In the N&O today, Myles Brand, President of the NCAA, said of the future of collegiate sports, “Financial pressures will continue to push college sports off center in ways that will threaten the integrity of the college game.”
Wait, hold the presses, this could be good. With lucrative deals from Nike and the emerging wonder-apparel, Under Armor, college sports are quickly becoming a venue for a more beefed-up runway show. And, with more money comes more responsibility. But, college sports, not quite up to the challenge, have gone through a series of scandalous bribing allegations in recent years, calling into question the integrity of the recruiting “business” that is college athletics.
But the college “Brand” isn’t seeking to ameliorate this ill as common sense would see it. Instead, Myles proposes that colleges restructure their athletic budgets around the academic budget as a whole. In essence, Brand wants us all to imagine (now close your eyes when you read this, and wrinkle your little foreheads in contemplation) that college sports have an intrinsic educational value. And of course, if it has an educational value ? even if that value is imagined ? we must support it within an academic budget.
Throwing out all those crazy boosters and private donors who willingly support their beloved sports icons (due almost exclusively to the semper fi motto or the hope of cashing in on those who wave that banner) must be the answer to big and unmonitored spending in college athletics. In place of this cache, we should instead force taxpayers who could really give two pennies for a sports team to pay for them.
Obviously, this may lead to some confusion in the future. If, when attending a collegiate sporting event between the home team and the visitor’s squad, I happen to be especially fiscally minded, I might become confused over which team I owe my loyalty to. Whichever team loses is obviously a far worse investment?since they’ve failed to deliver; and, if my team loses, I lament the loss, though am excited to see the returns on an a serendipitous investment.
