Athletics spending is irresponsible
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:09 pm
I know this has to do more with athletics than football, but this forum has a little more traffic. Opinion by Matt Clark that was in the BGNews opinion section today. What are your thoughts?
Your local Department of Intercollegiate Athletics doesn't give a damn about you and anybody who supports its wasteful spending doesn't care about you either. If they do, they must have a pretty twisted version of "caring."
Every year, these departments bill students millions of dollars in order to operate. What do the students get? Well, they certainly don't get their money back! They're lucky if they get admission to games most of them don't care to attend.
The center for Economic and Policy Research claims the average college graduate is more than $15,000 in debt, but we all know for most of you it will be more like $40,000.
At BG, more than $2,000 of the debt will give a paltry 430 students the chance to compete in 18 varsity sports at a whopping cost of more than $30,000 per athlete. Meanwhile, your debt will leave you scrambling for years to find money for a marriage, a new home or to put food in your children's mouths.
Figures do not lie: those who support overspending on athletics are robbing this country's future leaders of their livelihood.
Now you can write to the BG News all day with your silly, unsupported rants on how this wasteful spending somehow convinces students to go to college, brings money into the education budget or in some magical way returns the more than $2,000 - the cost of an entire semester's tuition at some community colleges - but you are wrong and selfish.
Let's be realistic here: I'm not in favor of eliminating intercollegiate athletics. I've been to the games, I high-fived the mascot, I've cheered my team to victory and felt inspired by my fellow students' accomplishments on the field.
But didn't I do all of those things in high school, too? Funny, I don't remember paying $2,000 to get admission to my high school's sporting events.
Most high schools don't even spend $1 million on athletics, but big colleges like our own find some way to spend more than $13 million!
The freshmen convocation this year could not have demonstrated more clearly how wasteful this spending is. Nearly half of the event saw the football team encouraging students to attend their games, which, from what I've heard, is because the students don't really care to attend. Oh well, we'll bill you anyway.
During this convocation the freshmen were not exposed to our internationally award-winning student groups such as the BG News or the Forensics and Debate Team, no. Those are not important. Athletics are.
In some instances, even the athletes themselves aren't in support of wasteful athletics spending, after all athletes are robbed of their BG experience.
They don't get as much interaction with other students and fail to learn from the diversity on this campus. How often does a student athlete get a chance to hold a major leadership position in a student organization?
I mean, how could they? They have practice nearly all year, they have games, they have other events, they have study sessions they are required to attend, and they already have their own student group - their team. All the while being told they determine how good or bad this university is.
Some are only in it for the scholarships that other students foot the bill for each semester. If only they knew the benefits of being a normal student.
I will confess the administrators who support athletics programs' wasteful spending are not the only ones to blame. They're just the ones who should know better. But they don't realize what they are doing is bad for students, because the real problem here is the students who don't speak up.
You, the average student, are the reason this situation exists. It's not about these officials not caring about you. It's about you not caring about yourself.
You don't care enough to be the one student who stands up and unites thousands, even millions of students on this issue. You don't even care enough to look up how much you pay towards athletics each semester. What will this world be like if you continue to be apathetic on issues like this?
Send comments to Matt Clark at [email protected].
It's also in the BGNews Opinion section online.
Your local Department of Intercollegiate Athletics doesn't give a damn about you and anybody who supports its wasteful spending doesn't care about you either. If they do, they must have a pretty twisted version of "caring."
Every year, these departments bill students millions of dollars in order to operate. What do the students get? Well, they certainly don't get their money back! They're lucky if they get admission to games most of them don't care to attend.
The center for Economic and Policy Research claims the average college graduate is more than $15,000 in debt, but we all know for most of you it will be more like $40,000.
At BG, more than $2,000 of the debt will give a paltry 430 students the chance to compete in 18 varsity sports at a whopping cost of more than $30,000 per athlete. Meanwhile, your debt will leave you scrambling for years to find money for a marriage, a new home or to put food in your children's mouths.
Figures do not lie: those who support overspending on athletics are robbing this country's future leaders of their livelihood.
Now you can write to the BG News all day with your silly, unsupported rants on how this wasteful spending somehow convinces students to go to college, brings money into the education budget or in some magical way returns the more than $2,000 - the cost of an entire semester's tuition at some community colleges - but you are wrong and selfish.
Let's be realistic here: I'm not in favor of eliminating intercollegiate athletics. I've been to the games, I high-fived the mascot, I've cheered my team to victory and felt inspired by my fellow students' accomplishments on the field.
But didn't I do all of those things in high school, too? Funny, I don't remember paying $2,000 to get admission to my high school's sporting events.
Most high schools don't even spend $1 million on athletics, but big colleges like our own find some way to spend more than $13 million!
The freshmen convocation this year could not have demonstrated more clearly how wasteful this spending is. Nearly half of the event saw the football team encouraging students to attend their games, which, from what I've heard, is because the students don't really care to attend. Oh well, we'll bill you anyway.
During this convocation the freshmen were not exposed to our internationally award-winning student groups such as the BG News or the Forensics and Debate Team, no. Those are not important. Athletics are.
In some instances, even the athletes themselves aren't in support of wasteful athletics spending, after all athletes are robbed of their BG experience.
They don't get as much interaction with other students and fail to learn from the diversity on this campus. How often does a student athlete get a chance to hold a major leadership position in a student organization?
I mean, how could they? They have practice nearly all year, they have games, they have other events, they have study sessions they are required to attend, and they already have their own student group - their team. All the while being told they determine how good or bad this university is.
Some are only in it for the scholarships that other students foot the bill for each semester. If only they knew the benefits of being a normal student.
I will confess the administrators who support athletics programs' wasteful spending are not the only ones to blame. They're just the ones who should know better. But they don't realize what they are doing is bad for students, because the real problem here is the students who don't speak up.
You, the average student, are the reason this situation exists. It's not about these officials not caring about you. It's about you not caring about yourself.
You don't care enough to be the one student who stands up and unites thousands, even millions of students on this issue. You don't even care enough to look up how much you pay towards athletics each semester. What will this world be like if you continue to be apathetic on issues like this?
Send comments to Matt Clark at [email protected].
It's also in the BGNews Opinion section online.
Yes, he may consider it expensive that $2,000 of his tuition goes to athletics, but that doesn't mean it is being wasted.