Thursday, October 4, 1990
Book says college sports do little for higher education
'lt's not supposed to be commercial entertainment' says writer
(CPS) Big-time college sports
do little to educate students and
actually siphon money away
from academics, says a damning
new book by an Indiana
University professor.
In "Sports Inc., The Athletic
Department vs. the University,”
author Murray Sperber issues a
long litany of charges against
college sports. Among them are:
• The big revenue-producing
sports football and men's
basketball - do not earn enough
to support the other athletic
programs.
• Most athletic programs
operate in the red, and steal
money from classroom and other
student activities.
• It's almost impossible for
athletes, sometimes practicing
and playing 40 hours a week, to
find time to be students.
• The powerful National
Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA), in name a group that
represents its member schools, in
practice protects and serves the
coaches and athletic directors who
serve on its committees.
Sperber's book, which
generally has gotten favorable
critical notice while drawing
angry reaction from campus
sports officials, goes on to
document how athletic
department employees often are
among the highest paid people on
a campus.
They are also overpaid,
Sperber demonstrates, in relation
to the amount of revenue they
produce.
The average income for at
least ISO NCAA Division
Rooters’ tough times continue
Six game losing streak drops team to 1-6-1
by Brad Kane
The Collegian
The tough times continued
last week for the soccer team of
Coach Herb Lauffer.
A pair of losses, both at
home, extended the Lions current
losing streak to six games.
Still playing minus starting
goal tender Tom Bajus who is out
with a broken foot, the Lions
surrendered eight goals last week.
Mercyhurst exploded to a 5-1
win on Saturday, while
Allegheny went home with a 3-1
decision on Sept. 26.
The hooters found themselves
in a deep hole Saturday, as the
Laker's John Melody scored a hat
trick enroute to the victory. Two
of Melody's goals came in the
first half.
Coupled with a score by the
'Hurst's Richard Shelton, the
Lakers sent Lion netminder Phil
Double to the bench at the half.
Freshman Les Spear started
the second half in goal to replace
Double, but struggled early as he
surrendered a pair of scores six
minutes into the half.
In between Laker goals, the
Lion's Yasser Daoudi found the
range to avoid the shut out loss.
I men's basketball coaches and
100 Division I-A football
coaches tops $lOO,OOO.
At the same time, Sperber
wrote, only 10-to-20 athletic
programs make a profit, and
another 20 to 30 break even.
But schools, either unwilling
or unable to recognize that their
sports programs lose money for
them, regularly spend millions to
expand their stadiums' seating
capacities and build lavish
training facilities, all in hopes of
generating still more revenue,
Sperber writes.
Filling those seats requires a
winning team, which also costs
money and inspires colleges to
admit people who otherwise
might never qualify.
Same Service As For
Cellists
Athletes recruited to play at
NCAA Division I-A schools in
1988 were four times more likely
to be admitted as "exceptions" to
normal campus admissions
standards than other students, a
NCAA study released Sept. 26
found.
"Money that could go to
better-qualified students ends up
going to jocks," Sperber told
College Press Service.
Such statements, needless to
say, have infuriated campus
sports officials.
"There isn't much on a
college campus that operates
in the black, and I don't think it
should," retorted Donna Lopiano,
assistant athletic director at the
University ofTexas-Austin.
A sports program is
Going for it: Sophomore Roy Peterman vies for
posession of the ball against a Mercyhurst Laker.
In addition to dominating the
final score, Mercyhurst also had a
decisive advantage in shots. The
Lakers outshot the Lions IS-S.
Spear made five saves in just one
half in goal for Behrend.
In the Allegheny match, the
Gators took an early lead on a
goal by Scott Falso nine minutes
into the game and never looked
back.
Ziv Arie and Rick Ofsanko
also netted scores for the Gators.
The Collegian
successful, she says, "as long as
it's serving the student-athlete in
the same way the university
serves the cellist, the dance
major, the drama major or anyone
else with a special talent"
Added Brad Rothermel, who in
August finished a 10-year stint as
athletic director at the University
of Nevada at Las Vegas, "the
mission of intercollegiate
athletics is to educate students
who happen to be student-*
athletes."
"They're not making a
contribution to higher
education. It's payment
for a product (to fill tv
time), for college sports
to be played at the
highest possible level"
-Murray Sperber
Indiana professor
At UNLV, whose powerhouse
basketball team members in the
past have been accused of being
academically disinterested,
athletes are as successful in the
classroom as their less
athletically gifted classmates,
Rothermel maintained.
"There's no doubt a lot of
these kids aren't getting anything
that you and I would call 'higher'
education," charged Clifford
Adelman of the U.S. Department
The Lion's goal came with 14
minutes remaining in the game.
Vince Pedrazza was the scorer,
with Erik Filoon assisting.
NOTES: Double made his
first collegiate start in the
Allegheny game. The freshman
made five saves....Behrend is now
1-6-1 at the halfway point of the
season.... The Lions were to have
played Pitt-Bradford at home last
night and will battle Buffalo
State on the road Monday.
of Education in releasing a
September study of what happens
to college athletes later in life.
"I do think there's educational
exploitation, and a lot of broken
promises," he added.
Sperber maintains the cost of
supporting big-time college
sports also hurts other students.
Good Dorms, Good Food
"Where it really affects
students is in debt servicing," the
lanky former semi-professional
basketball player said in an
interview.
Students often end up paying
for sports programs under the
guise of "activity fees," and in
athletic scholarships taken from
general scholarship funds.
And instead of encouraging
school spirit, Sperber says
college sports foster little more
than cynicism.
"It's the jock dorms. You're
paying lots of money for this
shitty place, and their dorms are
really palatial.
Every school has special
dining rooms for athletes, and the
food is fantastic, and you're
eating this lousy food ...”
Sperber blames the
tremendous injection of money
from TV advertisers for the
current state of college sports.
"They're not making a
contribution to higher education.
It's payment for a product (to fill
tv time), for college sports to be
Page 15
played at the highest possible
level."
Sperber has few hopes the
current reform movement,
spurred by scandals of fans
paying players, drug and rape
arrests, low graduation rates and
charges of grade fixing, will
return college sports to
respectability.
Although the NCAA has
adopted new reform rules in 1989
and 1990, reform-minded college
presidents stand little chance of
wresting control from the athletic
directors who, Sperber claims,
really run athletic departments.
The NCAA itself, which
represents 800-plus schools,
disagrees.
"The president of each
institution can run it the way he
or she wants," contended NCAA
spokesman Jim Marchiony.
In lieu of successful reforms,
Sperber instead sees the 40 or SO
biggest campus sports programs,
engorged with fat TV contracts
and sustained by boosters,
evolving into "jock factories."
The rest of the nation's
schools, unable to compete, will
have to let their programs be
"returned to the students.”
Sperber predicted.
He would welcome it. "The
point of higher education is
higher education. It's not
supposed to be commercial
entertainment.”