… some colleges are saying they need at least $13 MM/yr from boosters to fund the NIL account for a competitive team.
That’s fine if it’s coming from the boosters, but James Madison University in Virgina has a student activity fee of $2,362/yr to fund the sports teams.
Nobody ever asked me how many games the football team won in a job interview.
intercst
Good luck with your outrage at the money pouring into circuses. I have been arguing against the multimillion dollar subsidies paid to college athletic programs by taxpayers and students, for some time, to no effect.
The TV ratings for 2023 were posted not long ago. Of the 50 highest rated broadcasts, only 6 were anything other than football or basketball.
My first thought was the dominance of sports was due to the horrid dreck the networks are offering as TV series these days.
Then I had a thought. Sports betting is now legal in 37 states, and DC. Is the ever increasing obsession with sports driven by gambling on those sports?
Recall, the Proles were easily controlled, because they had been groomed to only care about sports. gambling, and gossip. By legalizing sports gambling, TPTB have created synergy between sports and gambling, so the two obsessions feed off each-other.
https://www.axios.com/2023/11/26/legal-sports-betting-states
Was vacationing at the beach this past week and had a book to read given to me as a Christmas gift titled “College Gameday” or something. Basically a bunch of history/trivia on the evolution of football. One interesting chapter was dealing with the beginnings of football and the Civil War. Football was a way of replicating the comradery of the military. And colleges found the sport a good way to keep alumni interested and tied to the university. All this took off even more after WWII and the GI Bill. Definitely unique to American society.
You’re not familiar with European foot ball (soccer) teams, are you?
They’re on a par with American team loyalty. Manchester United fans are right up there with the Packers.
—Peter
My point is college sports have become an end in themselves. Outside of the handful of universities whose athletic programs are self-supporting, universities divert state “education” funding, and student “class tuition” to subsidize athletics, rather than the academic pursuits for which the money was obtained. So where will the money come from to pay the “student athletes”? Divert more from “education funding” and “class tuition”? iirc, if a charity raises money for a stated purpose, then spends it on something else, that is fraud.
Steve
With as little reason…
YNWA
Great history. And you never know about the future.
DB2