Just how did you mean that, Coach?
The irresistible force of college football
“A few millennia from now, when archaeologists from an ascendant Brazil or Turkey or wherever sift the shards of American civilization and find the ruins of the Big House in Ann Arbor, Mich., they will wonder why a 109,901-seat entertainment venue was attached to an institution of higher education. Today, the accelerating preposterousness of major college football is again provoking furrowed brows and pursed lips. However, there probably was few of either among the 20 million who Saturday night watched the University of Alabama’s student-athletes play those of Louisiana State University.
“These teams’ head coaches’ salaries are $4.6 million and $3.75 million, respectively, and their additional perquisites and incentives have cash values not to be sneezed at. But by some hedonic or other calculus, these coaches may add more to the national stock of pleasure, and even more value to their institutions, than do Alabama’s president and LSU’s chancellor, who earn $487,620 and $400,000, respectively…”
Penn State scandal will cost millions
“NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Beyond the human tragedy of the child abuse scandal engulfing Penn State football, there is a significant financial cost that is likely to be suffered by one of the most lucrative sports teams in the country.
Its revenue of $72.7 million from football last season was the fifth highest of any college program in the country, according to a CNNMoney analysis of figures reported by each school to the Department of Education…”
Cassi Creek:
Once again, the national elevation of team athletics into a religion bares it dark nature. Young athletes have been subjected to the predations of pedophiles who fill positions of power and authority in the corporate structure of collegiate football.
A nationally ranked football program has been exposed for the moral morass that it has become in the drive to obtain multi-million dollar broadcasting contracts. The damage to the minds and bodies of young “student-athletes” is incalculable. But the university, the alumni, and even the current student body are concerned only with damage to the program.
The myth of “student-athletes” in these United States is robbing local and state schools of much needed funding as dollars budgeted for education are shunted into football, basketball, and baseball programs. School systems build new stadia and arenas while students lack textbooks.
Add the use of “athletic scholarships” for recruiting even at the high school level, and the path for sexual abuse by coaches and other adults in the programs is an easy one to lure young would-be-athletes on to. The very students who have no interest in academics are easily steered and coerced by the promise of a position on a team. Their need to belong to a peer group makes it unlikely that they will report predation and risk the social ostracism that exposure brings to a victim. The pressure to accept the assault for the “good of the team and program” is a powerful source of pressure applied to students, particularly to those already in some degree of emotional and educational distress. .
So we find yet another set of reasons to eliminate the use of education moneys to provide a multi-year training camp for private franchise owner who set up the false promise that escape from poverty and an all-expense paid education will result from playing team sports. Assuming that the would-be –student-athlete actually is good enough to make the team, is fortunate enough to avoid disabling injuries, and is actually intellectually honest and capable enough to pursue an academic course that isn’t just another slide downhill into small town high school coaching while pretending to teach history; being recruited and sexually abused may do more damage than any concussion or torn ACL to end an athlete’s career.
It’s time to eliminate high school and collegiate athletic programs. When the major cause of concern to a series of sexual assaults is how it will affect the football program, there is no need to keep wondering. The program is ready to be destroyed, at every site and every level, nationwide.
There is no justification for the existence of any athletics program that values its player so little as to make them sacrificial offerings to the corporate nature of football. There is no reason any “coach” should be receiving multi-million dollar salaries to bring in television broadcasting contracts while the “student athletes leave campus as poorly educated as when they arrive. Pull the plug, now.
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