Student-Athletes

♦ It's interesting how skewed and how varied the public attitudes about college sports have become.

For many, it's all about the money:

♦ BCS football: Big 12 expansion options (Boise State, BYU), Missouri to the SEC (?) and more on realignment (mercurynews.com)

*** Why would Missouri want to join the SEC?

Because of the long-term stability and because when the SEC signs a new TV deal — which cannot happen without expansion — then each school will likely receive $25 million-plus per year for TV rights.

*** Why would the SEC want Missouri?

Because it’s an Association of American Universities member and because there are 2 million TV homes in the state.

Mizzou would be the SEC’s fourth AAU school, in addition to Texas A&M, Vanderbilt and Florida.

(And don’t forget: UF president Bernie Machen chairs the SEC’s executive board.)

*** If SEC commish Mike Slive is considering a dedicated network comparable to what the Pac-12 has created, then Missouri and Texas A&M are smart additions: The schools add 11 million TV homes to the league’s footprint.

At $1 per in-market subscriber per month … and this is all back-of-the-napkin conjecture … that would be more than $100 million per year — just from Mizzou and A&M.

♦ Or maybe it's because Mizzou and its athletes and fans would enjoy the challenge of top notch athletic competition against the highly skilled athletes of the SEC and their institutions of higher learning. 

And yet there are still some who value the out-of-fashion ideal of the "student athlete":

♦ Student-Athletes Deserve Praise (The Harvard Crimson, 9/28/2011)

In October’s edition of The Atlantic, Taylor Branch wrote a brilliant piece titled “The Shame of College Sports.” His story outlined, and in many ways underscored, what those of us who pay attention to big time college sports have known for years: that the two hallmarks of the NCAA—amateurism and the student-athlete—are fraudulent.
. . .
Former Harvard President Charles W. Eliot, class of 1853, once famously said of Harvard’s baseball team:

“I’m told the team did well because one pitcher had a fine curve ball. I understand that a curve ball is thrown with a deliberate attempt to deceive. Surely this is not an ability we should want to foster at Harvard.”

Folksy naivety aside, Eliot was a firm believer in amateurism, the importance of athletics in conjunction with academics, and the significance of sport as a worthy endeavor regardless of the result...

♦ I'm not folksily naive enough to think anything will change.  You can't turn back the clock.  Modern American athletic culture is like a modern American religion, and its adherents demand nothing less than the glorification of money, power and perfection.


Those who know me know that I'm a bit of a traditionalist and baseball purist.  There's a part of me that hopes Mizzou goes to the Big "Ten", a decidedly 2nd (or even 3rd) tier baseball conference, so that I can return to enjoying baseball for the love of the game, without the high stakes pressure of the Big 12 or SEC.