I have an undergraduate and a professional degree. I would not have had that if it wasn't for football. I didn't play it in college, but I did play ball in high school. It kept me focused on my grades. It kept me from being drunk all the time.
College sports brings in students with higher test scores. My alma matter is Michigan State. It is much harder to get into MSU than it was when I was there. As the football and basketball teams got better, especially the last five years, it became more selective as more people applied. People want to be a part of a good program. Good programs bring in good students - not just as players, but spectators.
As for the other sports, the athletic dept budgets are separate from the university itself, so it is funds that bring that in. Donors from rich alums who are sports fans (Phil Knight and T Boone Pickens are two of the most famous of their schools) along with ticket sales and TV revenue. There are usually one, sometimes two, and rarely three sports that make money on campus. Football. Men's basketball. Sometimes hockey. These sports fund ALL of the other athletic programs.
>>My alma matter is Michigan State. <<
Sorry to hear that! </wink>
Seriously, you make a great point on grades. The NCAA requires athletes to be making steady progress towards their degree - 12 hours a semester. I knew people who slump around and do less than that and didn’t care much about their grades. But the athletes did. I remember a class I had my last year in college with a bunch of baseball players. Hell they were there more than I was and I made good grades!
We need to reform the institution of college but athletics is way down on the list of priorities.
“.. I did play ball in high school. It kept me focused on my grades....”
Excellent point, Darren. My son plays high school football. How has this benefitted him? For one, the players have to stay eligible. That means, they have to have a decent GPA. If the player has any hopes of being considered by a Division 1, 1A, 2 or 3 school (partial or full scholarship) then their GPA/SAT’s better be outstanding. Secondly, a high school suspension means you are off the team. Period. Our high school players go out of their way to avoid any sort of confrontation so that they aren’t suspended. High school parties are all around them (literally every weekend). Want to know where the football players are on the weekends? They are home. They won’t go to a party for fear that people will be arrested for underage drinking/pot etc. They know with today’s access to cell phone cameras... the coach will find out if they drank a beer or smoked a joint. Their fear of parents is one thing... the fear that they will disappoint their coach is quite the other. They know they will let down an entire team.
Another point I would like to make is the simple training for the sport. It isn’t just one a days, and two a days. They take weight lifting as their gym, many belong to gyms with a trainer, and many meet after school to lift/work out. Want to see a level headed teenage boy? Let them run and lift weights till they are tired. The physical training levels them off in a way. They are just not tense after a healthy session. All of that teenage testosterone is guided into physical exercise.
Lastly, it is a team sport. You have the big guys, the thin/fast guys, the middle of the chart size guys. They have to come together and work together to succeed. My son’s team is quite diverse. Pretty much every religion, race, socio-economic background but one thing brings them together as equals. That is their team.