Imagine a world in which sports are de-coupled from schools. There are no inter-scholastic sports. There is no NCAA. No state-wide sports bureaucracies deciding whether kids are transferring from one school to another for sports, academic, or legitimate personal reasons. For you Lefties in the audience who pine for European-style "socialism" here with free health care, robust guaranteed income, etc., think of it as European-styled education. This is what they do in Europe. (This is why they develop better soccer and basketball players there than here).
So your kid wants to play, say, football, soccer, or basketball. Well, there are other kids who want that, and dads who want their kids to learn sports skills and to compete, so they would form CLUB teams. In fact, in many areas of the U.S., CLUB teams develop the best soccer players, baseball players, and tennis players already, and school teams are rather secondary in their importance. And in baseball, player development would not even be affected if school sports went away. You can play team baseball from the time you are four until you are 18 already. The only additional component would be club teams of young adult amateurs, where players could play beyond Legion and Palomino ball.
But what would this do to our school systems? No sports teams, no cheerleaders, no bad-teacher-coaches making more than the principal. Oh they might have intramural sports, but those would be played on Saturdays and not interfere with the academic schedule or activities.
Schools would focus on...academics? Good Lord, what a catastrophe. It is a wonder that Europe has survived this long without school sports.
But...but...but, what about athletic SCHOLARSHIPS to college? Well, most college sports lose money, and that includes football and basketball. When the players start to get paid, this will be even worse. There are only a few colleges in the country (out of THOUSANDS) that would be worse off if sports were eliminated. And if the colleges want to do things to advance the oppressed demographics in our society, they would offer scholarships for oppressed people based on their academic merit. So those scholarship kids now who may or may not even belong in college would be replaced by scholarship kids who absolutely do belong in college, and show promise to be contributing citizens in the future.
Seriously, point by point, what would be the harm of de-coupling sports from schools? Aside from March Madness, of course, which is simply irreplaceable.
So your kid wants to play, say, football, soccer, or basketball. Well, there are other kids who want that, and dads who want their kids to learn sports skills and to compete, so they would form CLUB teams. In fact, in many areas of the U.S., CLUB teams develop the best soccer players, baseball players, and tennis players already, and school teams are rather secondary in their importance. And in baseball, player development would not even be affected if school sports went away. You can play team baseball from the time you are four until you are 18 already. The only additional component would be club teams of young adult amateurs, where players could play beyond Legion and Palomino ball.
But what would this do to our school systems? No sports teams, no cheerleaders, no bad-teacher-coaches making more than the principal. Oh they might have intramural sports, but those would be played on Saturdays and not interfere with the academic schedule or activities.
Schools would focus on...academics? Good Lord, what a catastrophe. It is a wonder that Europe has survived this long without school sports.
But...but...but, what about athletic SCHOLARSHIPS to college? Well, most college sports lose money, and that includes football and basketball. When the players start to get paid, this will be even worse. There are only a few colleges in the country (out of THOUSANDS) that would be worse off if sports were eliminated. And if the colleges want to do things to advance the oppressed demographics in our society, they would offer scholarships for oppressed people based on their academic merit. So those scholarship kids now who may or may not even belong in college would be replaced by scholarship kids who absolutely do belong in college, and show promise to be contributing citizens in the future.
Seriously, point by point, what would be the harm of de-coupling sports from schools? Aside from March Madness, of course, which is simply irreplaceable.
