On Race Relations, Hail to College Sports
I was intrigued by Buzz Bissinger’s column this week in the Daily Beast regarding what he calls the “Heisman Hypocrisy.” Bissinger, the widely acclaimed author of Friday Night Lights, took the NCAA to task this week for supposed hypocrisy in banning the father of this year’s Heisman winner, Cam Newton, from the celebration.
At issue was the substantiated charge that prior to Cam’s signing with Auburn University, his father, Cecil, had demanded cash in the range of $100,000 to $150,000 for Cam to sign with Mississippi State (MSU). According to Bissinger’s logic, the entire concept of college student athlete is not only outdated, but dishonest and immoral. Bissinger wrote that the system itself, which garners mega-millions for successful university athletic programs, is the modern equivalent of a “master-slave” system, in which the athletes get next to nothing and the universities for which they play get rich. Bissinger goes on to write that, at the very least, every college athlete ought to get a financial reward in the amount of the scholarship.
As a mom, I think Mr. Bissinger is as shortsighted as he appears to be dimwitted.
Now, I can find no mention of Buzz Bissinger ever participating in college athletics, either as an athlete on scholarship or otherwise. In that, we have something in common; I haven’t either.
But I did marry a Division I college football player while he was still on scholarship, and we have a son who gained his undergraduate degree on a full athletic scholarship in D-I wrestling. And I count myself among the once hard-core skeptics on the matter of mixing sports with academics.
I grew up in the 1950s and 60s with a twin brother. My brother and I both participated in lots of sports as children. At swim meets and rodeos, I got equal play, won lots of ribbons and medals, and felt quite the accomplished athlete by the time I started high school. But then, everything changed. The only female sport at my large suburban high school was basketball — at which I was an utter flop. While my brother continued to play various team sports all the way through high school, I was sidelined as a cheerleader. Yes, I always fiercely resented the hoopla afforded the football players. And vowed I would never marry a jock.
Now, forty years after marrying one jock and raising another, I’ve completely changed my opinion. I’m thrilled that young women now have the opportunities to participate which I never had. And I’ve always suspected that a bone of resentment underlies the callous opinions of non-jock commentators, such as Buzz Bissinger. If only he could have made the grade, perhaps he would feel differently.
It’s no secret that some major universities enable poor academic performance among student athletes, some of whom never graduate (much less come out of the experience with a genuine education).
Sorry. Not a fan of college sports.
Colleges should refocus on academics and get out of what has essentially become either 1) a rather corrupt entertainment industry or 2) a social experimentation laboratory.
I enjoy college sports but athletic scholarships bug me. Let the NFL & NBA fund their developmental leagues.
Or if they want to create some certification program which involves intercollegiate competition as part of a requirement, fine. Just let the participants pay the tuition like everyone else.
Shiver writes a blind liberal piece. The big money in college sports is in basketball and football and these are, already, professional enterprises. The proof? Easy. Check the diversity. There is none!
Sure, some colleges have high academic standards; you have to have academic potential to get in. But that doesn’t apply to the professional black athletes hired to play basketball or sports. As professional athletes. they’ll practice 50 hours a week. They can do that because they don’t have to study or work. In March, watch as much of the NCAA as you can and count the number of white players on the court. At many times, all ten players will be black.
There is no way that money isn’t already paying for some/many/most of these highly skilled professional black athletes, just look a what is spent on the college basketball and football total environments. And, look at the diversity and the SILENCE that surrounds it.
What else can be expected from advertising supported sport farm clubs reaching down to T-ball and elementary school age levels with free coaching by wannabe moms and dads that failed to make the high school varsity cheer leader or first team rank? Parental pressure includes religious attendance of TV sports events with little exposure to the truth of probabilities of professional success or permanent injury. Its all about money at the expense of advertised product consumers and the innocent with winning at any cost being the sole reward. Observing the parental reactions at the lowest levels of competition has become a nauseating public exposure of neurotic phenomenal.
College sports has to be the biggest waste of money next to pro sports.
Millions of dollars are spent on sports that could be used to improve education. Students are demostrating in the streets over increases in college costs.
Obama wants better schools.
Make students earn there degrees.
While I agree that student athletes should be held to the same academic standards as students on academic scholarships this is not a zero sum “game”. Football and sometimes basketball brings in enough money to fund the entire sports program. In successful programs part of those revenues also go into the general funds.
