… shows you how it’s done.

… drags its ass from one scandal to the next, subsidizing the wretched spectacle with your tuition money, what can you do?

Not much.

But all praise to the grad students at the University of New Mexico, who held a special election:

GPSA’s special election about the UNM Athletics Administration saw a record turnout, and all four questions on the ballot passed by margins of at least 30 percent.

“This is an unprecedented number,” said GPSA President Lissa Knudsen. “It is our belief that GPSA has never had this turnout.”

As for the results, 1,163 students voted in the online election, which is more than twice the turnout of the April GPSA presidential election. Students could select “no opinion” on each question.

More than 1,000 students voted to urge the Board of Regents to divert student fees from Athletics. This was the highest turnout of all the questions. Of those who had an opinion, more than 85 percent of students voted to urge the administration to divert student fees away from the Athletics Department to academic programs.

Also, 81 percent of students who voted said they have no confidence in Athletic Director Paul Krebs’ handing of the Sept. 20 Locksley/Gerald Incident.

Roughly two-thirds of graduate and professional students voted no confidence in Krebs’ overall performance as Athletic Director….

Won’t make any difference. But it’s very important to get it said. The place is a whorehouse, and students have a right not to want to get dirtied by association.

… just keeping track.

********************

Update:

UD thanks James, a reader, for pointing out that MN Daily has taken down this article, which tracks “a slew of off-field incidents” involving Minnesota’s way-bad football team.

UD guesses that the reporter is rewriting the piece — with so many incidents, errors will happen.

*******************

Another update:

Try this link.

UD thanks Bill.

FORT WORTH — A Wedgwood Middle School coach was fired after displaying a knife and threatening to castrate a student, according to documents released by the Fort Worth school district.

Eugene R. Jennings, a social studies teacher and coach who worked in the district for 20 years, has insisted that he was joking, according to the report by the district’s Office of Professional Standards.

According to the report, Jennings entered another teacher’s classroom in September and noticed a student misbehaving. At that point, he pulled a student aside and threatened to castrate him, according to a witness’s statement in the report….

UD thanks Bill for the link.

First Kansas, then Texas Tech, and now the University of South Florida. Where will it end?

Texas Tech fans are outraged, and I’m sure we’ll hear from USF fans shortly as their own beloved sadist is fired. As Texas Tech people have pointed out, violence against your players when they’ve fucked up is a venerable coaching tradition in university football. Bottom line, it works. That’s why university coaches have the highest salaries on campus.

An editorial in North Jersey:

… The same state university that has gone into deep debt to expand its football stadium now is seriously considering a massive overhaul of its athletic center. This is a very bad idea.

The Rutgers Athletic Center has not been expanded since it was built 31 years ago. A bigger and better center may be desired, but now is not the time. The proposed expansion includes a new basketball practice facility, adds premium and club seats, replaces the playing court and scoreboard and creates an atrium that would house retail stores and a hall of fame. New coaching offices also would be built.

To date, there are no estimated costs for the ambitious plan, but Rutgers hopes private fund raising, plus income from the sale of premium and club seats, will pay for the project. Where have we heard that before? Ah, yes, Rutgers’ football stadium.

The expanded stadium was going to be financed with private funds. But the money didn’t materialize and the university had to borrow much of the needed $102 million. Has no one inside the athletics department noticed the recession?…

The University of Cincinnati’s sports program will need up to $11 million in new funding every year to be competitive in the Big East Conference, but it still is running a deficit every year and owes millions of dollars from past overspending.

A new report also shows that UC’s Athletic Department is losing about $3.5 million a year and has amassed a $24 million debt, mainly from a shortfall in construction of the Varsity Village complex on campus.

… UC will start construction soon on a new sports complex along Jefferson Avenue that will include football practice fields, but a potential expansion of Nippert Stadium – and whether UC can afford a project that could cost up to $50 million – looms over the program…

FSU’s appeal has failed.

… The NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee said Tuesday the cooperative efforts of the university in the academic cheating scandal involving 61 Florida State athletes failed to outweigh the aggravating factors in the case.

“The case also included impermissible benefits, unethical conduct by three former academic support services staff members and a failure to monitor by the university,” the NCAA statement said.

Twenty-five football players were among the athletes who cheated on an online test in a music history course from the fall of 2006 through summer 2007 or received improper help from staffers who provided them with answers to the exam and typed papers for them…

Leach’s buyout figure, $1.5 million, is actually cheaper at the end of the day than drawn-out litigation for the university.

Who says there won’t be drawn-out litigation on top of the $1.5 million?

Latest Texas Tech University undergraduate application essay prompt:

YOU’RE CONCUSSED FROM PLAYING FOOTBALL FOR TEXAS TECH. YOUR COACH GIVES YOU A CHOICE – IMPRISONMENT IN A DARK ROOM OR INSIDE OF AN EQUIPMENT BIN. WHICH DO YOU CHOOSE, AND WHY?

Via the great website UO MATTERS, UD notes that a parking lot mainly used by University of Oregon law professors will now be for athletes:

Phil Knight [the donor who runs UO] was able to convert general university parking into special reserved slots for athletes only. Lot 34F …  was converted to parking a few months ago, and was apparently used heavily by professors at the law school.

Look out for the Mustang coming in real fast.

… [Football Coach Mike Leach] is the king of Lubbock. He’s bullied his administration numerous times over the last six or seven years. Leach and the school have bickered over his salary several times, and just last year the school president had to personally oversee Leach’s latest contract extension…

… Leach [has] revealed himself as dangerously irrational. He tried to sue Texas Tech so that he could coach “his” team in the bowl game. Are you kidding me? It’s not his team. It’s Texas Tech’s team…

All this, and Alberto Gonzales.

Plus they’ve got years of expensive litigation from the just-fired Leach to look forward to.

CBS Sports:

… For too long coaches have had it their way without question — salaries bigger than their state’s governor, courtesy cars, country club memberships. The student-athlete has to play his behind off year-to-year just to keep his scholarship… [A] $4 million contract doesn’t give you the keys to a university. Too often that’s what has happened. Coaches get away with this stuff with impunity because they can. Whether it’s a third-world dictatorship or the SEC, it’s unsettling to be reminded that absolute power corrupts absolutely…

… According to a USA Today study, the average pay for major college football coaches has risen 28% over the last two years, to $1.36 million. In 2007, 12 coaches made at least $2 million. Today, that number has more than doubled, to 25. According to the USA Today study, Leach made at least $2.7 million this year, Mangino $2.3 million and Leavitt $1.6 million…

Time magazine, in an article titled Are College Football Coaches Out of Control?, notes the increasing sadism toward players among university football coaches.

UD understands. You’re being paid more than anyone else on campus — often anyone else in the state — to win games. The pressure’s incredible. When the reputation of the university rests on your shoulders, you might have to concuss a few players to get the school where it wants to be.

… Coach Mike Leach.

But cheer up, Red Raiders! You’ve still got Alberto Gonzales.

… are one of many benefits your tax dollars support at universities with big sports programs.

Student athletes learn a lot from role models like Mark Mangino and Mike Leach. You can understand why institutions devoted to the life of the mind reward these men — who make students crawl on hot Astroturf until they permanently burn their hands, and who make concussed players stand inside of equipment bins for hours — with their highest salaries. It takes real brains to think up this stuff.