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“[I]t may be time for a U.S. president to once again call college football leaders to Washington to sort out the mess that is big-time college athletics.”

Puh-leeze. UD‘s a big Obama fan. But Obama’s a huge sports fan, a jock, and there’s no way this meeting will be anything other than backslapping and stats chat. Members of Congress are worse than Obama.

And… college football leaders? Cynical, greedy NCAA? Even greedier coaches? University presidents whoring after tens of billions in tv rights?

No.

As one commenter notes, “sports revenues and reputation are replacing public support for academics.”

University football and basketball are America’s debraining machines.

Margaret Soltan, November 26, 2011 7:01AM
Posted in: sport

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7 Responses to ““[I]t may be time for a U.S. president to once again call college football leaders to Washington to sort out the mess that is big-time college athletics.””

  1. Mike S. Says:

    UD is a huge Obama fan? How can this be?
    Earlier today UD posted this,
    http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=33711
    , quoting extensively from bloomberg.com an article wherein those on the Board of G-S are taken to task (rightly) for failing to condemn and investigate Goldman’s egregious fraud.

    Sadly, on that matter there is another party whose failing is far greater than that of the G-S board.
    His name is US Attorney General Eric Holder and he serves at the pleasure of one President Obama.
    The same situation holds in many other similar cases, and there have been almost no criminal prosecutions precisely because Obama and Holder don’t have the stomach for it.
    Surely UD is familiar with William K. Black? (And if not, you’ll like him when you get a chance to hear him.)
    http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/19/former_financial_regulator_william_black_occupy
    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/bill-black-the-high-price-of-ignorance.html
    http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/09/william-black-why-nobody-went-to-jail.html

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Mike S.: I’m a big William Black fan. I’m opening the links you’ve sent now.

  3. DM Says:

    There’s a financial and fiscal crisis in much of the developed world, Congress cannot quite agree on a budget, there are revolutions going on in Libya, Egypt and Syria, etc., and you want the US president to spend time on fixing university sports?

  4. Shane Street Says:

    Well, DM, to be fair he’s not exactly spending a great deal of time solving any of those problems either. He kinda needs to go into the next election with one victory, eh? Why not reforming college sports?

  5. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Or killing Osama Bin Laden?

  6. Shane Street Says:

    Yeah, with his BARE HANDS! He’s Chuck Norris!
    Meanwhile, what he actually did this weekend was attend a basketball game and play his 30th round of golf of the year with his buds. 88th of his presidency, but who’s counting?

  7. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Hey yeah i said he was a jock…

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