Well, what is coming is Round two. What is round two, well that is when the National Collegiate Athletic Association, better known as the NCAA, decides that it will start boycotting the offending states. No championship games can be played in those states, and other events will be banned until the offensive statues come down. The NCAA may stand for a lot of things but tolerance is not one of them.
The NCAA is committed to advancing the leftist causes of the politically correct. The policies of wedding cake bakers, who can use the girls’ bathroom, what states require voter ID, and what statues are hanging up in the town square are all issues that the NCAA care about. And over time the NCAA will expand their legislative agenda. No doubt they will incorporate the platforms of Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter.
It is fitting that the NCAA has become such a politically correct organization. The great leftist himself, Teddy Roosevelt, fathered the Association while he was President.
In the ongoing culture war, we conservatives must realize, as much as we may like sports, that both ESPN and the NCAA are enemies of traditional America. They will use whatever influence they can muster to turn America into a European wiener state. They won’t rest until the ideal man in the south is no longer a masculine Robert E. Lee type, but rather the metrosexual, the man who likes to play the guitar and ride his bike to work…but I digress.
I have come up with a way to go after both ESPN and the NCAA in one fell swoop:
How about eliminating organized college sports?
Now before you say that it will never happen, or it is impossible, to quote John Lennon you may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one. Or what was George Bernard Shaw’s line, “Some men see things as they are and ask why, I dream things that never were and ask why not?” Yes, the Virginia Gentleman is a visionary. It may seem painful but we can get rid of college sports. There will still be lots to do on Saturdays. And do we really need our March filled with madness?
So, allow me to point out a number of lines of attack:
First the economics of college sports. Earlier this summer I read Gilbert Gaul’s book, “Billion Dollar Ball.” And I gathered from the book that the vast majority of college sports programs don’t make money. The elite basketball and football programs make money, but they are few and far between. The University of Texas makes money on football, but say Fresno States’, or Akron or Northern Illinois team does not. College sports operate on this premise. Fresno State and the majority of football and basketball teams keep playing on the theory that one day they will make money. Only a small percentage of college teams actually do.
The reason for women’s softball teams, rowing teams, gymnastics, archery, cricket, curling, tennis and golf teams is to comply with title IX. That is roughly an equal amount of money must be spent on women’s programs as is spent on the men’s programs. Even though the woman’s programs make no money.
I have a cousin who recently received a scholarship to a major university for gymnastics. They needed to give her a scholarship to justify the scholarship for a football or basketball player. I am happy that she got a break on tuition, but how does it really help the university to add to the student body someone who has the ability to do a somersault and walk on a balance beam like a cat?
So the economics of college sports are odd, to say the least. Why not just take sports out of scholarship consideration. Just give scholarships based on academics and economic need?
And there are health issues to consider. Colleges are putting their student athletes at great risk. Neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu has argued that football is inherently dangerous. Repeated blows to the head inevitably causes chronic traumatic encephalopathy(CT). A degenerative disease that destroys the brain. Could a college or university be held liable for future claims? And if it is a public university could taxpayers be on the hook? Is it right for a school to sanction such a dangerous activity?
On health grounds alone, ironically with the help of liberals, we could probably get rid of college football.
The NFL and the NBA use colleges as their minor leagues, that is to develop future talent at low/no pay. Why not get the colleges out of it and require the NBA and NFL to create their own minor leagues? Football and Basketball fans can watch those and the colleges and universities could focus on education, and save the scholarship money for needy students.
We can attack the idea of organized college sports on health concerns, financial grounds, on moral grounds, and on academic grounds. Now, I think it is fine to have intermural sports, but without organized college sports, ESPN and the NCAA will not have the platform to dictate what statues we can have, what bathroom policies must states adopt etc. We will greatly defang them.
If left unchecked the NCAA will over time become like a super legislative body. It will use money to force states to pass laws they want. And ESPN will be right there all along as the mouth piece for them. In the culture war we conservatives need to take down the NCAA and ESPN.
Eliminating organized college sports will finish off the NCAA and deal a body blow to ESPN. A victory for America no doubt.
It can and I believe must be done.
