What is the point of college sports?

Parent Cafe
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Subsidizing the sports programs at the colleges as discussed on this thread has nothing to do with ‘sports-haters’ or anything at all against those sports or any physical fitness programs. The two should not be confused. </p>

<p>I don’t really see much of a correlation between charging students additional fees to support sports for the very few versus the college supporting the more academically-related programs (lab equipment, theatre, etc.) that benefit the population on the whole - with no additional fees charged to the student.</p>

<p>UCSD on the other hand has one of the largest gyms/fitness centers in the western USA (the Rimac center) as well as other fitness centers that the students already pay a fee for. The fitness centers and intramural sports are open to all students and go much further in promoting individual fitness than the football/basketball teams which fitness-wise benefit very few and are closed to all but top athletes (depending on college).</p>

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<p>Wouldn’t a solution to this be…
Paying the fee is optional. Students who do not pay the fee will not be issued tickets for any sporting events.</p>

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<p>I went to a big ten U and remember attending the first football game of the season. About the time the game started, the weather changed and a cold rain started. I left and enjoyed the rest of the game immensely. It was one of the few times I had some peace and quiet on campus. That was the last game I attended, except for watching my D play soccer. I decided a long time ago that I would rather do things than watch someone else do them. I have never understood the appeal of rooting for a team of professional or semi-professional athletes. What difference could it possibly make who wins? When it comes to college sports, I do not like the idea of tax money going to support semi-professional sports at State schools. The cost of the athletes, coaches and arenas are extremely high and are rarely supported by outside income. The same can be said for professional sports. I really don’t understand the logic of tax money supporting stadium construction.</p>

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<p>I haven’t read through this thread- because it wouldn’t change my POV

  • plus I have ADD*
    relevant! :wink:
    Exercise as John Ratey at Harvard along with other researchers have found it critical to managing ADD as well of course for staying healthy.</p>

<p>Expecting students to organize their own teams every year- find coaches etc- is a waste of time because it reguires them to reinvent the wheel
D college does have intermural sports as well as other events/clubs etc that are voted on for their continued support.
PE credits are required for graduation-and some students indeed have not been allowed to graduate because they didn’t take it seriously I have heard.</p>

<p>Some students- many from my younger daughters high school actually, are in college-* because of * their participation in sports in high school.</p>

<p>The coach of their football team requires all players to take the SAT and plan for college- for an inner city school- I think this is fantastic, because even if the parents are not able to be supportive of their childs academics, they have that role model.</p>

<p>The issue regarding big time university sports is a different thing
Schools are obviously or should be obviously about academics and educating the whole student- THe graduation rate for athletes should not be lower than for anyone else.
But I do think that sports are an important part of college life-</p>

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<p>emeraldkitty:</p>

<p>OK. I read that whole thing, and I have no idea where you stand on this issue.</p>

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<p>edad, my first year of college, I went to only one football game as well. It kind of bored me then. Now I enjoy going to my son’s college games because it gives us a chance to get together and have a good time.<br>
Later in college, I developed friendships with girls and guys in several sports and LOVED going to their games/meets. That’s when it took on a whole different dimension.
Likewise, I hated watching baseball until my guys started playing as kids. Now I’m a big fan. Go Red Sox!!!</p>

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<p>u-dad,</p>

<p>Maybe the campus athletic facilities are different today. I attended a UC and remember the benefits I reaped from having the D1 facilities as part of our campus. Not only did we hold awesome concerts in the football stadium, we had plenty of non-basketball events in the gym, I recieved swim stroke instruction from the D1 college swim coach in a P.E. class, and I played intramural inner-tube waterpolo in the same great pool used by our waterpolo team (some of whom went on to the Olympics).</p>

<p>My point is that even if your child never chooses to attend any of his/her college’s athletic events, I think all students benefit from having those teams and their facilities on campus.</p>

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<p>Bay:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Well, OK, but what’s it worth? I mean, if a sports program costs a university, say, $2 million a year (not out of line with actual costs depending on the school and the accounting), is the benefit you’re talking about worth it? I’d say it is for my school because it’s a McSchool and has very few other differentiating factors that matter to undergrads.</p>

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<p>Bay, it seems to me I remember using the football stadium for some recreational activities myself. hmmmm.</p>

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<p>I was mainly responding to the OP</p>

<p>*hat exactly is the point of formal organized sports at a college and how is it beneficial to the goals of an education?</p>

<p>I would say that it has no benefit and is actually a waste of money.*</p>

<p>Its part of development- our bodies are not just to carry our heads around.</p>

<p>First of all, sports are NOT academic, not one bit, unless you plan on being a gym teacher or some sorts of sports psychiatrist. That, however wouldn’t warrant wasting all that money on coaches, trainers, and sports facilities on a college campus.</p>

<p>See ^- a healthy body contributes to a healthy brain- which makes learning more effective</p>

<p>his is what I DO support: A recreational center with all the necessary facilities needed by students to play sports on their own in an intramural way. If you want to play basketball in college, then students on campus could organize their own intramural leagues and have all the fun they want. Same thing if you want to play football so bad. A student football organization could ask for funding for equipment and then organize games on their own. At least they aren’t wasting money on coaches and trainers.</p>

<p>Sounds like some body didnt make the team?
Reinventing the wheel every year wastes time and money</p>

<p>*I don’t understand why colleges waste so much money on organized sports. It is NOT academic and it’s a WASTE of money.</p>

<p>But then, then athletes will say: but I want to play (blank) sport!
I answer: then create a club for said sport, organize the games on your own, petition to student government for funding for equipment, but DONT expect the university to waste money on coaches/trainers salaries, multi-million dollar stadiums and all the other related expenses to running an organized college sports team.*</p>

