When UD says big-time sports destroy universities, this is what she has in mind. People want to think UNC Chapel Hill is a good school, a reputable school, but it’s not. It’s the sort of place that cynically designates entire departments as dumping grounds for athletes UNC would rather not educate because football and basketball are big money. The French worry about a cultural degeneration in their country that they refer to as Italianization. It’s too bad American universities don’t know enough to worry about Auburnization. UNC is definitely getting there.
May 9th, 2012 at 10:14AM
A number of years ago, a new coach flat-out asked the long-time faculty liaison (OK, adopted “mom” for the team) for a list of gut courses, easy professors, and reliable faculty “team players.” She told him to go to hell and promptly quit her role as adviser. We need more of that.
The coach? Three and out, if I recall. The losing record was probably the decisive factor, but the burglary rap against a few players probably didn’t help.
May 9th, 2012 at 11:59AM
[…] fraud involving (among others) a significant percentage of the school’s athletes. Via Margaret Soltan, we learn that certain classes (with nearly 40% football and basketball enrollment, as compared to […]
May 10th, 2012 at 12:28PM
I was sort of thinking that Texas A&M, with its new membership in the SEC, and its faculty under assault by the administration, was undergoing a process of Auburnization. Except that Auburn has a better English Department than we do.
May 10th, 2012 at 1:22PM
True, Aggie Dog.
July 22nd, 2012 at 11:33AM
[…] media were not caught up in Penn State’s football-related criminality, they might be focused on UNC’s mendacity […]