A different world - How one small college is quitting college sports | The Boneyard

A different world - How one small college is quitting college sports

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pap49cba

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A long, long, long... but provocative... read. The author argues that college sports are on the precipice of major structural change and/or extinction.

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Phil

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Extremely interesting, thought-provoking article.

I have one quibble, which actually supports the points. He said "The trend first gained momentum in the early 1980s..." He needs to swap two digits. The trend started in 1890.

When Senda Berenson first introduced basketball to Smith, she didn't do so with an intent to start a school team to play other schools. Just the opposite. It was introduced as part of the general physical education, and deemed a little more interesting than Indian club exercises. There was pressure to play inter collegiately, but she actively fought it. They did have an annual Freshman Sophomore game, which was wildly successful, but she actively wanted a physical education program for the entire school, not an elite selection of students who would play for a school team.

Same with Clara Baer, who started basketball in the South. She wasn't a coach who happened to have to teach phys ed, she was a physical education instructor, one of the pioneers in the field, and wanted basketball for the student body, not as a select team sport.
 

vtcwbuff

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"the first school in a decade to leave the NCAA. "

We'll have to wait and see how many D1 schools follow Spelman's lead. My guess - Zero.
 

UcMiami

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There was a great photo I saw of the Wellesley College rowing 'team' from around the turn of the last century. It was not a sport but a way to instill good posture for the women who were heavily dressed in long skirts and had ramrod straight backs.
 

pap49cba

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"the first school in a decade to leave the NCAA. "

We'll have to wait and see how many D1 schools follow Spelman's lead. My guess - Zero.
VT, they won't follow Spellman's lead per se, but the O'Bannon and concussions situations are huge potential game changers. I can foresee a time when a number of lower-tier D1 and D2 programs conclude they just can't play 'the game' so they will give up and spend their money elsewhere.
 

DobbsRover2

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For those not stuck in the "present is also going to be the future" mode and likely feel that the crazy conference realigment/dying cable model/unsupportable college financial situation is not going to lead to major changes in the college sports world, the Spellman situation is just one of the many harbingers of what's coming in a bigger way.

One of the athletes mentioned is running superstar Mary Cain who I have covered as an NY HS sports writer for five years. As the professional money and fame has crept in even for low-profile sports like HS running, the top athletes there are also now looking at skipping the NCAA circus, though for an exceptionally bright athlete like Cain that does not in any way preclude a high-level college education. Just the college sports. Many young athletes are having strong doubts whether the NCAA sports experience is worth the huge demands and sometimes problematic coaching level that they see in college as older athletes report back on their experiences. And as the article says, to many colleges the problems with intercollegiate sports are reaching the breaking point and are being sped up as D1 conference mates start being grouped at distances that are a half-continent or more away. What was once a one-time-a-year long trip to a post season tourney has in recent decades become a yearlong grind of long trips.

Phil, I'm not sure if what you cited back in the 1890s was really a trend, and I know from articles I've done on NY HS sports history that the "progress" in sports organization at both the HS and college level has been one of fluctuations. In NY, the girls had a state HS basketball championship back in the 1920s before the boys (the guys had them in other sports such as hockey), but a decade later the state championships were all gone for both genders for 20 years and girls were not allowed to play interscholastic sports at all for more than 40 years since it was felt that athletic competition was not good for them. Social views about sports change around, and it takes a pressure-packed mess of events like what is going on in the NCAA world now to touch off the revolution in how the sports world is run.
 

Phil

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"Trend" was not quite the right word, and in my email exchange with the author of the paper, I now realize his emphasis was more of the privatization of th elite (to which you allude) and less the Spelman "let's do phys ed for the masses not just the elite". However, I had done some recent research and found it interesting that there was active opposition to intercollegiate sports, not due to some notion that "girls" couldn't do it (although we know there was some of that sentiment) , but more motivated by the desire to have a general physical education program.

In my high school, the coach also taught gym, but you got the sense he was a coach first, and did the phys ed classes because he had to, and if he could be a full time coach, he would. I wouldn't be surprised if that matches the experience of many.

In contrast, Senda Berenson and Clara Baer were interested in physical education of the entire student body. Both fought to make phys ed a requirement, not an elective. Both saw basketball as a way to make exercise more interesting, rather than a game in itself. Both were phys ed teachers first, and may not have even considered themselves basketball coaches per se. It was an aspect I hadn't know about.
 

DobbsRover2

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"Trend" was not quite the right word, and in my email exchange with the author of the paper, I now realize his emphasis was more of the privatization of th elite (to which you allude) and less the Spelman "let's do phys ed for the masses not just the elite". However, I had done some recent research and found it interesting that there was active opposition to intercollegiate sports, not due to some notion that "girls" couldn't do it (although we know there was some of that sentiment) , but more motivated by the desire to have a general physical education program.

In my high school, the coach also taught gym, but you got the sense he was a coach first, and did the phys ed classes because he had to, and if he could be a full time coach, he would. I wouldn't be surprised if that matches the experience of many.

In contrast, Senda Berenson and Clara Baer were interested in physical education of the entire student body. Both fought to make phys ed a requirement, not an elective. Both saw basketball as a way to make exercise more interesting, rather than a game in itself. Both were phys ed teachers first, and may not have even considered themselves basketball coaches per se. It was an aspect I hadn't know about.
Oh yeah, no doubt that there was many factors that were involved in the cutbacks to sports in the 1930s, not the least of which was the Depression and the cost of hosting central state tourneys. For the girls the situation was depressingly similar to the tenor of the times which was that girls should be guided toward more "productive" things than athletics. But on the boys side there was a general movement to cut back on the competition because school administrations feared that too much emphasis was being placed on sports and not enough on academics, and they wanted to cut back on trends that they felt were hurting the students' education. That is the crux of the issue that colleges are wrestling with today.

If you read through the articles of the 1920s and 1930s, you will see that in the fall there was also the issue of the body count of football players who were dying in games each weekend, more so in college contests. It was a constant toll, and many in America started to feel that many sports were just too dangerous at the HS and college level. Many schools went back to "field day" athletics programs.
 

DobbsRover2

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several schools have already dropped teams
Yeah, and a lot of top D1 schools have been paring their teams back for years, many times citing cost or Title IX issues rather than interest factors. I'm always surprised when I do cross country college roundups to see how few sports some of the big schools have left, and a few have no male cross country teams but do have huge women's XC teams (most of the roster though is basically inactive) which are needed to help offset the gender numbers for the football team. The hypocrisy in college sports runs deep, and a number of colleges are just saying that faking it all just isn't worth it anymore.
 

Zorro

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It has worked out pretty well for the University of Chicago.
 

DobbsRover2

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It has worked out pretty well for the University of Chicago.
Whatta ya mean? They haven't won an NC since that goat incident, if I'm remembering right. UChic has gotta get over its problems with goat smell and just let the billies be billies.
 
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