While my idea would kill off the student-athlete ideal, I don’t (given my non-US background) have any feelings about that. I see athletic scholarships as being desirable as a route for poor students to get into university.

Bob – Albany has certainly made some bad decisions in the past – including how it handled Classics. (By the way, just the other day, our new provost said she agrees that it was handled poorly.) But it’s just silly to suggest that the administration was casting around for a way to pay for air-conditioning and landed on firing the Classics Department.

The local paper has a story today suggesting that the basketball team’s success isn’t likely to boost alumni giving much (at least in the short-term) but is likely to increase student applications significantly.

A friend wanted me to help him make picks for his office pool. I wanted to know whether I could pick Albany over UConn in the first game, but then UConn to win the rest of them and go all the way. He wouldn’t let me.

“But surely, by far the greatest benefit will be the publicity of making it to the tournament.”

I’ve always taken it as given that a reputation as a sports school was a negative for a serious academic institution.

SUNY-Albany is the school that fired its Classics department in order to find enough money in its budget to air-condition its gymnasium – in order to prostitute itself to as a training camp for an NFL team.

It really sank in my estimation after that.

I’ve always taken it as given that a reputation as a sports school was a negative for a serious academic institution.

SUNY-Albany is the school that fired its Classics department in order to find enough money in its budget to air-condition its gymnasium – in order to prostitute itself to as a training camp for an NFL team.

It really sank in my estimation after that.

Colleges should recruit athletes as they do now, but let them defer all their classes for the four(?) years they play for the college team (unless they get cut earlier on). At the end of that time, a minority will make it into the professional leagues and big money, and won’t need a college degree. The rest will no longer have sporting commitments or the illusory hope of sporting riches. At this point, the college should give them their deferred education, with an explicit recognition that they are likely to need more help than the average student.

I cheer for the Syracuse Orange, even though I never attended any classes there. I have worked with a couple of professors there, though. Syracuse is the biggest school around.

Caveat: when Jon’s brother was at Colgate, I also cheered somewhat for them too.

And to show you how confused I am, I like both Duke and UNC too.

Graduation rates among athletes are a different matter. Student-athletes here have access to much more assistance (tutors, progress reports) than most other students. This is fine; they’re very busy people and any extra help is appreciated. My point is simply that graduation rates have less to do with how smart the athletes are, and how much they share in the general academic life of the campus (such as it is), than you might think.

I was talking once to the MBA director at a previous school. He noted that the rankings of colleges’ business schools were highly correlated with the performance of their football teams. He thought it had something to do with alumni money – it was easier to put the bite on alumni when going to the game was a treat.

So, hopefully it will have some positive effect on enrollment.

Funny, the next tab on my browser is a review, via Arts & Letters Daily, of “To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever,” about the Duke – UNC rivalry. As awful/sleazy as college sports are, I often feel bad for enjoying them so much. But then I suppose you could say the same thing about meat.