola
I agree fully. In this respect, many college students are not any better than your average student athlete. However, there's one big difference. Most of those students who probably shouldn't be wasting their time in college are wasting it on their own time and their own (or their parents) money. Why should others get to do the same at no cost, simply because they play a sport? Particularly when there are plenty ofstudents who are competent academically and also paying out of pocket.
I understand your sentiment. However, because the Federal Government, sorry President Barrack Obama, funds all student loans and because of never-ending inflationary prices of college tuition, I think the overall value and need for a college degree is more important than the state of collegiate athletics. Concerning ourselves with paying college football players and/or the largess going towards athletic departments are simply a distraction from a the impending education bubble we have around the corner.
America is wasting billions sending its youth to college to receive little or no real world training and skills, while being immersed in values and beliefs that are anathema to most their parents.
Sep '10
Re: Ban College Football?
MMPadre
Misthiocracy: I'd be a little more sympathetic to his argument if he didn't single out one sport.
Surely any argument against college football is equally valid when discussing basketball, field hockey, gymnastics, golf, skiing, baseball, softball, track & field, swimming, wrestling, chess, etc, etc, etc? · 1 hour ago
Equally valid? Do you truly think the industry that is college footbawl is on a par (heh) with college golf? Basketball, yes: once again, a free farm system for the pros, and a similar list of ills we associate with that other game. But chess? How many millions do the schools invest in chess? Where is the professional chess track that these "student-athletes" are being groomed for? Where the millionaire coaches? To be sure, if people want to pay for this stuff, I say let them. But spare me the paeans to the noble virtues allegedly enshrined between the goalposts. The callous and even ugly realities of this branch of the professional sports industry tell another story. · 37 minutes ago
So sports that lose money for schools are to be valued but not those that make money?? Please explain this logic?
Re: Ban College Football?
Then ban the chess club, because football and chess are similar endeavors.
There are differences that favor football as the more intellectual aim.
In chess each participant moves one piece at a time and has an enormous amount of time to study his opponent's formation.
In football you have to move all your pieces at the same time while your opponent is moving all of his. You have only seconds to recognize your opponent's formation and attack his position - said position changing during the course of his move.
Football is chess with faster thinking.
Anyone who thinks a person can be stupid and play well on a football field is wrong.
There are various yardsticks for intelligence. There is no reason to exclude understanding the complexities of well played football as one of them.
Sep '10
Re: Ban College Football?
Those singling out college football and basketball for criticism because they are free farm systems for the pros are deluding themselves. ALL collegiate athletics are a free farm system for the pros. PGA and LPGA players all earned their chops on college golf teams. The majority of American-born MLB players are playing NCAA baseball before going on to the pros. So too American-born hockey players in the NHL. Americans playing MLS and on our international soccer teams all played collegiate soccer. Indeed, our Olympic teams rely on the training and competition they get at the collegiate level in preparation for the Games. Take away NCAA swimming and track & field and US excellence in those sports would disappear.
Re: Ban College Football?
My views exactly. I popped up this post, came back the next morning--and found dozens of smart, witty, illuminating comments. Lord, do I love Ricochet.
But the opera ain't over till Dave Carter sings.
Re: Ban College Football?
Okay Peter, sorry for the delayed response, but I hope you'll find the reason for my tardiness understandable in an upcoming post.
Quoth Buzz Bissinger:
To which one could add, golf, softball, baseball, basketball, and ping pong. For that matter, what is the academic value of such actual course offerings as:
* “Occupy the Field: Global Finance, Inequality, Social Movement” at Columbia University.
* "Super Smash Brothers Melee Theory and Practice," at Oberlin College, in Ohio.
* "Stupidity," at Occidental College in L.A. Description: "Stupidity is neither ignorance nor organicity, but rather, a corollary of knowing… Stupidity is always the name of the Other, and it is the sign of the feminine."
* "The Science of Superheroes," at UC Irvine. The course asks the probing academic question: "Have you ever wondered if Superman could really bend steel bars?"
(Cont)
Edited on May 8, 2012 at 6:08pmRe: Ban College Football?
(Cont)
Such examples of "academics" elicited not a blip from Buzz, who would first dispense with football. Put aside the question of whether colleges even educate people any longer, as opposed to training them. Mr. Bissinger writes, "Call me the Grinch. But I would much prefer students going to college to learn and be prepared for the rigors of the new economic order…"
In the "new economic order," as in the old, there will be winners and losers, and all the cerebral masturbatory nonsense of whether, "Stupidity is always the name of the Other, and it is the sign of the feminine," won't change the reality. In football, claiming to be 1/32nd Native American won't get you any points. You can't spread the touchdowns around so that everybody wins. Athletics teach the value of preparation, hard work, perseverance, toughness, teamwork. Athletics will teach you that no matter how good you are, you will in fact get knocked down, and whining about the top 1% isn't going to help. And as Tommy notes above, football in particular teaches quick tactical and strategic analysis, with real world consequences, in a way that little else can.
Edited on May 8, 2012 at 6:13pmRe: Ban College Football?
When I was a kid in elementary school in Baton Rouge, we had a rough version of football we played at recess. It was simply called, "Kill The Guy With The Ball." A football was kicked into a crowd of us boys. Who ever caught it had to run the length of the playground, against about 20 other boys, to the other side without getting tackled. If he made it, he got to kick the ball into the crowd. If not, whoever took the ball from him had to press on in the effort. One against 20. It wasn't fair. People got hit so hard it knocked the taste out of their mouths. But we lived. We learned. We grew. And it may be that one of my buddies went on to wear the purple and gold. If Buzz Bissinger doesn't get it,…that's okay. It's his loss, not ours.
Jun '10
Re: Ban College Football?
We played the same game, though we had a far less PC name for it...
Mar '11
Re: Ban College Football?
Dave Carter: It was simply called, "Kill The Guy With The Ball."
We called it "Squish Guts!"
Dec '10
Re: Ban College Football?
Joseph Stanko
We played the same game, though we had a far less PC name for it...
I hear you, Joseph, but we called it, "Man Get" (rough neighborhood, near D.C.). Our 6th Grade teacher outlawed our game during recess because, as she described it, "Man Get, Man Got, Man Go Down". So we had to play after school and it was probably the best tool I observed for bringing young black and white boys together in pure joy. Sure, we beat the stuffing out of each other, but then we lay in the grass trying to heal and catch our breathes, while laughing about our follies. I never saw any of us that played that game together ever get into fights with each other and fights were otherwise constant in that school.