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How stupid are American university students, professors, and sports boosters willing to be?
Very, Selena Roberts points out in today's New York Times. They'll spend all their money on coaches who'll stay a few months and then get massive buyouts. They'll lie there while sports directors send ticket prices up the wazoo.
But the coaches will leave because the fans are pissed they have to spend so much money on people who still lose games. And the athletic program will crumble because more and more fans boycott overpriced games.
It's a bit circular, isn't it? You bankrupt your state to bring in Coach Saban 'cause you love him and he's your redeemer. Then maybe he loses a game and... Hey, we're payin' a load and he's losin' a game!
Freud called this Repetition Compulsion. You keep doing a stupid thing. You can't help it.
Some excerpts from Roberts:
This is the down and dirty world of corporate college athletics....[This is the] industrialized amateur spirit knifing through the college game...Boosters and alumni now act as shareholders, whipped into go-team frenzy to form a new breed of extreme fans as they seek a return on their increased emotional and financial investments in the Program. ... The seven-figure coach is now an easy target for a takeover or a takedown.... With the corporatization of college athletics, why would any insider with integrity put up with the charade of the student-athlete motto?
