The people where I work run football pools. Every year about this time, they have a contest to see who can pick the most winners in the Christmas/New years football bowls.
I’m aware that the number of Bowl games has increased in recent years, but I recently got the list of games (to pick the winners) and I see:
[ul][li]MasterCard Alamo Bowl[/li][li]Sheraton Hawaii Bowl[/li][li]EV1.Net Houston Bowl[/li][li]Silicon Valley Footbal Classic Bowl[/li][li]Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl[/ul][/li](what the heck is Chick-Fil-A anyway? Sounds like the male lead in a porn movie.)
Now, I’m still a fairly young guy (27) and I can remember when there was the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Peach Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Orange Bowl, and the Fiesta Bowl, and that was pretty much it. Now we’re deluged in lame-ass bowl games. They’re not even giving them real names anymore, just the sponsor’s name with the word “Bowl” appended. Witness:
[ul][li]Insight Bowl[/li][li]Outback Bowl[/li][li]Captial One Bowl[/li][li]Continental Tire Bowl[/ul][/li]
What’s next? The Toilet Bowl?
I’ve always wondered - what the Hell does football playing have to do with education? And corporate sponsors feel the best way to donate to an educational institution is by getting their name plastered on some contrived bowl game?
It’s not that I’m being pro-intellectual and anti-sports. I recently read that some colleges might try to cajole young chess champs with scholarships. Football and chess scholarships ? Again, what does this have to do with education?
What does playing football have to do wtih an education? WHy don’t you ask the thousands of people that have beenfited from being able to attend college as the result of a football scholarship, including many minorities and underpriveledged kids. Its a means to an end. Further, its about learning how to contribute to a team effort, learning to practice until you get something right, learning to analyze and put it into action a way to accomplish a task.
I guess I am not following your logic, wolf. Are you saying education and football or chess having nothing to do with one another? WHy is a football scholarship any less valid than a music scholarship or an art scholarship? You might as well be asking what art has to do with education.
I agree about the bowl games, though. A completely pointless way for a corporation to gain some publicity and APPEAR to be interested in promoting education. My favorite was always the Poulan Weedeater Independence Bowl (ask Dave Barry would say, I am not making that up). I don't think that one exists anymore.
HomerIU
I guess my logic is why should a college or university hand out scholarships because of football playing ability?
Following that “logic”, if someone is a genius at theoretical physics, would the Green Bay Packers hire him ?
And as far as underpriveleged students, to me it would seem wiser to hand out scholarships for intellectual ability as opposed to being able to tear up the gridiron.
I agree that the bowl game schedule needs to be pared down. There are too many bowl games matching mediocre teams, that few people care about.
What ideally should happen is a 16 team playoff for the top tier of college football, which is how it is done at the other levels of college football. All the postseason games will mean more that way. They just finished the Division II playoffs today, with Grand Valley (Michigan) State repeating as national champions.
I have to agree with wolf_meister. Giving out scholarships to people who can play football well seems as arbitrary as giving them out to people who can play Monopoly well or who can juggle fruit well. Leave sports-playing to the sports institutions and learning to the educational institutions.
But you can make a living playing or coaching football. I think you have to have played in college to play in the NFL, and it would definately help to have played in college to coach at that level. Not to mention coaching in all the various high and middle schools. Football is a genuine area in which to choose a career. Monopoly-playing and fruit-juggling are not.
As for the current bowl system, I don’t see any problem with it. The schools get some money and publicity, and nobody gets hurt. Of course, I’m biased since my school (Houston) just got its first bowl game since 1996, the above-mentioned Hawai’i Bowl.
As for few people caring, I guarantee there are plenty of people in the teams’ home markets that care.
I would kind of like to see a playoff system, but that’s not going to happen.
I know you put quotes aroung “logic”, but I just have to say - What?
Athletics has always been a part of education. The Greeks had poetry and art competitions going on alongside the Olympics (ancient). As far as I can tell, athletics is universally a part of education. Ever hear of the World University Games? You can legitimately complain about the level of funding that goes to athletics at a school of the involvement of corporattions (the OP), but to contend that athletics has no part in education is to deny a historical role of teaching.
Loopus
So football scholarships are okay because football is a genuine area in which to choose a career?
So what’s the point of handing out scholarships? The education you received from your scholarship contributes in what way to your future football career?
Heck, if that’s the purpose of a football scholarship, why not have degrees in football studies? In a way, things are like that already. A professor might be lenient to the football star so that he won’t fail and be disqualified from “the Big Game”. Also, the athletes know which courses and/or professors are the easy ones.
So, why continue the charade? Let’s just have the football players major in football studies.
Actually, I wouldn’t really have a problem with that. It does seem rather silly for people who only want a career playing football to major in communications or whatever.
Guys who want to coach, though, I think major in education.
As a current college student, let me tell you: everyone knows which courses and professors are the easy ones, and we take advantage of it where possible.