9 comments
When players on college teams sued for the right to unionize, they were essentially declaring themselves to be employees, and therefore professionals. I wouldn’t expect students to normally be held to the same standards as paid employees, but they, but as unionized employees, that all changed voluntarily.
If they want the benefits of professional teams, the need to be held to the same standards as professional teams. If they don’t perform, out they go!
That would be incorrect. Under the Nat’l Labor Relations Act, professionals are exempt from coverage. Employees? Yes. Professionals? No.
But wait, I hear you saying. What about pro athletes? They have a union. How’s that work?
It works because the teams extend them “voluntary recognition.” Why would an employer do that for otherwise exempt employees? Because a collective bargaining agreement extends an anti-trust exemption to the multi-employer bargaining unit, and they need the anti-trust exemption else the draft (and other rules, like salary caps) would be adjudged a restraint of trade.
All of which explains why in contract disputes the players threaten to decertify their union, which drives the employers into a frenzy of fear (very much unlike the typical employer, who would welcome union decertification) so they quickly find a solution else some of the owners would take advantage of the newly free market and start bidding against themselves to drive the price of pro sports labor through the roof, and all the rules and especially the draft would be out the window.
In fact, the NLRA rejected the Northwestern University players’ petition on the grounds that they were not employees at all under the meaning of the NLRA. For now, this effort has gone nowhere. Besides, with new players every year to four, very little cohesion or unity amongst the so-called “bargaining unit.”
This ultimately comes down to the alumni who withhold contributions when the NCAA makes stupid decisions. Money talks and angered alumni can have a lot of sway not only at the individual college level but across the spectrum of colleges. ESPN is a lost cause. I can take or leave a sport that ends up permanently injuring or killing a lot of kids for profit.
On a side note, even tennis is becoming a sport that injures far too many young men and women. The recent hard court tournament in Cincinnati saw something like 3 out of the top ten men players out of action, many young women wearing wraps because of thigh and leg injuries, and God knows how many hidden injuries as well. It isn’t fund to watch a sport where injury is the basis for success or failure. (The injury of Bethany Mattek-Sands during a singles match was one of the most gruesome injuries I have ever seen to a tennis player. Her screaming for help on the court lasted minutes because unlike football or basketball, tennis courts can be spread around and professional medical help cannot be at every court.)
Only you could take this stuff seriously. For the sake of your future and current credibility, be more careful and discerning.
Now I’ve seen it all here. Truly! If there is any attempt at a unified, cohesive editorial voice here, I cannot detect it. This is a lunchroom run by a woman who wants children to throw milk at one another because she gets a penny on each milk carton.
There is no unified, cohesive voice because guest writers may contribute to allow for a variety of viewpoints. Were you looking for a monolithic outlook? If so, Media Matters is happy to oblige by disallowing diverse opinions.
Interesting you should say so. I posted an opinion here last night citing the recent declaration by the outstanding Republican senator John Danforth that Trump is no Republican and that he is destroying the Republican Party.
It was deleted in a fit of censorship by whomever runs this place summarily and without explanation. I suspect this is because it is extremely persuasive and anti-Trump but very pro-Republican (like me). I posted it because it is emblematic of what is plainly wrong here.
Intensely bigoted posts? Fine. Posts by those adjudged criminals? Fine. Posts by those … oh, who cares? One thing this is not is a place that encourages responsible free expression.
I believe you, but I’m surprised. I haven’t seen many deletions here. In fact, I can’t recall any (although I don’t see article and comment). I no longer go to the Hill – they delete almost everything I write there. My tone is the same as it is here – it’s my opinions that they don’t like.
“How about eliminating organized college sports?”
Really? This is a conservative idea? You got me. I confess I am speechless by this contribution to intelligent discourse and discussion. Cam Jones proposing the dismantling of the Democratic Party — a bit authoritarian and anti-First-Amendment, but worth considering if the goal is Commonwealth Republicans winning another statewide election anytime soon. But end organized college sports? What’s next from you, Mr. Shephard? Time to move past this one, and Go Cats!
P.S. Please volunteer for campaigns on the other side of whomever I am favoring. Please! They need your critical thinking.