Jerry Sandusky and Related Trials

[pittsoccer33]

I urge everybody posting regularly in this thread to read Beer & Circus. A good read about the corruptive and absolute power college athletics has on higher education.

I wish I could dig it up, but there's a famous essay from the President of the University of Chicago, when they left the Big 10 in the 30s.
He railed against the inflated importance of college athletics.

I'd like to see that. And that was before it became a billion dollar business.

[Fast B]

Dig up his grave? burn his bones?

I mean.. really? seriously?

It read like hyperbole to me.

[CERV96]

Isn't there more information to be released in October?

[columbia]

Buzz Bissinger unloads every barrel within reach....
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... tball.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[shmenguin]

Buzz Bissinger unloads every barrel within reach....
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... tball.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I personally can’t imagine the Penn State football team taking the field this season. I can’t imagine the players running out of the tunnel pumped up like psychopathic creatures, slapping each other on the helmet, the ritualistic bounce of shoulder pad against shoulder pad.

But they will, because this is America and this is football. We are the only society in the world that looks to universities and colleges for primary sources of sports entertainment. I pray that I am wrong, but I am convinced that the Nittany Lions will take that field. There will no doubt be a moment of prayer before the game for the Sandusky victims, as if that means anything, lessens what happened to them. Then it will be time for the home opener. The 110,000 strong of Beaver Stadium, who like their university haven’t learned anything, will roar and bellow and get drunk. And the Freeh report will fade into the midst, like most reports do.

that's pretty good stuff right there

[shafnutz05]

Buzz Bissinger is an obnoxious blowhard.

He has been calling for the complete elimination of athletic teams in both college and high school for quite some time now. There was an article in Forbes a while back that tried to counter him:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/ ... academics/

[count2infinity]

"Who like their university haven't learned anything."

I think it's impossible, football season or no football season, to come away from this situation in any matter of connection to the university, whether it be a student, an alum, a player on the team, a fan, or a hater and not learn something from it.

[columbia]

He must be a Pitt or Ohio State fan.

Spoiler:

He went to the University of Pennsylvania.

[shafnutz05]

No this has nothing to do with what college he went to, I've always found him to be annoying. It has more to do with his overwhelming hatred for any kind of intercollegiate athletics than anything else.

[shmenguin]

Buzz Bissinger is an obnoxious blowhard.

He has been calling for the complete elimination of athletic teams in both college and high school for quite some time now. There was an article in Forbes a while back that tried to counter him:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/ ... academics/

we're in too deep to start thinking about abolishing college football, but i don't disagree with the sentiment behind buzz's ideas there

[columbia]

No this has nothing to do with what college he went to, I've always found him to be annoying. It has more to do with his overwhelming hatred for any kind of intercollegiate athletics than anything else.

Whether you like him or not, he was right all along about the severity of and people involved in the coverup.

[shafnutz05]

No this has nothing to do with what college he went to, I've always found him to be annoying. It has more to do with his overwhelming hatred for any kind of intercollegiate athletics than anything else.

Whether you like him or not, he was right all along about the severity of and people involved in the coverup.

OK, he was right about Penn State. He and a lot of other people were.

He's stated in the past that college football serves no academic or financial purpose. Football (and to a lesser extent, basketball) programs dump millions of dollars into scholarship programs for non-athletic students, not to mention the tons of dollars they send to other academic programs. Pretty much every other college sport loses money (which makes sense), but they are kept running by football.

Now, Buzz will say, "Who cares, intercollegiate athletics need to go." I'm sorry, I think an athletic program is a good thing at any school. And not just football and basketball, but all of those other sports that are ingrained as a part of the college experience.

[columbia]

I'm not agreeing with his idea of getting rid of athletics.
However - as I said before - I can't really identify with the importance placed on it within certain college/university communities.

It seems out of control....but I doubt that will change.

[canaan]

Football does nothing to improve the idea that academics are paramount to the college experience. Removing football, and all collegiate athletics for that matter, does nothing to improve the idea that academics are paramount to the college experience. When Universities run diploma mills for the sake of profit,as they are now, all hope is lost.

[shafnutz05]

Yeah, I suppose that's also true canaan. I don't really think they are fundamental to academics, but I don't think they are nearly as big of a damaging factor as he makes them out to be.

[count2infinity]

I'm not agreeing with his idea of getting rid of athletics.
However - as I said before - I can't really identify with the importance placed on it within certain college/university communities.

It seems out of control....but I doubt that will change.

Remember Andres Escobar? Out of control? Well, yeah. Still had Columbian soccer...

[DontToewsMeBro]

Yeah, I suppose that's also true canaan. I don't really think they are fundamental to academics, but I don't think they are nearly as big of a damaging factor as he makes them out to be.

I think he has a beef with Division I athletics, which is a common stance, and a valid one at that.

[steve784]

As a PSU alum, the fact that a student run blog posted this today is what I HATE about Penn State for a million different reasons:

http://onwardstate.com/2012/07/16/local ... own-remix/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[columbia]

When Universities run diploma mills for the sake of profit,as they are now, all hope is lost.

They're not all like that.

[shafnutz05]

I went to Juniata College, a charming little DIII school in Huntingdon. It was most certainly not a diploma mill, but I know a lot of larger schools are.

[shmenguin]

i don't know about other schools, but where i went, the lives of typical football and basketball players had nothing to do with the rest of us mortals. didn't stop me from going nuts at games, but i certainly understand the perspective that these programs aren't connected to what college is supposed to be. and that's even without considering the guys at the top of the house who don't give 2 charcoals about the school culture and who are going to some dark places to extract every cent they can out of these teams.

[columbia]

I'm not agreeing with his idea of getting rid of athletics.
However - as I said before - I can't really identify with the importance placed on it within certain college/university communities.

It seems out of control....but I doubt that will change.

Remember Andres Escobar? Out of control? Well, yeah. Still had Columbian soccer...

That analogy would vaguely make sense if an assistant coach had shot him and the manager covered it up.

[count2infinity]

I'm not agreeing with his idea of getting rid of athletics.
However - as I said before - I can't really identify with the importance placed on it within certain college/university communities.

It seems out of control....but I doubt that will change.

Remember Andres Escobar? Out of control? Well, yeah. Still had Columbian soccer...

That analogy would vaguely make sense if an assistant coach had shot him and the manager covered it up.

sorry...saw your name and that was the first thing i thought of that was a sports team that seemed to have fans and associates that were out of control

[MWB]

I've thought about this quite a bit. If the football program gets shut down, what purpose does that serve? Who is it benefiting? We know it would hurt people not involved in the cover-up, but does it punish anyone who was involved? Seems like a knee-jerk response.

[DontToewsMeBro]

I've thought about this quite a bit. If the football program gets shut down, what purpose does that serve? Who is it benefiting? We know it would hurt people not involved in the cover-up, but does it punish anyone who was involved? Seems like a knee-jerk response.

It would either be a case of the NCAA flexing its muscles or caving into the pressure of the media. It would serve no purpose. The death penalty on the football program wouldn't deter this from happening again.