College Sports
There is a wonderful book called All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things. And while that may be true some of us need to attend college to fill in some of the gaps. However, 35% to 45% of Americans go to college. That means the majority of Americans don’t. Yet college sports are huge. Less than 2% of college athletes turn pro. Yet college sports are huge. And when I say huge, I mean it makes billions of dollars. No, don’t worry, I’m not going down the rabbit hole conversation about athlete compensation or the universities especially with big athletic programs are taking advantage of their student athletes. It is a conversation that has exhausted itself with very good points made on both sides of the argument. There are certainly ways the system can be improved. No, the question for us today is why are college sports such a great attraction?
I went to a university in which the football team did win a single game my entire 4 years there. Yet I still went to games. I sang the fight song and imagined they might win a game. However, that is part of school spirit and the entire experience of going to college. Even smaller universities with no sports program at all have mascots. It is part of developing a sense of identity. I often wonder about mascots. (I will have to do a blog about them.) For example, why would a university pick the Terrapin. It is essentially a turtle. Isn’t sports about speed and agility? A turtle?
With March Madness beginning in December, I have already started watching what might be my favorite sport. College basketball. I have teams I love to watch and teams I hope lose. None of which I have any connection to. I didn’t go there. My alma mater never competed against them and I never paid tuition for one of my kids to attend. In fact, only two of my five kids attended a school with any real sports program, so I root for them when they are on. So how do I choose which team to root for? And do I have to?
For me watching sports isn’t just about watching athletes do remarkable things. It is about one team winning and one team losing. It is about picking sides and yelling at the tv set. It is about the highs and lows of making the basket, scoring the goal, hitting the home run and it is best when it comes down to the wire. I loathe people who say, just watch the last five minutes, that is where the excitement in a close game is. Where is the connection? Where is the investment?
I suppose that is what college sports is really all about and why I think it is the best sports to watch. This past year a college athlete burst on the scene like a rocket on steroids and propelled women’s college sports to the forefront in a way that not even the unbeaten UConn Women’s Basketball team never could. Maybe it has to do with our inability to truly follow a team the way we follow individuals. Maybe it was because she made her team better. Maybe it is just because 24 hour sports entertainment needs to constantly feed the machine. But there is no doubt that Caitlin Clark made the crossover into mainstream media. She played college basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes and is regarded as one of the greatest collegiate players of all time. Not one of the greatest women’s college players. Not the one of the greatest college basketball players of all time. The greatest collegiate players of all time. And the real test of her star power is that fact that while her 2024 WNBA salary was a paltry $76,535, her net worth through endorsements was believed to be $3.8 million, and soon to be more than $4 million. Nothing compared to many professional endorsement deals but after all she plays women’s basketball, a grossly undervalued market.
America loves her for the same reasons we love college sports. She is not only a tremendous athlete hitting clutch shots at critical moments, she leaves it all on the court. No where else do you see the passion and the drive, then you do in college sports. My attraction to college sports is the urgency and the effort.
Professional athletes do work hard and are motivated by the almighty dollar to perform better each year. However,I don’t remember the last time I saw a professional basketball player dive for a loose ball and if it does happen there can be no argument that it doesn’t happen with the same frequency as it does in college basketball. And that is not an indication of the slippery fingers of college basketball player. They just want it more.
They want it more. Maybe it is because they are looking to get drafted. Maybe it is from the exuberance of youth. Maybe it is from the naivety of youth that believe they are immortal and cannot get hurt. (Though that can’t be entirely true because there are athletes who jump to the professionals before finishing their degrees because they don’t want to risk an injury before they turn pro.)
I would argue that college is supposed to be a time of experimenting. Experimenting with ideas and with a sense of self. It is a time of growth and learning not just on the field but in the classroom. Liberal arts education is a time of finding interests and expanding the way we think. The gift of attending an institution of higher learning is truly a gift that keeps on giving. For the vast majority of student athletes the college experience is made possible because of sport. And for the 2 percenters it is learning a trade. For both it is a launching pad for a life shaped by teamwork and discipline.
While I don’t believe college athletes are being taken advantage of and they are receiving tremendous benefits for what they do, there is real abuse that goes on. We heard the stories of sexual abuse of gymnast and football players alike by coaches. Whenever a person is in a position of authority that power must be utilized only for good and all people should be held accountable for their actions (See Jerry Sadusky) or their inaction (see Joe Paterno), as in the case of Penn State football. They ought to be disciplined whether their actions are on full display or behind closed doors.
I remember being absolutely disgusted by the behavior of Bobby Knight. “On Feb. 23, 1985, legendary Indiana head basketball coach Bobby Knight let all his rage out on a poor old bench chair by hurling it across the court at Assembly Hall. It remains one of the most iconic outbursts ever seen in sports history.” And I would add, not in a good way. (https://www.sportscasting.com/news/why-bobby-knight-throw-chair-indiana-1985/). It was called “a classic tantrum’ and eventually Bobby Knight was let go from the Indiana program and finished his career with Texas Tech.
There is behavior that is acceptable on the sports field that is never acceptable in real life and there is behavior that is unacceptable no matter where you are. There is language that athletes use that exhibit a sincere lack of creativity and vocabulary that would be frowned upon in other places of business. The college arena should be a place for forming, shaping and learning.
Bill Belechik has made the move from professional coach to college coach this year. After having an incredibly successful coaching career with the New England Patriots (some might argue, when you have Tom Brady all you have to do as a coach is standby and watch) he is going to coach the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. Given Belechik’s alleged propensity for cheating, we can only hope he is an example of the good and the right for his players.
One final note because no post about college sports can be complete without a comment about one of the greats of all time, Coach Michael William Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils, the team you either love or hate, like in the days of Christian Laettner. Coach K as he is affectionately called can be summed up in the title of his best selling book Leading with the Heart. Coach K was a point guard at Army from 1966 to 1969 under coach Bob Knight. Maybe that is where he learned as much about how to coach as how not to coach. Maybe Coach K learned everything he ever needed to know about life both on the court and off the court in college.
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