Are college athletics good or bad?

Originally Posted by KenRose

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You are actually mistaken. The reason so many universities fund athletic programs is because they help the university make money. The program itself may lose money but as a whole they bring in more students because of it, resulting in increased revenues. This is a proven statistic. In fact, a direct correlation has been make with universities having a significant decline in male students when they cut their football program, or an identical increase when they add it.

that's not exactly a good argument, lol.

and i'm not technically mistaken at all, because even you just said that the programs lose money. that's the problem here.

let's not get into the marketing of college sports -- i simply don't care if the athletics are attracting more students. the point of a school is not to attract more students with football. it's to give students who want to learn the best possible education they can. this is common sense.

i know that what you're saying is true and is the status quo. this thread is all about whether or not the status quo is fine, or if something should be done about it.

PS: i'm not basing this off of anything but my own common sense -- but i think it goes without saying that kids would still go to college if all athletics suddenly dropped off the face of the earth. choosing one school over another because of a football team would obviously not be a factor anymore, so kids would choose the best school for their circumstances.

Originally Posted by rjakapeanut

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let's not get into the marketing of college sports -- i simply don't care if the athletics are attracting more students. the point of a school is not to attract more students with football. it's to give students who want to learn the best possible education they can. this is common sense.

Woah woah woah....lolwut?

Originally Posted by Prada_Ferragamo

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^^^ What about schools that don't have successful programs and still dumping money into athletics?

Your statement doesn't make sense. If they are making money for the school, then the school itself wouldn't be in crisis and having tuition hikes.

no, they athletics are not making money for the schools. thats a fact. you can count on both of your hands the amount of schools that actually profit from their athletic programs. i know ohio state is one. they actually buy **** for the school with that money, and that's great.

i didn't really understand his post, either.

but yeah, my university is a great example of what you're talking about here. it's a small university that has a football program that's...i don't remember the specific division but it's the one under division III or whatever. they just dump money into this stupid football program and fire teachers as a result. it's ridiculous.

I got my under from Mizzou. But I spent a year at U missouri-kansas city. The university dumped 7 million dollars to build a soccer stadium for the soccer team when the team always had a losing record, while the tuition went up 15%. Made no sense at all.

sports are exciting to watch, but I think people care too much for athletics while in college when they should be focused on other things. just my opinion.

sports science is very advanced in the US as a result of college sports. Especially in power based sports. thats one advantage.

Originally Posted by rjakapeanut

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i HATE college football. he was curious why. when it came down to it........
This is so full of wrong I don't know where to begin, but I'll sum it up: -Many, many schools make shitloads of money off of athletics. Texas pulls in $140 million or so with a budget of $95-100 million. That's about $40 million that gets put back into the academics or capital investment yearly. -Athletics make schools more attractive to potential students. -Better students make more lucrative alumni. -Richer alumni make better boosters. -Wash, rinse, repeat. So even if schools aren't making money directly from athletics (and many are), without athletics, substantial parts of their endowments are coming from people whose interest in the school would have been negligible without athletics. Athletics is a product and there is a market for it regardless if its offered by schools. If it's not, it will be offered (and the recipient of subsequent revenue) from another source.

Originally Posted by Mr Herbert

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sports science is very advanced in the US as a result of college sports. Especially in power based sports. thats one advantage.
Because it helps, how, what?

Meh, I love me some athletics.
There is more to life than calc. And as Sh pointed out college sports help build the brand.

Originally Posted by CDFS

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Because it helps, how, what?

well im not going to get into an argument over the benefit of sports science because its not really something i care for alot.

but alot of sports lovers will question the value of arts and culture so you cant really take one away without removing the other.

and without sport or art humanity would be a boring state of existance.

dbl

Originally Posted by Mr Herbert

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well im not going to get into an argument over the benefit of sports science because its not really something i care for alot.

but alot of sports lovers will question the value of arts and culture so you cant really take one away without removing the other.

and without sport or art humanity would be a boring state of existance.

There's that.

athletics are good. it's just that overdoing (or more accurately, overemphasizing) even a good thing can be bad. that, and completely shafting the players that are the prime source of value for these programs, but that's sending this thread spiraling in a different direction

Originally Posted by Mr Herbert

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well im not going to get into an argument over the benefit of sports science because its not really something i care for alot.

but alot of sports lovers will question the value of arts and culture so you cant really take one away without removing the other.

and without sport or art humanity would be a boring state of existance.
a lot is two words. (sorry, pet peeve)

Originally Posted by rjakapeanut

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i was having a discussion with a buddy about college football.

i HATE college football. he was curious why. when it came down to it, i hate college sports because universities end up losing money just to keep athletics going, and i feel like college athletics are just a huge clusterfuck that's taking away resources that could be spent on something that actually matters: like college. you know, like books and ****. learning. what college is actually supposed to be about.

few universities actually MAKE money off of their football programs.

what do you guys think?

If you are in college or have gone to college, you know that it is about MORE than just book-learning. It is a time to grow personally and socially. Also, it is a time to find out what you really want to do with your life by trying out a multitude of different things. Enjoying athletics is another aspect of college. College, frankly, would blow if there were no sporting events to attend or rivalries between schools.