The Off Topic Topic

[alfred russel]

I am not much of a libertarian, but I don't think the state should pay sport coaches. That doesn't strike me as an essential task of the government.

Some public university college teams pull in around $100 million a year in revenue. You don't have to (and aren't allowed) to pay the players beyond a scholarship. You don't want to pay any money for a coach at all? When you get a really really crappy coach and your revenue drops to almost nothing because you don't win games, then how smart will you look?

[Syt]

What is that revenue used for?

[alfred russel]

What is that revenue used for?

Some schools, like my alma mater, send money to academics. Most spend it exclusively on sports, including to a large extent on women's sports. It is a big reason our women's teams do so well in the Olympics. Also, the athletic departments live large. Many have private jets; I think at least one has a couple.

[Syt]

You'd think that colleges should focus on education and research, and not sports celebrities.

[Zanza]

I am not much of a libertarian, but I don't think the state should pay sport coaches. That doesn't strike me as an essential task of the government.

Some public university college teams pull in around $100 million a year in revenue. You don't have to (and aren't allowed) to pay the players beyond a scholarship. You don't want to pay any money for a coach at all? When you get a really really crappy coach and your revenue drops to almost nothing because you don't win games, then how smart will you look?

It may be profitable, but is that enough reason for the state to be involved in it? Quasi-professional sports is an odd government activity when you privatize prisons and don't offer public healthcare at the same time.

[The Brain]

Americans are incredibly Socialist about their sports.

[Savonarola]

Did that one armed guy go on to play for the St Louis Browns?

My Maternal Grandfather owned a farm so he was considered essential until 1944 when manpower shortages made him draft eligible.  This was a little town in Oklahoma so everybody knew when he was going in for his physical.  He was notorious for getting horrible man-flus in the fall and his physical was in October so he showed up looking like hell and they classified him as 4F for that.  The humiliation was pretty bad, everybody in the county knew what had happened.

My paternal grandfather was a farmer so he was also vital to wartime production.  His foot got run over by a tractor (not intentionally, Dorsey) so he also ended up being 4F by the time farmers were eligible for the draft.

When I was in grade school I had a teacher who was one of Siege's hated liverals.  Banning the bomb was one of her major causes.  She had us ask someone who had lived through World War II about Hiroshima and Nagasaki; write a report about it and present it to the class.  I asked that grand parent.  I think she wanted to make us aware of the horrors of nuclear war; but my grandfather didn't care and was just glad that the war was over.  Most of the class's response was along those lines; but one of the kids in the class had a grandfather who had fought in the pacific.  His grandfather had some strident opinions about the Japanese and didn't exactly use polite terms for them.  So at the end of his presentation we all got a lecture from my teacher about how it was wrong to use hateful terms like "Japs" and "Nips."  Japanese people have dignity too.

[Ed Anger]

Urban Meyer is sad you don't like his salary.



He haz a sad

[Maximus]

You'd think that colleges should focus on education and research, and not sports celebrities.

If it's sports education that's fine, but the coaches should be paid similarly to other professors. But as you say, currently it's mostly entertainment which is not something the state needs to be providing.

[alfred russel]

It may be profitable, but is that enough reason for the state to be involved in it? Quasi-professional sports is an odd government activity when you privatize prisons and don't offer public healthcare at the same time.

College sports teams exist in other countries. It is just that in the US they became enormously popular for a variety of historical reasons.

I agree there is something to be looked at if they are draining funds from education, but otherwise so what? Would you have a problem with college sports if they were coached by a physical education instructor? That is how they started. But when you have a team drawing 100,000+ to games, and networks bidding up TV rights into 10s of millions per year for some schools, the money is there to hire better and full time coaches. Also, they can't unilaterally disarm--private schools compete as well.

[CountDeMoney]

What is that revenue used for?

Some schools, like my alma mater, send money to academics.

Let's not get carried away there, Ray Ray.

[alfred russel]

If it's sports education that's fine, but the coaches should be paid similarly to other professors. But as you say, currently it's mostly entertainment which is not something the state needs to be providing.

I agree. Professors and college coaches should be paid based on the revenue they generate. 

*not really serious.

[Valmy]

You'd think that colleges should focus on education and research, and not sports celebrities.

Um our colleges do focus on that.  Look at the top research Universities in the world: scoreboard.  People do not donate billions to UT Austin because they love our research (well some of them do), when the freaking football team wins donations to education skyrocket.  School pride and all that.  How often do Germans open their checkbooks and make annual donations to Technische Universität München?

[alfred russel]

Let's not get carried away there, Ray Ray.

Miami sure as shit doesn't send money from athletics to academics. But then Miami is also a private institution.

I actually have a degree from Notre Dame (had I registered at EUOT before I enrolled I might have been bradyquinn4heisman). Notre Dame sends money to academics.

[Admiral Yi]

So, no more PBS and national parks Max?