Buzz Bissinger: Why College Football Should Be Banned

It's a dumb discussion to begin with. College football is not going to be eliminated. In fact it's going to get even bigger one the National Championship plan is agreed to.

If Ivy League football is so great how come games do not sell out or are rarely televised nationally. Personally I'd much rather watch a Sun Belt or Con USA game than an Ivy League game any day.

 

American football as we know it will be eliminated in my lifetime.

 

Sorry, where did I say it concluded the argument.

My point is simply that the constant drumbeat from idiots like Bissinger and Sperber that football specifically and college athletics in general serve no good purpose is the height of stupidity and can very easily be proven wrong whenever they open their mouths.

College sports clearly DO provide a benefit to universities across the country and have for quite some time. That will not change.

And I will point out that no one is forcing university presidents - who generally come from an academic background, not an athletic one - to continue to operate athletic programs yet they continue to do exactly that.

 

Your final two lines certainly made it sounds like you've reached a conclusion. No one doubts they provide benefits--the question is what the cost of those benefits are.

 

Clearly people are paid to make the decisions have determined that benefits continue to outweigh the costs.

 

In all fairness, it could also be the fear of a great unknown.

I would rather see colleges de-emphasize athletics than having things go in the other direction.

 

What people? The ones that don't have to internalize all of the costs? Presidents, athletic directors, and coaches benefit immensely from the way college athletics work--but they're not the ones with injuries decades later. Businesses could make at a low cost all sorts of products we'd all enjoy as consumers if we allowed them to suppress wages through a labor cartel--doesn't mean we should let them.

 

Football players and basketball players make about $50,000-$80,000 a year in tuition and room and board and books they don't have to buy, along with the free tutoring they receive. And that's not even monetizing their networking advantage they have over regular students once they leave school.

True, athletes can't buy a Viper on their compensation, but they sure in the fuck aren't free labor.

 

Really? So 80 years ago, schools were paying football coaches more than the entire faculty?

Nothing stays on an upward arc forever. At some point, college football will experience a downturn. At that point, some of the schools feeding off the crumbs of the elites might decide to quit feeding the 800-pound gorilla in the budget.

 

Strawman argument. No one argues they provide "free labor". The argument is wages are suppressed by a labor cartel.

By your reasoning, we should allow airlines to join together and set "appropriate" prices on all their routes. Consumers get "enough" value from flying. Sure they might not get to eat at nice restaurants on vacation, but no one should complain about eating at McDonald's when airlines have done us the pleasure of flying us there.

 

I'm not going to run around the tree with you on this again and turn into a bunch of butter, so I've said my piece. And if the current system were a cartel, there's been about 70-80 years for someone to topple it in court. It ain't happenin'.

OK, now I've said my piece.

 

Football players are not forced to go to D1 schools. If they don't like the system there are plenty of "fun" D 3 programs that would jump at the chance to get a D1 caliber player.