Rant alert!!
I'll be brief. It's the day after the college championship football
game, and I am in a "grrrrrrrrr" mood. I've been gnashing my teeth lately. A
lyric has been swirling in my angry head: "Money makes the world go round, the
world go round, the world go round."
That's not the sordid world outside the Ivory Tower. That's the Ivory
Tower. Higher education is increasingly being lowered by bigger bucks. It is
becoming as imbalanced at a huge container ship listing and stuck on a
sandbank. It is becoming more brashly commercialized. Conferences expanding;
governors politiking governors; schools being wooed away to one conference by
another; schools switching conferences; players wanting to unionize. For what?
It's hasn't got a thing to do with academics. It's all about "football" and
"basketball," and in academia that translates into "cold cash." It's not about
academic integrity; it's about money. It's not about character development;
it's about building up bank accounts. It's not about graudation rates; it's
about win/lose records. It's not about the future well-being of the kids--yes,
the student/athletes are kids--it's about the coaches' jobs. Athletic meat
markets aren't becoming much different from diploma mills. Instead of
diplomas stacked high; money is stacked in rolls. It's not about academic
honors; it's about football championships. Presidents talk academics and walk
money. Power in so many colleges have been surrendered to coaches and ADs by
emasculated Presidents. All these athletic cents make no academic sense. And,
they've brought me to my senses. The Big 12 commissioner, Bob Bowlsby,
self-servingly and self-aggrandizingly said in reference to college sports. “I
think it’s a function of higher education.” I think he should have said
"disfunction."
A seven year contract salary of $35 million--for starters? For a
college football coach? How about $7.3 billion--yes, billion--for seven years
of championship TV rights paid by ESPN. $5 billion yearly earnings, just for
football? Lucrative? No. Ludicrous! Corrupting!! That's the height of
obscenity in higher education. But, that's not the point. You say these
athletes are getting an education to which they otherwise wouldn't have access?
The point is in a rampant mentality, that's even infected my beloved UNC,
revealed in a tweet by Cardale Jones, starting quarterback of Ohio State in the
championship game, that appeared recently in the NY Times: "Why should we have
to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL,
classes are POINTLESS.”
--"we ain't come to play SCHOOL, classes are POONTLESS."--Now, whomever
that doesn't bother is part of the problem!! Lock away your idealism? Let
your ethics shrivel? Trade them both off for entertainment? Tolerate and be
content with exploitation? I, for one, won't. I'd rather walk away, but not
quietly.
I know, this train has left the station. But I don't have to wave at
it with a fluttering handkerchief, smile and cheer. This ex-student/athlete,
avid sports fan, hasn't watched one collegiate or pro football or basketball
game this year, not even the playoffs and championships. Not one. Haven't
even gazed glancingly at the sports section, much less scores or standings. I
am that angry. But, I was amazed how easy it is. I don't feel any separation
anxiety. I'm sure that no one will care about my "nano-protest" or
"micro-rant," but it sure makes me feel better.
As Joel Gray sang, "Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money,
money...." GRRRRRRRRR!!
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier
http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
203 E. Brookwood Pl http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta, Ga 31602
(C) 229-630-0821 /\ /\ /\ /\
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\_/__\ \
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mountains,\ /\
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hills" - / \_
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