Sports!!!!

[AdminAssistant]

So, as I've posted about, my fiance moved in last weekend. I decided to try to get a big group of my friends together to welcome him. The original plan was for last night, but I rescheduled because there was a home basketball game, and traffic is generally awful on those nights. Plus, the place we're going is a popular place to watch games.

Well, I didn't think about the other big sport going on right now, until I called the restaurant a few minutes ago. We are playing Nebraska, a big rival, and it's the last time we're playing them because they're leaving our conference. It's not at home, but the place we're going is showing the game, and it's on pay-per-view. So they won't take a reservation, and we're kinda SOL. *sigh* It just bums me out, because this is our favorite place to eat, and I know I should've checked the football schedule too, but DAMMIT why does this entire town have to pause for a GD game that we're going to lose anyway.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

At least you probably will not lose 83 to DERP.

Now I'm scared the football gods are going to take a big shit right on my head.

[Eisa]

I know how you feel. I don't know why college football is such a big deal here when we lose so horrifically almost every game. I mean...it's embarrassing how badly we lose.

[Rageaholic]

Sports (especially football) are insanely overrated. It's ridiculous how emotional everyone get over a fucking game.

[MaggieTheCat]

I always hated how much emphasis my high school put on sports. Let's cut the band program and the chorus program and the entire art department because funding is tight, but oh the football team needs new equipment so let's splurge and spend thousands of dollars on them instead! And the shitter was (still is) that my HS football team SUCKED (still does.) I don't think they ever won more than 3 or 4 games a season while I was in school, but it's soooo important that they get the best of the best, and the school just says to hell with everyone else.

[blas87]

Both high schools I went to were the same way, and jocks and jockettes were always up on pedastols, even though most of them mentally belonged back in grade school.

Sure, anything involving the arts needed to be cut, but sports couldn't go without a penny.

[Greenday]

Part of it for us was that sports, mainly football, made money for the school. The school made tons of money off of sports.

While I fought hard to keep funding from being cut from the music program I was a big part of, when you look at it that way, cutting the program that only loses the school money seems most logical.

[AdminAssistant]

The athletics program here also makes a ton of money for the college (it's one of only 20-ish in the country that do so). But it's still a giant pain in the ass to be stuck at home on game night because the town can't handle the traffic.

The arts have educational value, and shouldn't be cut because those programs "lose money." The college actually gives us very little money for our performances; we rely on donations and ticket sales.

[Greenday]

Considering the Arts programs at my school only had a couple permances a year (band had two a year, theater had one show a year which was done for a couple nights), they didn't bring in much money at all. So when something has to get cut, cutting the sports program that brings in a ton of money will only make it worse and still something else will need to be cut since if anything, we now have to save even more money.

Trust me, I know the arts are educational. I wouldn't be the person I am today if I didn't start learning trumpet since the 4th grade, or learn the baritone horn, or bass guitar. It gave me an appreciation for music most people don't have. Play the instrumental verison of most songs and a lot of people won't recognize them but I'll tell you exactly what song it is in a heartbeat if I've heard it a few times. It's helped me think about stuff in new ways giving me solutions to problems I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

But when it comes to saving money, cutting sports that make you money just isn't going to happen.

[guywithashovel]

Back when I was in high school, we had soda machines in the cafeteria. During either my junior year or senior year, they turned off the machines during the school day since (according the school officials) they discovered that they had been in violation of a nutritional regulation by having the machines on during school hours. Some time I graduated, I asked my sister who was still a student at the high school if the machines were still off, or if they had been removed completely---it seemed logical to me that if they were violating some code by having them there, they might as well remove them, since there's no point in keeping them around if no one can buy soda out of them. She said they ended up turning them back on during the school day, since the money in the machines went to the athletic program, and the people in the athletic program had been complaining about the lack of funds. I guess they found a loophole with that "nutritional regulation" that they cited when they turned them off, or they just decided to break the rule and if some authority said something, face whatever music was thrown at them or try to wiggle out of it. Or maybe there never was a "nutritional regulation" to begin with.

[telecom_goddess]

Sports (especially football) are insanely overrated. It's ridiculous how emotional everyone get over a fucking game.

Now this I agree with 100 percent.

I know sports make money and it's STUPID. Other things like the arts should be making money instead....if people as a whole would get a little more cultured it would be better.

[Greenday]

I know sports make money and it's STUPID. Other things like the arts should be making money instead....if people as a whole would get a little more cultured it would be better.

Just because it's not your culture, it's stupid? So what if it isn't sophisticated. That doesn't make arts any better than sports. One can argue elements of sports can be quite artistic.

[telecom_goddess]

Just because it's not your culture, it's stupid? So what if it isn't sophisticated. That doesn't make arts any better than sports. One can argue elements of sports can be quite artistic.

But is it really necessary to have sports take over ALL schools? In every single high school and college, with very few exceptions, sports take precedence over anything else, and they are never on the cutting block like arts and other things are. That is not fair. Sports have completely taken over and yes it's stupid. Have it be on a more normal level and that would make more sense to me.

[linguist]

But is it really necessary to have sports take over ALL schools? In every single high school and college, with very few exceptions, sports take precedence over anything else, and they are never on the cutting block like arts and other things are. That is not fair.

i'm no huge sports fan, but i see this argument all the time and it's just not true, or at least not entirely true. in many if not most schools sports programs actually receive a very small percentage of funding from the school itself. the majority of funding comes from private donors through booster programs. in some schools, such as my high school and the first college i went to, the sports programs are 100% self-supporting and receive no money from the school. this sort of private funding through boosters works just as well for the arts if people in those programs can be bothered to put them into place. at my high school we had strong booster programs not only for the football, basketball, baseball, and tennis teams, but also for the band, the choir, and the theater, so none of those programs ever lacked for funding, even when cuts had to be made.

[AdminAssistant]

As I said earlier, only about 20 (or so) colleges/universities in this country have profitable athletics programs. These would be the schools who are able to sell a lot of merchandise - my school falls into that category. Regardless of whether we win or lose, people need their damned Jayhawk shit.

The rest DO take money from the university's general funds. My state had a limit of....$1 million? Something like that, as the maximum that could be transferred from the general funds to the athletic program. And my school always took that maximum amount. Nevermind that there are serious infrastructure problems that need to be addressed. We need to spend more money on a head coach so that we can maybe win a game this season. One of the local high schools that just built a huge new football stadium is currently crying that they need money for maintenance and renovation.

Yes, booster and alumni clubs do raise money for athletics, but athletic programs do feed off the university's general budget, not to mention all the free tuition/books/housing/food for the athletes.

I can't complain about that here, of course. As I said, the athletic program turns a profit, and our teams generally don't suck (this year being a glorious exception thus far). However, I should be able to go out and get groceries or have a dinner with friends on a game night without having to put up with drunk morons or insane traffic. I actually sincerely hope that we don't win another NCAA championship while I'm here, because I live kinda close to downtown and I don't want to deal with riots.