Schools need to get out of athletics. Pretending that throwing a ball around is a scholarly endeavor is just plain absurd. It corrupts the school, distracts the students, and ensures that scholarship money goes to jocks instead of earnest students. Cities' parks and recreation departments can organize amateur leagues and businessmen can organize minor leagues.
Couldn't disagree more. It's true that there are serious issues with the NCAA (as far as corruption goes) and that's been no secret for more than a minute now. Definite broad and sweeping changes need to be made across the board but eliminate athletics from all universities? That's crazy talk homie. I'll preface what I'm about to say with this: I think we're both coming at this from a biased standpoint. I'm assuming you're not a sports fan. I'm a huge sports guy. I love everything about it. But stating that sports should be abolished from schools because it's not a scholarly endeavor? That's the absurdity right there. Should we get rid of clubs then, too? What about university organized dances and get-togethers? Athletics are huge money draws for schools and give the students something to be enthusiastic and excited about. Most universities emphasize some sort of 'pride' for attending their school, and sports are a huge part of that. The dumb 'jocks' that are sucking up all of that precious scholarship money are just as much a part of the student body as everyone else, and just because you may view their talents as less worthy than say, some Biology major, doesn't make it so.
Making assumptions is hazardous. I grew up playing sports, and I watch spectator sports. I've also attended universities which had athletics programs and universities that only organized (but did not pay or charge for) participatory extracurricular activities, like intramural sports (and the clubs you're worried about). The difference in academics, social cohesion, and corruption were very noticeable, and none of those differences favored the schools with athletics programs. I think you'll have a difficult time demonstrating that these athletic programs actually help the school financially. They usually cost the school a great deal, and their expense is generally justified by claiming the programs are good PR (but considering the number of scandals associated with athletic programs, I think this is a silly argument).I'm assuming you're not a sports fan. I'm a huge sports guy.
Athletics are huge money draws for schools
I don't disagree, but there really is a tradition there and in some instances a lore that transcends athletics. There can be a very positive side to University athletics, unfortunately the size of the money involved has tended to overshadow the positive aspects.
I don't think the tradition argument is very convincing (we've had many traditions which we eventually recognized were causing problems, and we were smart enough to get rid of most of those traditions). But if you really want to use that argument, then you'll need to justify the reason we aren't keeping the other traditions associated with school sports. Traditionally, no one was paid, either through scholarships or alumni "gifts," to play school sports. Traditionally, no one was charged to watch school sports. Traditionally, if a sporting practice or event interfered with an academic function, it was the sporting practice or event which was canceled. Traditionally, we did not have separate departments dedicated to "tutoring" student athletes. Traditionally, students athletes who performed poorly, or cheated, in school were either banned from sports or expulsed from school. So, why keep the strange tradition (playing school sports because English boarding school headmasters wanted to keep their students busy after school hours) but not keep the more sensible traditions associated with it?there really is a tradition there
Myself and most fans of collegiate sports would be happy to see the tradition of there being no money involved reinstated. No athletic scholarships? I'm not sure I agree with that. Fencing, tennis and most any other sport are skills that require discipline and education. We give scholarships to the top academic performers because it takes discipline and hard work to acquire their skills. Shades of grey. Either way you are rewarding someone for being among the best at something. -I have no problem with this. In fact, I'd say athletics tend to be far less subjective than academics and thus, more fair.