Being unhappy with the system is fine for there are many flaws in many colleges but money is not one of them. Take away these teams and the Universities actually loose money. No money magically appears for the rest of the school.
Buzz Bissinger? You must be wrong; surely a man with a name like that was a quarterback.
Where is Al Sharpton screaming for diversity during the urban oriented NCAACP march madness and I do mean madness? Guess in his world justice is spelled justrace.
Playing the race card to by votes and continue the redistribution of wealth has worked well since the LBJ escapades. Don’t expect the practice to change until candidates can call it what it is, deny passage of any future entitlement legislation and repeal all that are expecting extensions.
Playing the race card to buy votes and continue the redistribution of wealth has worked well since the LBJ escapades. Don’t expect the practice to change until candidates can call it what it is, passage of any future entitlement legislation and repeal all that are expecting extensions.
I sit on my big fat ass every night and watch hours of telly. I am an Aussie,white and old and fat.
The cop shows might pick most of the clips that are good watching,but 99% of them are car chases for stolen cars.Even before the cops catch the stolen car,I say “here’s another two black kids going to jail”. Without fail I am right.With the drug busts in America and England,It’s always black kids.
I know where the fault lies….50% with the black kids,and 50% with all these black dudes that are postcard fathers.They got lucky cause some black women was trying to catch a father for her earlier escapades,but,no luck,he saw her one night and that was the last.Now ,she has to bring these kids up,(with welfare) and the father gets off scott free ,until heis busted for drugs or a stolen car.If these black kids had proper LOVE and PARENTS,then the world would be better off.Lock the criminal kids up,but give them some thought as to why they are there.
Ms. Shiver, could not agree with you more. Sports at any level, has done more for race relations than any government program. Good take on the non-revenue producing sports. The big sports on campus paying for the opportunity to have these other sports, giving young men and women their chance to participate in intercollegiate sports.
There is a free education for the taking. Many students take out huge loans for what the athletes are given. If an athlete doesn’t take advantage of what he is being paid, too bad. No one is forcing him to play.
Quit whining about racism and being a “slave”. People who talk such bull are idiots without a clue.
College sports should be done away with because it simply is not compatible with academic study. Have whatever standards you will as to GPA (and we’ll assume for the moment they’re actually enforced) the simple fact I observed was this: the athletes were perennially absent from class: they were away playing their games. If I had missed half as many classes for any reason I would have been flunked regardless of my “grades”. In fact I would have been barred from the class. If you want to play go play. If you want to study you have to show up for class. This should be obvious. I had to work while in school and no one gave me extra absence days because of this. They would have laughed if I’d asked. So why should athletes get to ditch? – Because they’re a special, privileged class, that’s why. They shouldn’t be. They don’t belong at all. If you’ve already chosen a career and that is to be an entertainer (which is all athletes are – they’re not heroes, not role models, they’re maybe a step above a circus act) then go do so. Stop making a mockery of higher education. I’m quite certain that this has been a major cause in the decline of standards in higher education. I also observed that some of the athletes whose “work” I was privy to (listening to their presentations or actually working “joint” projects with them) were literally illiterate and inarticulate. There is no way on earth they earned a legitimate college degree – yet they “graduated”. So don’t tell me about those “standards” either. I saw it for myself.
How are we supposed to take this article seriously? The author, while ripping Bissinger for not being informed because he didn’t play sports, mangles the name of the athlete that this article was supposedly about.
Cam NEWTON is the best player in college football this year, not Cam Cameron. Cecil NEWTON in his father.
Please add a correction to this article.
I disagree with the author. Colleges do make a lot of money on the backs of athletes. but let’s put that aside for the moment. The greater travesty is because of the push for diversity, colleges are recruiting blacks off the basketball court instead of out of the libraries. No wonder the rate of graduation for the major money making sports which offer the best scholarships is so dismal.
Additionally, sports such as wrestling (not a lot of scholarship money there) do hold many true student athletes who do graduate. Of course, those sports are dying out because of Title 9, but that is a whole ‘nother issue.
Long story short – colleges should get out of the money-making business, or at least be honest that it isn’t for student athletes. Because if you actually do care about athletes doing well academically then why is the recruitment purely focused on athleticism and the entrance scores and graduation rates are in the toilet?