Before you think I’ve drunk a bit too much of the political kool-aid, this isn’t about politics. It’s something a bit simpler than that.
We all have an image courtesy of Russell Crowe and tons of imagination about ancient Rome and the gladiatorial fights that happened. Whether it was man vs. man, man vs. animal, or even navy vs. navy (the ancient Colosseum apparently could be flooded for such an event), it was essentially a simple pastime: two things enter, one leaves. Games are a substitute for war, or at least our lust for it. The generalization is back then, people with money would gladly pay to see other men fight and kill each other. These days, we’ve become just a bit more civilized to the point of not actually killing each other, but think about it for a bit.
Isn’t the concept the same? A society that has excess cash is willing to pay to watch professional athletes compete against one another. We watch it, we build hero mythologies around it, and we take civic pride in it. I admit I’m a fan of sports in general, but this part has always, always bothered me. We, as a society, have turned people into slaves to play games for our pleasure. “They get paid well.” Yes, but how long are their careers? Do some research into the number of NBA players who aren’t able to manage their money well after their playing days are over. Look at the number of PTSD-type injuries and twisted arms and legs football players wind up with. Are we killing athletes just so we can cheer, much like gladiators, or people watching a joust?
What bothers me even more than this is the effect it has on colleges. It’s great to have pride in where you went to school, but when you give money strictly to an athletic program, are you doing that school any favors? The biggest and best-known football schools are, for all intents and purposes, minor leagues for the NFL. We can’t disguise this fact. Kids go there for the primary reason of believing they can play in the major leagues. It’s the same with other schools and basketball, except that simply because of the fewer number of players, most dreams of playing professionally are short-lived.
We have a nifty database with which we can play, so let’s look at some data.
Let’s look at the Southeastern Conference and Football graduation rates. You can plug in the search terms as well as I can, so I’ll just give the results.
Vanderbilt’s the shining light on the hill for the SEC, graduating about 90% of their players. The number is adjusted for kids who transfer to other schools, but still, that’s respectable. The other schools? Nothing about 70%.
Compare that to the Big 12:
Texas has a graduation rate of 49%. Oklahoma’s is 44%. And this is just football.
Is it too large an assumption to make that kids that don’t graduate from college aren’t there for the academics? Schools force-feed kids with tutoring and help to get them to pass their classes. Any student who shows the same motivation and discipline in the classroom as on the field should be able to graduate. I know that there are certain circumstances that prevent students from succeeding, but I also know that I don’t have a lot of insight on this. My frame of reference doesn’t include this point of view.
Let’s look at basketball and head to the Big East.
There are some good schools here. Villanova and Notre Dame graduate every player. But look at UConn. 31%. I admit that I was always a critic of John Thompson at Georgetown because he always wanted to relax educational standards for basketball players, but at least his school now graduates 78% of them.
Big 12. UT: 42%. Oklahoma: 55%. Iowa State: 35% ????
Big 10. Michigan: 36%. Michigan State: 50%.
ACC. Duke: 83%. Georgia Tech: 36%. Maryland: 31%.
WAC. Fresno St.: 24%. New Mexico St.: 34%.
I look at these numbers, I look at the number of people attending the first football games of the year at colleges, and I wonder whether we’ve collectively lost our mind as a society. Someone in Alabama built a man-cave dedicated to Alabama football that includes 4 TVs, a complete bar, stadium seating, and actual field turf. Yet 3 out of 10 students who leave high school will require some sort of remedial coursework in order to survive college.
Our society has given us enough money and time to pay others to play games, and we’ve translated that into a corruption of a portion of our higher learning institutions. Yet the only thing we seem to care about is which school goes to which conference, because that will mean playing for an automatic BCS bid and will bring in more revenue to schools, thus mimicking our society of haves and have-nots just peachily.
Goodbye, sense. Nice knowing you when you were here.