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发帖数: 19398 | 1 http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2015/11/14/how-the-nfl-
This week saw two big stories develop around the big money in college sports
. It makes one wonder, when did sports become more important than academics
in American universities – and why?
The first story was how the football team at the University of Missouri was
able to fire the university President. Ongoing racial tensions, and some
terrible acts of aggression, had been problematic at Mizzou, leading to a
student hunger strike. But the President remained uninvolved and taciturn
on the topic.
Until the football team threatened to strike. Within 48 hours the President
was booted out, allowing the team to play this Saturday and keep the big
money flowing.
Separately, the NCAA shut down a web site set up by the family of LSU
running back Leonard Fournette to sell merchandise plugging his catch phrase
. The concern was ostensibly whether the family received discounted
services in creating the site due to the player’s popularity. But more
important was whether anyone other than LSU and the NCAA was going to make
any money off a college football player.
ncaa_coachesv4College sports is a uniquely American business
The USA is the only country where university coaches make multi-million
dollar salaries. Elsewhere, one must coach a professional team to earn such
sums. And the USA is the only country where alumni donations for sports are
greater than alumni donations for academics. And the USA is the only
country where college sport venues (coliseums nonetheless) consume as much,
or more, capital budget than the entire balance of the university. And the
USA is the only place where more money is spent to recruit and retain
athletes than the brightest academic minds.
The United States is the only country where sports have become more
important than academics at many (most?) major universities. Around the
world, colleges are about education first, foremost and pretty much entirely
. Sports are left to professionals. How did Americans turn their
universities into sports leagues rather than institutions for research and
learning?
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Blame it on the NFL and the NBA
Prior to the rise of both major sports leagues, college athletics were not
that important. Sure there were teams, but they were very clearly for fun.
Players had to take a full regimen of classes, and they were expected to
pass those classes. Players were students first, and athletes just for the
pleasure. Athletes were expected to obtain a degree in 4 years, then move
on to professional lives. Sure, there were alumni booster clubs supporting
athletes, and some schools (especially in the south) were notoriously crazy
routing for their home teams, but the school was more about education than
playing ball.
Years ago professional sports was dominated by baseball in America and
soccer pretty much everywhere else. Baseball and soccer both developed “
farm systems” by which the professional teams created other teams that
recruited and trained young players. And in northern climates hockey
developed similar farm systems.
Often starting well before players finished high school (or its equivalent
outside the USA) recruiters would approach athletes and their parents to ask
if they could place the youth into their training program. Players would
improve their skills level by level, moving up through different teams until
they reached the top level of performance. In American baseball, for
example, these “farm teams” run 4 levels deep, and when a player makes it
to the top it’s called “reaching the show.”
The cost of identifying, recruiting and training athletes for baseball, and
soccer, has always been carried by the professional franchises.
But the rise of the NFL and the NBA changed this dramatically. By relying
on colleges to do the recruiting and first level of training, they could
avoid an incredible amount of cost. An “unholy alliance” was born between
the NCAA and the professional leagues. The professionals would not create
“farm systems.”
Universities built huge businesses out of running NFL and NBA farm systems
Instead, universities would act as the recruiters and developers of “pre-
professional” athletes. These athletes would be called “amateurs” and
thus receive no compensation for playing, nor would they receive
compensation for promoting the school, nor would they be able to receive
compensation for using their likeness, personality or any individually
created brand elements. The schools would receive 100% of any revenues
related to the athletes and other branded elements of college sports. |
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