Mr. White’s -Sports without the college-

Per the latest athletic “victory” by Steve Spurrier, it is now time to start considering the creation of athletic universities. It may appear to some that that is what we currently have, but it turns out that there are also students attending these universities, who do not play sports. More specifically, the only sport to be played at an athletic university will be football, and the only two majors will be communication and family studies. College football represents all that is wrong with the current university system and its perception by society. Parents send their kids to college because that is how you get a job, when in fact most kids need to find other skills before they come to college, if they do at all. College football is a representation of the business model way of running an academic institution. The business model seeks the greatest profit while the academics of an institution are just an accidental cause. True, football brings in a great deal of money and some of that money does see the classroom but learning is still in the service of sports; the equation is backwards, sports should be in the service of learning.

Playing sports is a positive experience that leads to learning many great lessons. College football, in itself, is probably a good thing (although I am not so sure that football includes as positive the effects of other sports). The problem exists in the administration of such sports, and it probably begins in high school. Often times a teacher is forced to decide between giving the student an inflated grade and giving the grade they deserve, risking the condemnation of the coach/administration/alumni/community. Is it worth denying a good athlete their initial chance at going to college so that they can adequately complete their academic requirements? The answer should be yes but we have lost sight of the proper place for education. The university is just another part of the capitalistic market, dealing out its product (knowledge), but the product has to fit into the market, and so education will continue to be in the service of the market, instead of the other way around. Let us end this facade, of the family thinking the athlete will get that good education as well play their sport, and just create dummy schools for college football.

mrwhite.mrbrown@gmail.com