<p>I must say that I enjoyed the football season this year, but this recent article in the Nytimes discussed how college sports(especially football and basketball) may not be having a positive influence on Universities.</p>
<p>From the article...a quote by James Duderstadt</p>
<p>
[quote]
Nine of 10 people dont understand what you are saying when you talk about research universities. But you say Michigan and they understand those striped helmets running under the banner.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Some of the topics from the article</p>
<p>-The college sports are a distraction from the main goals of the University - Research and Teaching
-College sports affect the time spent studying and drinking among undergraduates
-Coaching salaries are way too high
-Multiplie scandals have occured in the last few years in college sports</p>
<p>I think the article has some points. I'd like to hear any counter arguments people have.</p>
<p>Nope. Article is meaningless lazy crap. Somebody writes the same one every 10 years or so. Yet the top sports and research U’s from 40 years ago are still right there. UM, UW, UW, UCLA, UCB, Texas, UNC etc etc.</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree less with the article. It is the academic and cultural excellence that makes Michigan a special place but college sports gives the school its heart and soul. It is something that give alumni and instant bond (even if they live nowhere near each other and barely know each other). It creates a pleasant diversion to day to day pressures in the workplace. It binds children and parents. Within the athletic programs themselves, they create a family that can forever alter the lives the participants in sports programs. I do agree that there is a problem with excess and often question whether college sports would be better with the Ivy league model than the current Division 1 model. Unfortunately the money can corrupt.</p>
<p>I think the first six paragraphs are pretty accurate. If your football program outranks your physics department (usually) every year, people will naturally think that:</p>
<p>“It’s not, ‘Oh, yeah, Ohio State, that wonderful physics department.’ It’s football,” said Gordon Aubrecht, an Ohio State physics professor."</p>
<p>This coming from a professor who:
“doesn’t have enough money in his own budget to cover attendance at conferences.”, and doesn’t understand that Urban Meyer’s salary is not paid from Ohio’s general fund.</p>
<p>Err… none? I don’t agree with the article, but I don’t think Michigan’s football program brings any money to the academic side of things. Michigan football sponsors all the other sports and organizations in the athletic department.</p>
<p>Actually, the physics department at tOSU has quite a good reputation and U-M athletic department revenue is transferred to the general fund to pay the tuition of the scholarship athletes.</p>