Is it time to stop supporting college sports?

[WolfJT]

Why is college tuition so darn expensive? With the move to books online, heck even class online and professors pay hasn't risen as much as tuition in the past decade. I ask why is it so expensive? Could it be because colleges pay coaches millions of dollars? Wouldn't it be in the best interest of our country to have the NFL and NBA create a minor league system like the NHL and MLB have? This way any of the true to be pro athletes can go that route and then you can leave collegian athletics to the true student athlete? What is more important at the end of the day? Irrational bragging rights and a shiny trophy that will just end up collecting dust or reasonably price tuition so the majority of kids in our country can get an education. I say, let's make colleges open the books and let's see where all of this money is going. Stop paying coaches millions and millions of dollars and let the student athlete be just that, a student athlete.

 

[Jimbo]

Why is college tuition so darn expensive? With the move to books online, heck even class online and professors pay hasn't risen as much as tuition in the past decade. I ask why is it so expensive? Could it be because colleges pay coaches millions of dollars? Wouldn't it be in the best interest of our country to have the NFL and NBA create a minor league system like the NHL and MLB have? This way any of the true to be pro athletes can go that route and then you can leave collegian athletics to the true student athlete? What is more important at the end of the day? Irrational bragging rights and a shiny trophy that will just end up collecting dust or reasonably price tuition so the majority of kids in our country can get an education. I say, let's make colleges open the books and let's see where all of this money is going. Stop paying coaches millions and millions of dollars and let the student athlete be just that, a student athlete.

Good luck with that ...

 

[SamCdbs]

Lots to work with here.

First, is the “Hayes Rule”, which says “most people who have never been to college think the quality of a college is proportional to its football team”. This rule is applicable to at least 95% of people. Nationally and within states.

The obverse of the rule is the saying attributed to a former Ole Miss chancellor “Football is the front porch of a university”. This is also true. Sports make people with no actual connection to a college think of it as “we”. Mostly the one with the same words on its front gate as on his driver’s license.

Add those together and its pretty clear big schools use sports to prevent legislatures from questioning why the school is a money pit for $$ best spent elsewhere.

 

[AZ.]

I would feel better about the ops opinion if the players were being paid....Paying the head coach is a drop in the bucket...Lots is spent on facilities for those athletes, and is used by all sports in that school.....

 

[navychop]

Haven’t they now authorized paying student athletes?

 

[Yespage]

Why is college tuition so darn expensive?

Teacher pay, bldgs built 100+ years ago and need to be replaced, brand name, facilities and labs, computers/tech.

With the move to books online, heck even class online and professors pay hasn't risen as much as tuition in the past decade. I ask why is it so expensive?

The physical book isn't what is expensive about a book, especially for sciences/tech/engineering.

Could it be because colleges pay coaches millions of dollars?

No. While football can be a loser for money for some schools, the pay for a coach isn't driving the cost of school all too much.

Wouldn't it be in the best interest of our country to have the NFL and NBA create a minor league system like the NHL and MLB have? This way any of the true to be pro athletes can go that route and then you can leave collegian athletics to the true student athlete?

Would be an idea. But college would still be expensive.

What is more important at the end of the day? Irrational bragging rights and a shiny trophy that will just end up collecting dust or reasonably price tuition so the majority of kids in our country can get an education.

They put the trophies in a case so there isn't any dust.

I say, let's make colleges open the books and let's see where all of this money is going. Stop paying coaches millions and millions of dollars and let the student athlete be just that, a student athlete.

I think we need to deal with the bowl game fraud, but otherwise, basketball brings in money for certain. Football is hit or miss. Want to make college cheaper? Fund it more.

 

[Yespage]

Haven’t they now authorized paying student athletes?

They said students can be compensated for their likeliness being used. The solution to this is no longer using their likeliness.

 

[Derwin0]

Why is college tuition so darn expensive? With the move to books online, heck even class online and professors pay hasn't risen as much as tuition in the past decade. I ask why is it so expensive? Could it be because colleges pay coaches millions of dollars? Wouldn't it be in the best interest of our country to have the NFL and NBA create a minor league system like the NHL and MLB have? This way any of the true to be pro athletes can go that route and then you can leave collegian athletics to the true student athlete? What is more important at the end of the day? Irrational bragging rights and a shiny trophy that will just end up collecting dust or reasonably price tuition so the majority of kids in our country can get an education. I say, let's make colleges open the books and let's see where all of this money is going. Stop paying coaches millions and millions of dollars and let the student athlete be just that, a student athlete.

Except that almost all college football teams operate under a profit, to the extent that they subsidize all the other athletics teams at the college.

So getting rid of those sports really wouldn't impact the costs of tuition.

 

[SamCdbs]

So getting rid of those sports really wouldn't impact the costs of tuition.

It all depends on what you mean by “profit”. USA Today has the best data base for this, taken from NCAA and IRS forms the schools have to file.

The idea that college sports, AS A WHOLE, are this big $$ maker is just wrong. Football, and in most places basketball and a very few places hockey or baseball take it in, and every thing else spends it.

At best the biggest schools break even.

You see PR crap about college athletic programs being “self supporting” or even how they donated some profit to the library or something. Outside about 20 schools that is all just BS.

But move down the chain. Bryant Gumbel a few years ago had a thing on his HBO show about the MAC. Students were paying thousands of $$ extra per year and state $$, such as tuition waivers that could be used for academics, are going to sports that PEOPLE JUST DON’T CARE ABOUT.

For those of a certain parental wealth, or those with very high grades, college can be a lifestyle choice, and going to a big school with big athletics is a choice.

For some kid struggling to make it through, or someone older trying to retrain, paying big $$ to fund “maction”, is hard to justify.

