The fiction of the big-time student-athlete

The Atlantic has a good piece exploring "The Shame of College Sports." Big time college athletics (by this, I mean Division I men’s football and basketball) is the biggest sham this side of that other so-called non-profit: the Olympic “movement.” No one believes the purity the NCAA tries to peddle.

What should happen is that the NFL and NBA should create minor leagues and return college athletics to their original intent as extracurricular activites rather than replacing-curricular activities. But absent that, these athletes are earning mega bucks for the universities' coffers and deserve to be paid for it.

And don’t give me that nonsense about how they get a college education. Even those big time football and basketball players who actually do want a good education aren’t really permitted to maximize it due to the exigencies of travel. For example, just ask how many gridiron and hoops games are available on your TV screen during mid-week and ask how many classes the away team's players are attending that week. Give these athletes the equivalent of four years tuition and see how many of them actually spend it on a degree.

Yes, I do enjoy watching big college football games and March Madness, but I do so eyes wide open, fully aware that it's minor league sports. I'm under no illusion that the participants in this meat market bear any resemblance to the typical college student or even the true student-athlete, far more prevalent in Division III. Yet the NCAA insists on maintaining the fantasy pretense that no one buys anyway.

Racism in sports

Authorities in England have probably done more than any sporting nation to attack racism. Certainly authorities in places like Italy and Spain could take note. Fans in both countries have been known to make monkey noises directed at black soccer players. Sections of Lazio (in Rome) 'supporters' sing songs in honor of the murderous Balkans' war criminal Arkan. Spain is where some idiots launched disgusting attacks on black Formula 1 driver Louis Hamilton. This happened in Barcelona, one of the cultural capitals of Europe, supposedly one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. The tolerance of Spanish and Italian societies for this garbage is what's truly shocking.

Eastern Europe is reportedly much worse.

English soccer officials have no doubt taken the problem of hatred seriously, unlike most on the continent. But sadly, it's reared its ugly head again.

The Israeli manager of the London club Chelsea has received disgraceful anti-Semitic death threats against both him and his wife as well as a package containing white powder.

There's nothing wrong with losing yourself once in a while in sports. And I realize that being a supporter or fan has an inherently tribal dynamic. But that doesn't mean supporters or fans have to act like primitive savages.