<p>Lots of really good points being made. College sports has gotten totally out of hand and, ideally, more college sports would follow the division 3 model of sport being an adjunct to a good education rather than the big time D1 model of school merely being a convenient vehicle for the athletic team. But, for every Alabama football or Kansas basketball squad there are many many gymnastics, track and field, tennis, soccer, wrestling, swimming, volleyball teams that give kids an opportunity to play their sport and go to school that otherwise wouldn’t exist without the money provided by the revenue generating sports. Lots of schools depend on that TV money to fund a broad array of activities. State schools funding is getting cut in the legislature in many places. </p>
<p>Many of us here on CC (self included) are fans of smallish, academically elite private schools with massive endowments where there exists a less mercenary, more pure version of sport. And though the conference shake ups and fraudulent “student athletes” that populate many football and basketball teams is really disheartening, I suspect that a lot of really deserving student athletes are benefitting from the trickle down effect of that TV money.</p>