 

[Derwin0]

It all depends on what you mean by “profit”. USA Today has the best data base for this, taken from NCAA and IRS forms the schools have to file.

The idea that college sports, AS A WHOLE, are this big $$ maker is just wrong. Football, and in most places basketball and a very few places hockey or baseball take it in, and every thing else spends it.

At best the biggest schools break even.

You see PR crap about college athletic programs being “self supporting” or even how they donated some profit to the library or something. Outside about 20 schools that is all just BS.

But move down the chain. Bryant Gumbel a few years ago had a thing on his HBO show about the MAC. Students were paying thousands of $$ extra per year and state $$, such as tuition waivers that could be used for academics, are going to sports that PEOPLE JUST DON’T CARE ABOUT.

For those of a certain parental wealth, or those with very high grades, college can be a lifestyle choice, and going to a big school with big athletics is a choice.

For some kid struggling to make it through, or someone older trying to retrain, paying big $$ to fund “maction”, is hard to justify.

No, athletics on the whole is not self supporting, but football, and to a far lesser extent basketball, make a big profit. To the point where they subsidize all the other sports.

Since the OP was talking about those coaches, I pointed out that those sports make a profit, thus not impacting tuition, and offsetting the costs of the non-revenue sports that otherwise would impact tuition more so than they now do.

 

[Radioguy41]

 

[WolfJT]

Another two reasons to stop supporting this
1: When I heard that UC's BB coach told a teacher to fail a student so he could take his scholarship away just convinced me to stop supporting this nonsense.

2: Now ESPN is televising Highschool football. How long before this travels down to high school? It's obviously been around for a while; AKA kids being drafted in HS moving to certain districts and so on. but putting HS football on TV will only bring all the shenanigans down to HS level. That my friends we should all feel shame about.

 

[Jimbo]

Another two reasons to stop supporting this
1: When I heard that UC's BB coach told a teacher to fail a student so he could take his scholarship away just convinced me to stop supporting this nonsense.

2: Now ESPN is televising Highschool football. How long before this travels down to high school? It's obviously been around for a while; AKA kids being drafted in HS moving to certain districts and so on. but putting HS football on TV will only bring all the shenanigans down to HS level. That my friends we should all feel shame about.

Theyv'e been showing HS Football for a few years now ....
They have been showing HS Basketball a lot longer than that .... I think when LeBron was in HS I remember his games being on ESPN (not all of them).

 

[Don in CT]

The big issue is allowing head coaches to abandon their teams before the season ends or getting out of their contracts early. Then complaining when the kids bail on a useless bowl game.

 

[Juan]

The big issue is allowing head coaches to abandon their teams before the season ends or getting out of their contracts early. Then complaining when the kids bail on a useless bowl game.

Not sure thats a big issue..might be a blessing

 

[cosmo_kramer]

Another two reasons to stop supporting this
1: When I heard that UC's BB coach told a teacher to fail a student so he could take his scholarship away just convinced me to stop supporting this nonsense.

2: Now ESPN is televising Highschool football. How long before this travels down to high school? It's obviously been around for a while; AKA kids being drafted in HS moving to certain districts and so on. but putting HS football on TV will only bring all the shenanigans down to HS level. That my friends we should all feel shame about.

A different kind of shenanigans happened on ESPN earlier this season:

Here's how ESPN got duped into airing a terrible high school football team

 

[Yespage]

2: Now ESPN is televising Highschool football. How long before this travels down to high school? It's obviously been around for a while; AKA kids being drafted in HS moving to certain districts and so on. but putting HS football on TV will only bring all the shenanigans down to HS level. That my friends we should all feel shame about.

It’s hard to imagine how we even got here in the first place. A quick Google search will bring up Bishop Sycamore’s 0-6 record from last year, and IMG Academy cleaned their clock 56-6 in their last meeting too.

Wait... their last meeting? As in a top high school program plays charter schools?

But wait... there's more.

According to Rashid Ghazi, the president of Paragon Marketing Group — the company that scheduled the game — they did not know Bishop Sycamore had played on Friday night and would have cancelled the game if they knew that was the case.

This is a scam. How much did the charter school get for the game being broadcasted? I think it is hilarious that they would have cancelled broadcast if they knew the real football team played on Friday Night... not that the other team is a charter school with no value of a football program.

So this really props up some questions. What connection got them to play IMG Academy to begin with, and what mechanism got that game on television? There is a bit more to this story. Too bad it was reported by USA Today.

 

[Jim5506]

Why is college tuition so darn expensive?

College is so expensive because students can get government loans to pay for it with absolutely no collateral. And now with the taken over by big government and has spun out of control and big government's solution is to not require payment of the loans - SANTA CLAUSE. Well guess who gets stuck with the bill - the tax payer, except that they just print more money and make the money we have worth less and inflate everything out of reach especially for the poor, but they'll just print more money and give it to the poor and perpetuate the inflation cycle until we're Venezuela.

 

[Yespage]

College is so expensive because students can get government loans to pay for it with absolutely no collateral. And now with the taken over by big government and has spun out of control and big goernment's solution is to not require payment of the loans - SANTA CLAUSE. Well guess who gets stuck with the bill - the tax payer, except that they just print more money and make the money we have worth less and inflate everything out of reach especially for the poor, but they'll just print more money and give it to the poor and perpetuate the inflation cycle until we're Venezuela.

Not to drive this thread well off the rails, but you brought it up, average state funding for colleges is actually less in real dollars today compared to 1995 (ie, neglecting inflation). While inflation hasn't been too high, 25 years is a decent amount of time, and costs do increase, especially relative to the age of our colleges and the need to upkeep old buildings or replace them.

 

[mushroomer]

I agree that the tuition is too expensive, but the sports have nothing to do about it