Football players were caught drinking and engaging in… ummm… other activities? Fans booed Bobik and threatened referees at the Georgia Tech football game? I don’t understand this.
Why would they think that men’s basketball and football are more important than education, more important than common decency or personal morality? I can’t imagine.
It couldn’t be because the buildings devoted to athletics at this institution dwarf every other building on campus, could it? It couldn’t be because we see that athletes who violate the honor code have a coach to help them “work through” violations while other students are on their own, could it? It couldn’t be because coaches are paid more than professors. It couldn’t be because corporate sponsors have taken over the game, could it? It couldn’t be that athletes get free tutoring and have one coach to every four players while students have to pay for tutors and in GE classes have one professor for every 400 students. And it couldn’t be because BYU athletics loses money every year and funds are taken from the library, from labs, from academic programs to cover their losses.* No, that couldn’t be it. Or could it?
Is it really possible that the unstated message sent to athletes and fans is that purchasing tickets, merchandise and concession is more important than education, that wins are more important than anything else at BYU? No. It’s not possible. Simply tell the fans and the players to “remember who they are” and we’ll “work through” these embarrassing moments. Besides, every once in a while a broadcaster on ESPN mentions that a BYU player served a mission. That certainly makes up for all the scandal. Everything will be fine.
Corry Cropper
Professor, Dept. of French & Italian
*The NCAA estimates that over half of all collegiate athletic programs lose money annually (based on expenditures v. revenues at an average clip of 3.3 million). When one adds capital costs to the equation, few, if any even break even (Knight Commision Report 1999, p. 10 — http://www.ncaa.org/databases/knight_commission/2001_report/). With BYU football’s recent attendance woes, this athletic department is certainly losing money, meaning that money has to be diverted from other programs or from the university’s general operating funds to cover those losses.
