The U.S. is one of the few nations in the world that even has inter-scholastic sports competition. That is, my school has a sports team and we play your school's team. They don't have it in Europe, Japan, China... It's a pretty bizarre concept to start with, and the emphasis that we place on it in the U.S. is mad. March Madness indeed.
One insidious side effect of athletic scholarships is the fact that it is seen by the so-called "minority community" as a "good thing," which permits minorities to pursue and get a college education.
If only.
So we have hundreds of thousands of Black Yoots around the country who are playing mainly football and basketball in schools and playgrounds, hoping one day to be offered a college scholarship. But this is perverse. THOSE kids, when they get a college scholarship, are often the LEAST LIKELY kids to actually value and exploit that free education. They couldn't care less about school and what they really want is a professional sports career - a goal that less than 10% of them will actually realize. Their academic accomplishments are usually either non-existent (not graduating) or meagre (graduating with a worthless degree).
The colleges can figuratively pat themselves on the back for doing something kind for the "minority community" with these pointless and worthless "scholarships" (consider the actual meaning of that word, and how ironic it is in this context), when the fact is that the "minority" students who could actually make something of a scholarship are left with nothing, BECAUSE THEY CAN'T PLAY BALL!
If it weren't for the existence of athletic scholarships, the colleges and universities would be forced to actually do something to help the minority community, and those students in that community who deserve ACADEMIC support, rather than non-students who only want to use the school as a springboard to an illusive career as a professional athlete.
Colleges and universities are ACADEMIC institutions, not sports franchises. But Big Time college athletics turns them into exploitative, hypocritical institutions that pervert their theoretical mission to accommodate an insane industry having nothing to do with education.
Blame the alumni if you must, but the fact is that MOST NCAA Div I schools LOSE MONEY on athletics, and even the "successful" ones make money on one or two sports and lose money on everything else.
Remember, the rest of the world does not pervert their institutions of higher learning with this nonsense. It is not only not necessary, it is a pox on the whole education "industry." And it's not doing any favors, all things considered, for the "minority" community.
If we were sane, we would force the NFL and the NBA to sponsor professional minor leagues, to the same extent as MLB, to apprentice athletes coming out of high school whose focus is sports, not academics. Leave education to the colleges and universities, and sports to those private entities whose business it rightly is.
One insidious side effect of athletic scholarships is the fact that it is seen by the so-called "minority community" as a "good thing," which permits minorities to pursue and get a college education.
If only.
So we have hundreds of thousands of Black Yoots around the country who are playing mainly football and basketball in schools and playgrounds, hoping one day to be offered a college scholarship. But this is perverse. THOSE kids, when they get a college scholarship, are often the LEAST LIKELY kids to actually value and exploit that free education. They couldn't care less about school and what they really want is a professional sports career - a goal that less than 10% of them will actually realize. Their academic accomplishments are usually either non-existent (not graduating) or meagre (graduating with a worthless degree).
The colleges can figuratively pat themselves on the back for doing something kind for the "minority community" with these pointless and worthless "scholarships" (consider the actual meaning of that word, and how ironic it is in this context), when the fact is that the "minority" students who could actually make something of a scholarship are left with nothing, BECAUSE THEY CAN'T PLAY BALL!
If it weren't for the existence of athletic scholarships, the colleges and universities would be forced to actually do something to help the minority community, and those students in that community who deserve ACADEMIC support, rather than non-students who only want to use the school as a springboard to an illusive career as a professional athlete.
Colleges and universities are ACADEMIC institutions, not sports franchises. But Big Time college athletics turns them into exploitative, hypocritical institutions that pervert their theoretical mission to accommodate an insane industry having nothing to do with education.
Blame the alumni if you must, but the fact is that MOST NCAA Div I schools LOSE MONEY on athletics, and even the "successful" ones make money on one or two sports and lose money on everything else.
Remember, the rest of the world does not pervert their institutions of higher learning with this nonsense. It is not only not necessary, it is a pox on the whole education "industry." And it's not doing any favors, all things considered, for the "minority" community.
If we were sane, we would force the NFL and the NBA to sponsor professional minor leagues, to the same extent as MLB, to apprentice athletes coming out of high school whose focus is sports, not academics. Leave education to the colleges and universities, and sports to those private entities whose business it rightly is.
