Why are Athletics so important to most colleges?

[curmudgeon]

<p>OOHH! I have . We have an area not far from me settled by Norwegians and Swedes. I have been to their festival and I have had lutefisk. ehhhh. I can’t say it’s good but I ain’t eating haggis. Not gonna happen.</p>

[curmudgeon]

<p>ek4, now that I think about it, I’ll do the caber toss , too. It involves tossing a very heavy pole while eating a Haggis involves tossing my cookies for a week. And then whenever I thought about till I die.</p>

[sybbie719]

<p>

I don’t mean to offend by stereotyping, but fielding a good baskteball team at a college, for example, will likely result in recruiting some African-American students. In turn, a school with a good basketball team will interest other African-American students

</p>

<p>GFG,</p>

<p>If you go to the athletics website where our kids go to school, while one of the co-captians of the basketball team is black, the team in and of it self is overwhelming white. The same holds true for the along football and baseball teams.</p>

<p>Another thing to take into consideration, is that while the ivies may give preferential financial aid packaging, they do not give athletic scholarships (more potential for a full-ride). If given the choice, a black kid with a hoop dream of going pro will chose Duke or some other basketball powehouse schoool any day of the week over any ivy league school.</p>

[OpiefromMayberry]

<p>llutefisk, haggis…</p>

<p>Any food that you pronounce with a gagging sound has that sound for a reason. ;)</p>

<p>Really about sport, I did try and think back in time to find a period where sport wasn’t appreicated. Think about even the stone age cave paintings of hunting. Sport of some type has always been a part of history. I agree with curm that the concept is a balanced individual… scholar and athelete that conceptually is the ideal in our current society and through out history. </p>

<p>While I understand the complaint of easier enrollment for an athelete is bothersome, can someone think of a time where sport(s) weren’t a significant part of cultures?</p>

[StickerShock]

<p>Gefilte fish makes haggis look appetizing in comparison. I am a fan of black pudding, however.</p>

[k_amp_s]

<p>TheGFG -

In turn, a school with a good basketball team will interest other African-American students. And at our high school at least, Asian-Americans are well-represented among the academic and musical elite, but almost non-existent among the athletic elite. Accepting only the academic elites could produce an Asian-dominant student body.

</p>

<p>That doesn’t seem to have hurt Jews - who make up a significantly HIGHER % of the student body at the Ivies and other elite universities.</p>

<p>And oh, btw, Harvard has about 25 Asian males on its athletic teams (including 3 on the FB team, the best player on the hockey team and the top scorer, a frosh, off the bench for the BB team).</p>