Bill Snyder says universities have sold out
- Thread starter major tidefan
- Start date
He's right to an extent, but, as has been already pointed out, college football has provided resources to the schools & the athlete's themselves with state of art learning resources, that wouldn't been provide without college football money.."Sold Out" is the wrong term, when I think of "Sold Out" or "Sold Their Souls To The Devil" I think of Auburn in their conquest to get out from underneath the shadow of the best college football program in the history of the game..Alabama..
Another side of this as well--Universities have quite a few rich alumnus who contribute hundreds of thousands or even millions to their respective schools. You'll find most of them at the football stadium on Saturday afternoons.
I have no basis for this statement at all but I'd bet there is a direct correlation between the size of the contributions and the success of the football teams.
I'll use T. Boone Pickens as an example. Oklahoma State starts winning football games, and the next thing you know he's contributing hundreds of millions to his alma mater.
sip
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Your time perspecitve on this ^^ may be off a bit. Pickens' contributions to the OkSt football program were more of a generator of their improvement than a result of their improvement. Their facilities and the abiltiy to pay and retain good coaches {beginning with Les Miles} improved and more wins followed. Not so much the other way around.
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To all of you claim the university needs the 10 to 15 million a year that athletics gives back. That figure is not 1% of the annual university budget. The budget for this year is 775,000,000.00. Lots of zero's huh. The athletic dept is a way for kids who might not have had the opportunity to got college to get an education or at least it should be. Don't get me wrong, the football team is at least part of the reason that we have attracted quality students, but it also has to do with the fact that the university has recruiters all over the country as well. Dr. Witt deserves a building or road named after him when he retires.
I love the university and have season tickets to three sports including football. I enjoy the games and the atmosphere is 2nd to none, but the conferences have sold out in the name of the almighty buck. Sports should be about building character and getting an education. ESPN and the big 5 seem more worried about the 1% of the kids who may play pro ball who probably don't get their full value in a scholarship while they are in school, but what about the other 99% who get more value than they are worth to the school. I'm jaded I admit, but isn't it time we seem more interested in the education of the 99% of kids who are on scholarship. Instead of increasing the yearly costs of each student athlete it should be extended to 5 years and IMHO freshman should not play in any sport their 1st year. It would give kids time to adjust to being on their own and develop self discipline. I know I'm in the minority, but I'd like to see a JV team again.
I love the university and have season tickets to three sports including football. I enjoy the games and the atmosphere is 2nd to none, but the conferences have sold out in the name of the almighty buck. Sports should be about building character and getting an education. ESPN and the big 5 seem more worried about the 1% of the kids who may play pro ball who probably don't get their full value in a scholarship while they are in school, but what about the other 99% who get more value than they are worth to the school. I'm jaded I admit, but isn't it time we seem more interested in the education of the 99% of kids who are on scholarship. Instead of increasing the yearly costs of each student athlete it should be extended to 5 years and IMHO freshman should not play in any sport their 1st year. It would give kids time to adjust to being on their own and develop self discipline. I know I'm in the minority, but I'd like to see a JV team again.
I see both sides of the arguement. Snyder is correct but college sports has done a lot for colleges. TV money has made that possible.
IIRC, Alabama's AD gave $7 million to the general scholarship fund last year alone.
That's horrible.
That's horrible.
While I agree with Rama Jama that the college experience should be about getting an education and building character; I unfortunately think that ship has sailed.
It would be inspiring if every college student athlete was like Barett Jones, but that can only happen in the Ivy League in today's world. Major college athletics, most especially football and basketball, are simply a training ground for the NFL and NBA for those gifted enough while the great majority may or may not derive benefit from being a student athlete.
College football has grown so much over the past decade and has garnered such tremendous exposure that it is merely a huge business in its own right with increasing disregard to the futures of most who participate. It is how the world now works for better or worse.
It would be inspiring if every college student athlete was like Barett Jones, but that can only happen in the Ivy League in today's world. Major college athletics, most especially football and basketball, are simply a training ground for the NFL and NBA for those gifted enough while the great majority may or may not derive benefit from being a student athlete.
College football has grown so much over the past decade and has garnered such tremendous exposure that it is merely a huge business in its own right with increasing disregard to the futures of most who participate. It is how the world now works for better or worse.
Let's be honest, while it's become even more obvious in some cases, the idea of the 'student athlete' essentially died DECADES ago...
I agree if we limit it to the bigger schools/conferences and to the bigger sports within those schools. Many of these kids have no real interest in the educational aspects, so they can be said not to be true "student" athletes.
Far more college football players go to college to have a great time playing football knowing that it is just a means of paying for their education than believing that they will someday play in the NFL. My nephew is a great example. He is a senior in HS this year and hoping to play college football for a small Div 1 school, but he will play in an even smaller school if it means that he can get a great education for free. He wants the education. A football scholarship will allow him to attend without needing to work full time while in school to pay for it. Football will be his "job". Other students have different jobs - what we might call "real" jobs - and we don't even suggest that they are not really students just because they work and have other interests.
Most of these kids still are student athletes in every sense. Not sure how making money would change that. It doesn't for any other kid working his way through school.
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I think most of these kids take advantage of their opportunity, and it is a huge opportunity to be able to receive a free education for playing a game despite what many would have us believe. There are those superstars who are only interested in doing just enough educationally speaking to stay eligible until they can enter the draft, but we have many true student-athletes in many sports who conduct their affairs appropriately, make great connections, receive their degrees, and have fun while doing so. However, the focus is never on these kids. It's on the squeaky wheels who somehow think they are getting ripped off, or on the athletes who make stupid decisions. I wish they would just let the kids who think they can play pro ball go straight to the pros while the kids who want to get an education and have a great college experience can agree to accept a scholarship in return for work on the playing fields. There you go, people. Once again I have solved a simple problem that many people try to make complicated. Gee, I wonder who tries to make simple problems complicated? I'm guessing those who stand to profit from it, and I'm not talking about the student-athletes.
Yah, I didn't mean to imply it was true across the board, but rather make the point that players that otherwise would have little / no chance of going to college have done so for a long time because they were good football players and had a shot at the NFL.
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