College Athletics: Should TV Money Rule?

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College Athletics:  Should TV Money Rule?
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((INTRODUCTION))
Some of you have remarked to me over the last several months that
my topic should be a fun and enjoyable project/Well... as
avocations go, Ifm a musician first, an arts lover second, and a
loyal Michigan Alum, but only fair-weather sports fan. The
condition of my high school football reflects the extent of my
experience in competitive sports since 1973.
As much as I tried, I found that watching Big Ten and Notre Dame
football and basketball games wasn't contributing much to the
preparation of this paper. Perhaps it at least put me in the
mood.
As I scanned the sports pages each day -for the first time in
a  long time  frankly—  I became disgusted with what  I was
reading...  Scandal after scandal in our institutions  of higher
learning.     I  found  that television  doesn't  cover these
embarrassments nearly as well.
Even to the casual observer, the title of this assigned
presentation implies a study far beyond "sports" or "television."
We have a crisis in our institutions of learning -from
kindergarten to college. Big-time collegiate athletics and its
partner, the television industry, have negatively effected our
young people and our educational system.
I was compelled to first ask, "What's the big deal about sports?"
A. WHY ARE SPORTS SO IMPORTANT IN AMERICA?
You won't find a great deal of material at the public library, or
for that matter at any depository of knowledge, on that great
phenomenon of American Society - Sports. Sure, everyday we are
bombarded with newspaper and television accounts of.... who did
this and ...who did that, but the psyche of sports is commonly
misunderstood and rarely discussed. The critical analysis of
school sports has been grossly neglected. At our universities
and colleges, it is easier to study the effect of... pigeons on
urban dwellers... than it is to find any documented evidence
about this phenomenon.
We tend to idolize our athletes more than our politicians and
scholars! Often when watching a game on television, you will
note the camera focus on the crowd, index fingers raised,
screaming, "We're number one! We're number one!" and think how
easily in another country, similar faces might be yelling,
"Khomeini! Khomenei!
"No other activity in our universities," says Ohio State past
President Harold L. Enarson, not the liberal arts, not the
sciences, and not our libraries, commands such deep and
widespread public support." What is the allure of sports?
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