<p>Sports are fun! if you want to go to a school without big time sports- there are plenty.
My D for instance has never attended a school with a football team!
even her high school didn’t have a football team ( they do however- do very well in track, cross country and soccer)</p>

<p>Her sister for example is on at least three teams every year- so far this school year it has been- soccer- swimming and now rugby, sure she might be a better student if she took all that time and jsut studied instead- but she would be more tense & unhappy.
I would rather have a B student who enjoys her sports teams than an A student who is miserable.</p>

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<p>“if a sports program costs a university, say, $2 million a year”</p>

<p>I don’t think this thread is about sports programs costing a few million a year or programs designed for the majority of students, or even student athletes. The concern is about sport programs costing many tens of millions/year and involving corresponding depreciation costs for the facilities.</p>

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<p>I realize that the military academies are a special case, but this sums it up:</p>

<p>On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory.
General Douglas MacArthur
US WWII general & war hero (1880 - 1964)</p>

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<p>From the higheredcenter.org website: </p>

<p>"Several studies have found male athletes to be more likely than other men on campus to commit sexual assaults.</p>

<p>In a study of victims of sexual aggression at a large midwestern university, male athletes were greatly overrepresented among the assailants described by the women surveyed. Though men on sports teams were less than 2 percent of the total male population on campus, they made up 23 percent of the attackers in sexual assaults and 14 percent in attempted sexual assaults.15
At another university, an anonymous survey found that men on varsity, revenue-producing teams, such as football and basketball, self-reported higher rates of sexually abusive behavior.16
Gang rapes on campus are most often perpetrated by men who participate in intensive male peer groups that foster rape-supportive behaviors and attitudes. One review of 24 alleged gang rapes found that in 22 of the 24 documented cases, the perpetrators were members of intercollegiate athletic teams or fraternities"</p>

<p>Seems like big-time athletics don’t encourage leadership and cooperation so much as a sense of being above the rules! </p>

<p>Another article I read said that rapes by college athletes are prosecuted at a much lower rate than the general public–pressure not to ruin a career!</p>

<p>–My daughter went to nerdy Grinnell and became a jock. She learned to be bumped and bruised on an intermural rugby team (equipment paid for by the school), and she was good enough to be on the academics-come-first Div III track team. She learned leadership and teamwork, and has continued to run and pursue athletics in real life.</p>

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<p>edad,</p>

<p>Someone posted a really great link on another thread that listed the expenses for each sport for each university in the US. I cannot seem to find it, but maybe someone else can and re-post it?</p>

<p>Anyway, I do remember that USC’s football expenses are $6million per year, which was way above the average (Harvard’s football expenses are $261K per year). Based on the info provided in that link, I don’t think most schools’ expenses approach “many tens of millions.”</p>

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<p>

This would be a fine solution but it’s not what’s being proposed at UCSD and probably wouldn’t actually work because when it comes down to optionally paying an extra few hundred or more per year, most students would probably opt out.</p>

<p>

It could be. Again, UCSD doesn’t financially support athletic teams but it does have some of the best fitness facilities for students of any college in the western part of the country. I don’t think the idea of having great fitness facilities targeted for the general student population is tied to having recruited athletic teams. I imagine there are many colleges who don’t support or strongly financially support recruited athletics that have fine fitness facilities. UCLA also has great facilities but of course it also has a strong recruited athletic program. I imagine though that UCLA would still have most of its great facilities even without the athletic program. Also, even though they have a strong football team they don’t have a stadium - not that it would benefit the fitness buff much anyway.</p>

<p>Again, I don’t think there’s really any connection between the two. Recruited athletics is really for a purpose other than fitness of the general student population.</p>

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<p>

Actually it <em>does</em> hurt people because the thousands if not millions spent by an <em>academic</em> instutition to maintain its hefty sports program could otherwise be spent on many other valuable things like:</p>

<p>-renovating student dorms
-lowering tuition
-more grants
-better quality cafeteria food
-hire more professors to lower class size</p>

<p>See what I’m getting at? That’s why I keep on saying that it’s a waste to pump so much money into an organized athletics department. And I have ALWAYS said that I have NO PROBLEM with intramural athletics or a student gymnasium or any kind.</p>

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<p>“Recruited athletics is really for a purpose other than fitness of the general student population.”
I agree, for me, it adds to the college experience and makes for a more attractive package. It isn’t necessary for an education in the strict sense of the word. Neither are wishing wells, prayer gardens, clock towers, meditation ponds, courtship bridges…</p>

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<p>Show me how big arena collegiate sports (and that’s really what we’ve been talking about here) are sucking money away from those things. I’m talking football and basketball. Men’s.</p>

<p>Edit: lest my post be taken as misogynistic (I’m a woman BTW), I thought we were talking about mens football and basketball in particular.</p>

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<p>

First off I have no interest in organized sports. I have never tried out for any organized sports team. I enjoy playing basketball and volleyball with friends on my own time and when we play we don’t waste student funds on coaches and trainers.</p>

<p>You may be right, that for the purpose of maintaing a student athletics league, “reinventing the wheel” is less efficient than simply having a coach etc., but whose time is being wasted here? <em>Only those that chose to engage in said sports</em>. None of the student funds are being wasted on coaches, trainers, and other costs.</p>

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<p>

Florida State’s Bobby Bowden earns $224,403 a year from a state salary. That money saved every year could instead be paying for the tuition of 67 students.</p>

<p>I’d say that’s a downright waste of money.</p>