Comments about ‘Doug Robinson: Colleges should focus on education, not sports’

Oh, Doug, shame on you for telling the truth. Wow, for awhile there I thought I was reading my own writing. Yes, you nailed it on the head, and every one of your points are valid. Why do we do all those things? because we're dumb, really dumb, and we've been bamboozled by the SEC, ESPN, the football bowl committees, and foolish university presidents who are willing to pay coaches millions of dollars--no wonder most schools are in the red. State univesities don't need more money, they need to be put on a diet.

I work in higher education, and have studied this very subject in a variety of projects. While I completely agree with the notion that college sports are spiraling out of control, this piece also takes a very narrow-minded view at the overall picture. There are many reasons that college sports exist; and while anything can be tied to money, not everything directly does. Let's be honest, would anyone outside of North Carolina even know about Duke University if it weren't for the basketball team? For that matter, how many outside of the Salt Lake Valley would really pay attention to the U outside of athletic prominence? And, honestly, Jimmer (and in a way Brandon Davies) got the nation to tart paying attention to BYU again.

Any university wants to attract the brightest scholars and students (which turn into donor giving alumni). For example, athletics might not lure a renowned chemist, but that renowned chemist may have never heard of the school without a good football team. Sure, it's ultimately about money, and there are issues, but there are other things going on not as easily measured as wins and losses, and direct operating budgets

As someone who loves college football and has season tickets to BYU, I absolutely agree. I have often wondered why BYU has to pick up so much of the cost for developing talent for the NFL. The NFL should reimburse the college of the player they draft for development.

@SpaceCowboy69

"I have often wondered why BYU has to pick up so much of the cost for developing talent for the NFL."

I hope this was sarcasm.

Well said Mr Robinson, college sports have grown to the point where they now control the Universities. Only look as far as Penn State to see how school administrators are afraid to reign in coaches for even criminal acts. The NFL can afford to pay for it's own farm system for athletes that would otherwise have no desire to attend or even think of pursuing a college degree.

It's even worse when publicly owned universities use tax dollars to supplement programs that have become addicted to corporate sponsorships and big ticket alumni monies to promote their instituions.

jpjazz,

Since when has tax dollars been used to supplement athletic programs? I know of none in the State of Utah. Please enlighten me. In fact the University of Utah operates on a $2.2 billion dollar budget and only 8% of that budget is funded by the tax payers of this State. And none of that 8% goes to athletic programs. With the way the economy is right now the only college educated kids getting jobs right out of school are the athletes.

Well said Doug! I think it will be pretty hard to implement most of what you wrote, but that does not mean that we should not try to be sustainable.

Best article Doug has ever written. As a college student who holds down a job to get through school, I am sickened by University athletic programs' greedy hands.

I don't know. This only takes into account ticket sales in determining profitability. I wager the Crimson Club/Cougar Club easily loses 80% of their donations the year any of their schools lose their sports programs.

The sports programs are what continue to tie alumni (And the community) to the school. And i think that many more than 12 schools in the country are actually benefiting money-wise from having athletic programs. With good sports, enrollment goes up, boosters go up, and campus-wide donations also go up. There is a method to the madness (In moderation of course)

Although i do agree it seems to have gotten out of control. It is definitely an unsustainable arms race between schools to have the newest, most expensive facilities.