The remarkable synergy between the values of universities and the values of big-time football is there for all to see: Commitment to free, independent thought, to dissent, to reason over violence, to sober deliberation over intoxicated impulse, to academic seriousness leading to the completion of advanced degrees, to academic integrity, etc., etc. And nowhere is that synergy on clearer display these days than at Washington State University, whose athletic director has compiled an enemies list of people who aren’t “on board and believing in what we’re doing.” No bowl game tickets for those people. Dissenters have been placed on a no-tickets list.
The list is based on “a crimson-letter file of any particularly snarky emails that haven’t properly embraced the new way.” As another true believer – this one from Rutgers – writes in one of Scathing Online Schoolmarm‘s favorite pieces of prose:
Great organizations have culture, and culture only comes from a set of shared attitudes, goals, and values that every individual within that organization believes in.
It’s the ethos that’s made North Korea such a success, and you’ll find it at almost all of America’s great football schools too – get with the game or get fucked.
One local writer doesn’t quite get it:
This is inspired marketing for a program that’s had almost as many empty seats as occupied ones for its last two home games.
Most schools rank donors for ticket eligibility on a priority list.
The place that’s foisted a decade of bad football on its audience suddenly has a blacklist.
[The AD] means it when he says he has to change the culture. But who knew what he had in mind was vindictiveness?
No, no, no – it’s not vindictiveness. And it’s not a moronic marketing strategy. No, no, no.
You are looking at it the wrong way. The Democratic People’s Republic of Washington State University is a benevolent, misunderstood state. It seeks, via shunning, to educate dissenters so that they may join the glorious new way.
This is also what re-education camps are for, and UD is certain the AD has these in mind too. Otherwise it would look vindictive.
November 27th, 2013 at 10:46AM
And, for the daring/foolhardy investor/fan, there are new ways to get skin in the game… um… so to speak:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/new-boom-in-subprime-loans-for-smaller-businesses/?ref=business
The article doesn’t make much of the fact that Learfield has assets like ‘multimedia rights to Clemson games’ but it’s not hard to see where this is headed.
November 27th, 2013 at 10:51AM
A few years back, Washington State U. was forced to make across the board academic budget cuts of 25%, due to declining state revenues. That was before the state told its flagship, U of WA, that it had to start trimming administrative overhead and rein in athletic costs, or they’ll lose state money as well.
But, nawww, football now, football tomorrow, football forever, the WA uni administrators have become the Northwest version of George Wallace. That, despite the fact that fewer students/alumni seem to care what goes on in their refurbished stadiums. It’s long past time that these sports obsessed entities go belly up….
August 20th, 2015 at 8:55AM
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