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Tuesday, October 16, 2007
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Runaway Train II There's a "a widespread cynicism among professors over the growth and impact of the $8 billion-a-year college sports business," writes the Philadelphia Inquirer in its coverage of the Knight Commission meeting. Faculty responses to a recent survey suggest that professors "resent the multimillion-dollar salaries paid to football and basketball coaches, believe sports decisions are driven not by college administrators but by the entertainment industry, and feel that athletics get priority over education." Despite the dangerously out of control nature of big-time university sports, "[N]o one [at the meeting] appeared convinced that [anything faculty or the Commission might do] would have any significant impact on a college-sports scene increasingly marked by explosive spending increases, an arms race in facility construction, and concessions to television networks." The academic and commercialization problems "are going to have to be solved at the national level," said Gary Roberts, dean of Indiana University's School of Law. "No one school is going to put itself at a strong competitive disadavantage. No school is going to change unless they all change." |