To: epearlag
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 7:53 AM
The information in this article goes to the heart of the commercialization
of college sports and adds important dimensions to understanding our
current crisis in education and public funds. Think Dodger Stadium, the
gift that never ends. Author Dave Zirin has done other perceptive and
connecting articles, which I'll keep my eye out for and pass on.
-Ed
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-zirin1-2010jan01,0,5969683.story
Congress should bench the BCS
"I say this because the Bowl Championship Series fronts for a mammoth fraud
that threatens the very foundation of public higher education. College
football is a billion-dollar business, but one in which the benefits go to
the few while most of the schools are awash in debt. These were the sobering
conclusions of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Its
report in October stated that the 25 top football schools had surpluses, on
average, of $3.9 million in 2008. The other 94 schools in the top division
ran deficits averaging $9.9 million each. "We've reached an indefensible,
unsustainable situation," said commission co-chairman William Kirwan. "We've
got 75% of the [college] presidents saying we cannot continue on this path."
By Dave Zirin
LA Times Op-Ed: January 1, 2010
Legislators ought to do the people's work and make the Bowl Championship
Series a memory.
'With all the serious matters facing our country, surely Congress has more
important issues than spending taxpayer money to dictate how college
football is played." So said Bill Hancock, executive director of the Bowl
Championship Series, and for years this is a sentiment I have wholeheartedly
supported.
No longer. When it comes to college football's utterly criminal Bowl
Championship Series, Congress should do the people's work and make the BCS a
memory. The House is debating the College Football Playoff Act of 2009,
which would "prohibit, as an unfair and deceptive act or practice, the
promotion, marketing and advertising of any postseason NCAA Division I
football game as a national championship game unless such game is the
culmination of a fair and equitable playoff system."
Currently, the teams chosen for the "championship" game are divined by
convoluted statistical methods that often make little sense without an
advanced computer science degree and leave fans, coaches and players
enraged.
The legislation has bipartisan sponsorship, which includes Texas Republican
Rep. Joe Barton and former Black Panther turned Chicago Democrat Bobby Rush.
Nothing brings the nation together like hatred of the BCS. I hope the bill
passes with a rider that allows for some sort of public funeral so we can
dance on its grave and achieve closure.
I don't say this because I feel a pressing national need for a college
football playoff system. I don't say it because I am in torment that the
unbeaten university teams at Cincinnati, Texas Christian and Boise State
won't have a shot at the BCS' so-called national championship. I don't say
this because the "championship" matchup on Jan. 7 at the Rose Bowl between
Texas and Alabama feels like a dud.
I say this because the Bowl Championship Series fronts for a mammoth fraud
that threatens the very foundation of public higher education. College
football is a billion-dollar business, but one in which the benefits go to
the few while most of the schools are awash in debt. These were the sobering
conclusions of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Its
report in October stated that the 25 top football schools had surpluses, on
average, of $3.9 million in 2008. The other 94 schools in the top division
ran deficits averaging $9.9 million each. "We've reached an indefensible,
unsustainable situation," said commission co-chairman William Kirwan. "We've
got 75% of the [college] presidents saying we cannot continue on this path."
The commission also noted that head football coaches at state colleges are
often the highest-paid public employees. This year's BCS national
championship coaches are Nick Saban of Alabama, who has a $32-million,
eight-year contract, and Mack Brown of Texas, who just received a
$2-million-a-year raise, for an annual salary of $5 million, until the end
of his contract in 2016. That works as long as the teams are doing well, but
if Texas tanks and attendance and alumni giving droop, then it joins the
grand majority of schools for whom football is a budgetary black hole.
The BCS facilitates this process by making sure that the top conferences --
the Southeastern, the Pac 10, the Big 10, the Big 12, the Atlantic Coast and
the Big East (otherwise known as the BCS conferences) -- get the biggest
pieces of college football's bowl season pie. Winners of these conferences
get automatic bids to the biggest bowls. A small-conference team such as
unbeaten Boise State will see less money this bowl season than the 1-11
Pac-10 doormat Washington State.
In addition, such a system creates incentives for small schools to bet the
farm on their football programs. Athletic departments become unregulated
hedge funds to which schools plow tons of money into pigskin futures with
the hope of playing against the big boys from the power conferences. And in
the power conferences, it costs so much to "play ball" that exploding
budgets are now threatening to swallow the entire academic institution.
At UC Berkeley, $430 million is going toward football stadium renovations
while student fees have tripled in the last decade and academic programs are
cut.
By changing how the BCS system works with this law, Congress would begin to
address this reality, in which football gets stadiums and students get the
shaft.
To fend off Congress, the BCS hired Ari Fleischer, President George W.
Bush's former press secretary, as its spokesperson. He says that the BCS is
hunky dory: "While the BCS has its share of critics, once people see both
sides of the issue, they will see why the system has its great support."
This is a lie. According to a 2007 Gallup poll, only 15% of fans approve of
the current system.
There are those who oppose Congress taking any action because they oppose
government intervention in sports on general principle. One critic posted
this on an ESPN comment section: "Too much power being given to the
government. Are they going to start regulating when we can use the bathroom
or what football game we are allowed to attend?"
Orwellian potty nightmares aside, government is already involved in college
sports. The problem is that it plows millions into state schools with no
oversight.
Congress' legislation may not fix the crisis in higher education, but at
least it holds the potential to expose the way that the Bowl Championship
Series facilitates a system willing to sacrifice education at the altar of
athletics.
Dave Zirin is the author of "Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics
and Promise of Sports."
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
***
From: marcy winograd
To: pdla@svpal.org
Sent: Sunday, January 03, 2010 10:31 AM
Subject: [PDLA] Thurs., 5 PM, Century Plaza,Rally in Support of Hotel
Workers - Join Winograd for Congress & PDA
Dear Progressives,
Please join me, Marcy Winograd, and other members of Progressive Democrats
of America in supporting the
hotel workers as they kick-off their contract negotiations for a new
city-wide contract.
Welcome President Trumka in his first visit to L.A. since his
election as President of the AFL-CIO.
Stand with President Trumka in support of 5,000 hotel workers
fighting for a new city-wide hotel contract.
Rally & Picket Line
Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 5:00 p.m.
Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel
2025 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles, CA 90067
For more information, contact:
Glen Arnodo (213) 381-5611 x126
www.launionaflcio.org
If you would like to join the Winograd for Congress 2010 contingent, please
look for our Winograd for Congress t-shirts, buttons,
and banner assembled outside the Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel. RSVP:
Marcy@WinogradforCongress.com
Thank you!
Marcy Winograd
Congressional Candidate, 36th District
www.winograd4congress.com
Marcy Winograd for Congress on Facebook
_______________________________________________
PDLA mailing list
PDLA@svpal.org
http://mailman.svpal.org/mailman/listinfo/pdla
No comments:
Post a Comment