Big-time athletics, we’re told again and again by its boosters, is the front porch of the university — that’s their favorite cliche. It means sports are by far the most visible part of the institution, and they should be financially supported big-time because they’re the first point of contact for potential students. A winning football team makes the number of applicants rise dramatically – or so people claim. This might not really be true. Or it might be true, but the additional applicants might turn out to be jocks who wouldn’t be accepted anyway.
But anyway. That’s not our focus here. Our focus is the pesky little problem of rapists and other varieties of sex offenders among the recruiting classes for big-time university sports. (Of course, it’s not just the players; there’s plenty of rape to go around when you’re a major football school.). It’s a pesky problem because after all especially if you’re talking football you want a big big bruiser of a guy who’s incredibly aggressive on the field – and while most such types will confine their aggression to the game, some number of them reliably will not. Hence all the football-player rape trials always going on.
But if you’re a coach you’re totally incentivized to – er – overlook said bruiser’s history of sexual misbehavior, and to exploit all that testosterone-rage on the gridiron. If the coach is lucky enough to be on a conceal carry campus he can try redirecting his player’s sex-rage to pistol-rage and let him shoot his gun off all over town rather than his dick.
And yes, yes, I know there are problems connected to the gun solution; of course there are problems … But, for instance, a group of students at Washington State University has asked that school to deal with the sexual rage problem, never mind the gun problem…
The leaders of three student groups at Washington State University recently sent a letter to president Kirk Schulz and athletic director Bill Moos asking the school to implement a policy regarding the recruitment of athletes.
The letter, sent June 28, urges the university to have a policy that prevents “the recruitment of any athlete with a history of sexual violence.”
It refers to “those who have pled guilty to or been convicted of dating violence, domestic violence, stalking, sexual harassment, rape, sexual assault, or sexual violence.”
A quick review of this blog’s posts on WSU indicates that its primary problem among athletes is their propensity to beat the living shit out of random fellow students and townies. It didn’t help matters that for a time WSU even boasted twisted, violent Mike Leach as coach. But no doubt these students – the ones requesting that WSU not recruit sex criminals – are responding to the fact that there may be sexual problems as well.
So… UD will predict that after extended dithering WSU will very self-righteously announce that it’s compelled to admit plausible applicants who have paid their debt to society and we’re really sorry but we’re not going to do anything. Being at a jock school, after all, means willingly assuming certain risks, like getting beaten up or raped by an athlete. Small price to pay for a winning season.
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UD thanks Seelye.