{"id":590,"date":"2014-03-08T23:30:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-08T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/03\/on-college-sports.html"},"modified":"2014-03-08T23:30:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-08T23:30:00","slug":"on-college-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/03\/on-college-sports.html","title":{"rendered":"On college sports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
So the football players at Northwestern are trying to get approval of a players\u2019 union, with the testimony from either side wrapping up a couple weeks ago. \u00a0I didn\u2019t weigh in on it at the time because I don\u2019t know enough about labor law to know whether they had legitimate grounds or not. \u00a0The players say they are basically obliged to \u201cwork\u201d (= games plus practices plus conditioning) full time, are at risk of losing their scholarships if they\u2019re injured, and are not sufficiently protected from injury or its effects in general. \u00a0Northwestern pulled some recent graduates who testified that they were able to complete degrees in highly demanding fields while playing ball.<\/div>\n

(And the reality is that sports scholarships are distinct from most other types of scholarships: \u00a0if you win a scholarship for outstanding volunteerism, you\u2019re not required to continue volunteering to keep the scholarship, are you?)<\/p>\n

At the same time, I find our system of \u201ccollege ball = minor leagues\u201d to be pretty lousy. \u00a0Sure, it works well for players who want to get an education for free. \u00a0But for players who just want to play football, they would be much better served by a true minor league system (with the financial counseling to understand that they\u2019d better save their cash for after they can\u2019t play any longer and need a new career). \u00a0And it would save the schools from the corruption that goes along with running a big-time sports program, in which they enjoy substantial profits from students who aren\u2019t even allowed any income other than their room and board allowance. \u00a0(Or do they get some money for books and expenses? \u00a0I don\u2019t know, except that I read of such kids needing to go on food stamps in the summer because of summer job restrictions.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, you read plenty often about kids who are in no way capable of serious college work being passed through Mickey-Mouse courses to preserve their academic eligibility, and who wouldn\u2019t even have been admitted without loosening or eliminating the academic requirements that apply to everyone else. \u00a0Profit-earning college athletics is corrupting; it\u2019s very rare that an athletic program maintains the same standards for athletes as everyone else.<\/p>\n

Heck, why not allow colleges to sponsor these minor-league teams, or affiliate with a minor league team? \u00a0And if athletes want to take classes during the off-season, or during available time during the season, and are qualified, then good for them!<\/p>\n

All of which is a long preface to an article that I stumbled on about college sports, and, specifically, women\u2019s sports, \u201cCollege Athletics and the Common Good<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s basic point is that, if athletics are a good means of bringing students together, developing teamwork and fitness, relieving stress, and promoting physical and mental well-being, then the university provides more benefits for more students by providing as many opportunities as possible for intramural and club sports of various forms. \u00a0The author writes:<\/p>\n

But if a college really believed in the camaraderie that sport helps to foster and the excitement of watching one\u2019s friends struggle to win fair and square\u2014if its administrators truly believed that such benefits should be extended to as many students as possible, regularly and in a wide variety of ways\u2014then it could take a tiny portion of what is now spent on coaches, recruiters, physicians, staff, and travel, and devote it to promoting club sports and a robust program of intramurals. \u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A campus with 4,000 students, almost half of them male, could easily field several baseball teams, a football team, three-on-three basketball teams, teams for flag football and light-weight football, a wrestling team, clubs for women\u2019s golf or tennis, women\u2019s hockey or basketball, or whatever the students might wish. The beauty of club sports is that they are self-organized, local, and inexpensive. They involve all kinds of ordinary people. They are not\u00a0serious,\u00a0<\/em>nor are they meant to be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, his explanation of why universities don\u2019t do this is that it\u2019s a numbers game: \u00a0such a university\u2019s athletics program would likely find a disproportionate number of its participants to be male, and thus be in violation of Title 9 or, if not, at least politically incorrect, whereas, if your program consists of interescholastic competition with small numbers of athletes, you can make the numbers work by limiting the participants. \u00a0That particular explanation doesn\u2019t quite seem right \u2014 I would imagine it would be more likely to be a matter of universities seeking out the status that spending lots of cash on its top athletes provides \u2014 but all the same, it\u2019s a worthy perspective, and not just at the college, but also the high school level.<\/p>\n

And did I ever mention that I\u2019m quite fond of the fact that, in Germany, athletics is completely divorced from schools, both at the secondary and university level, but occurs wholly through \u201cclubs,\u201d in which each town has its own \u201cTurn und Sport Verein\u201d (TSV) or \u201cGymanstics and Sports Association,\u201d which provide any number of sports and recreational opportunities. \u00a0Here\u2019s a partial list at the TSV Gruenwald<\/a>, where we lived during our stay in Germany: \u00a0 \u00a0judo, karate, gymnastics, basketball, soccer, hockey, table tennis, volleyball, fencing. \u00a0Now, some of this reads like our local Park District offerings, but the difference is that the TSV system is the only game in town \u2014 the top-tier soccer clubs are still clubs, and offer recreational sports as well. \u00a0It\u2019s not a perfect system, but has a fair amount of appeal.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So the football players at Northwestern are trying to get approval of a players\u2019 union, with the testimony from either side wrapping up a couple weeks ago. \u00a0I didn\u2019t weigh in on it at the time because I don\u2019t know enough about labor law to know whether they had legitimate grounds or not. \u00a0The players […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOn college sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So the football players at Northwestern are trying to get approval of a players' union, with the testimony from either side wrapping up a couple weeks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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