ESPN and The NCAA are Not Our Friends

Let me make a prediction for you. When the dust settles, and the latest PC jihad against confederate statues subside, there will still be a few states in the south, mostly in the deep south, that will possess some Confederate statues. And to the modern PC crowd, whom I affectionately call the Bolsheviks, that will not be good enough. They won’t rest until every statue, street name, dorm name, building, school, daycare center, traffic circle and bridge is free from the taint of the old south. Lenin had the same policy towards the Romanov’s when he seized power. No street could be named for a Romanov.

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.