[C]ases of “jock” behaviour on campus remain rife and college sports are actually swelling in terms of commercial and cultural power…
Perhaps that is not surprising: as anthropologists know, every society has power networks and rituals that enable groups to coalesce. But another truism of anthropology is that rituals are most effective in upholding power structures – however distasteful – when nobody talks about them at all, be that on Wall Street or university campuses. In that sense, then, the good news about the 2006 [Duke lacrosse] scandal was that it spurred debate about standards.
The bad news, though, is that [the basic] question remains largely undiscussed: why should universities be so dominated by sports?
April 13th, 2014 at 12:05PM
Why are unis dominated by sports? Follow money. Huge stadiums/basketball arenas = public debt. Public debt = Wall Street investment houses = subscription administration = approximately 10% fees. Ask yourself why Colorado State, which has achieved absolutely nothing athletically, is trying to sink at least a quarter of a billion in its football stadium buildout, and then think of the fees accruing to whatever New York money temple oversees the subscription. Further, those same money changers invest in those bonds, which are guaranteed to pay off due to the fact that student loans are the collateral and they can’t be bankruptcy discharged.
Also, can’t overlook the contractors who are among the most politically connected entities in the state. A TX school district spent $60 million on a high school football stadium. With commercial/residential construction at a near standstill, after all, the US has hundreds of millions of vacant square feet of retail/office space, the only game in town is the public sector, and nothing is as lucrative as building gigantic closed and open air warehouses, also known as basketball arenas and football stadiums.
That’s what occures when you allow unis to follow a corporate model. The mandate is to placate the stockholder/private owners/managers, and to hell with serving the needs of the taxpayer….