What Have Colleges Become (Minor League Training Grounds)?

Its no secret that over the years college athletic departments have grown by leaps and bounds when it comes to revenue and media exposure. In fact, today's BCS college football programs earn upwards of 20 million dollars per school - not to mention the millions of additional dollars earned through licensing and merchandising. Yes, we as Americans love our college sports, and watching "amateurs" compete at the highest level is incredibly entertaining!

I have a very unique perspective that stems from my work in the field of sport psychology (working as a clinician), my role as a college educator, and my role as a professional educational consultant. Through these terrific experiences, I often get to view situations through various points of view, and sometimes things jump out at me that just don't make sense. Today's blog entry is an example of one of these concerns I have - and that I have learned is also shared by a great number of people.

What is a College Supposed to Be?

Having worked diligently through a Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degree, - and subsequent to my personal education I have worked for almost 15 years as a college educator- I feel as though I do have some perspectives on what I think a college should be. In my opinion, the role of a college education should be a place where students can learn, develop, and grow as people - where students can learn practical information through theories, research findings, and related applications that will one day help them in their careers and in life. The experience of college also offers additional opportunities to learn about life through social interactions with others, especially different cultures and ethnicities. College should be about learning, and to that point I feel it is imperative to protect this pursuit and keep it as the #1 goal of what college should be about!

If you are in agreement with me about the purpose of higher education, then you will probably also agree that the faculty, staff, and administration is responsible for making all this happen - and should be rewarded for their efforts accordingly. If these people are truly the "front line" to a college, and the heart and soul of the institution - the ones who spend countless hours teaching, mentoring, and supervising students to not only become better scholars, but better people - then it would be quite reasonable to expect they would be receiving compensation and recognition accordingly. Sadly, they are not.

Instead, in today's world we continue to portray that colleges really are still about these qualities I mentioned above, but is this truly the case? Can we really say our top priorities are education and development of students, when a growing percentage of college coaches (i.e. football and basketball) continue to make astronomical salaries that are often ten times that of the average professor on campus??? Please note that this is not an attack on coaches, as they are only making as much money as the system will bear - I get it. I also do not think coaches are bad people in any stretch of the imagination for negotiating bigger contracts every year. I also get that. I do, however, really scratch my head when I think department chairs, deans, and even college presidents make substantially less money than university coaches!!

In "corporate America" you would never see a low level employee make substantially more money than his/her CEO. In schools across the country today, you never see a classroom teacher make more money than the principal. In fact, I cannot think of a single instance where a lower level employee makes more money than the boss - and never a disparity quite like what we see today between college coaches and college presidents. My question is who is really running the show - and is "their" agenda anywhere near what the agenda of a college should be???

To learn more about this very troubling situation please click the link below:

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/comm/rep/Z/ecstatreport2007-08

When we allow colleges to use superficial, transparent, and often ridiculous excuses as to why things are the way they are (in the article from the link above you will see several rather silly 'apples to apples' comparisons), we inevitably send a loud and clear message to college students that their education pales in comparison to how much money the college can make through athletics, period. The takeaway for the average American student today is colleges are really minor league sport systems that also happen to have classes and curricula, too (in that order).



What Colleges are NOT Supposed to Be

Quite simply, colleges are not true capitalistic "businesses," nor are they minor league recruiting grounds for future potential pro athletes! When you consider less than 2% of all college athletes will ever play professional sports, yet work for FREE as "amateur" athletes (yet the college rakes in millions upon millions of dollars), doesn't this all seem like a farce to you?

While your average professor might make upwards of a $100,000 a year (most make far less than this, coincidentally), and your average administrator makes a little more - yet your college coaches make in the millions of dollars, I again ask what are colleges in the business of doing today?

Colleges also regularly benefit from using player images to sell tickets and merchandise - yet the "trade" is that the student athlete can take classes at a reduced rate (or a full-ride for the lucky ones), make NO money from their likeness on jerseys, and constantly be offered the "Kool Aid" of how it will all work out in the end when they get drafted (yes, all 2% of them). This is a very unlevel playing field, but the people making all the money do not seem to be inclined to jump in and change things any time soon (why would they?).



Why This is The Way it Is

Quite simply, money. We LOVE sports (me included), and we as fans are willing to pay to see our favorite teams play. But somewhere along the way integrity and the overall mission of what a college should be got whisked away with boatloads of money funneling into college athletic departments like a fire hydrant just untapped. Everybody makes more money, keep selling the dream to current and prospective student athletes (and also look the other way when they are taking classes that in no way will ever lead to a meaningful degree - or even a degree, in some cases), and the rest of the student body gets duped into thinking how great their college is because of their athletic programs! So how much longer can this go on? Where will all this lead to?

College athletics are not going to get smaller, nor are they going to make less money. In fact, the opposite is likely to occur. When college coaches begin to make more than 5 million dollars a year, will any eyebrows be raised then? Will 10 million dollars do it? When that same coach drives home to a castle while riding in his Ferrari - and the professor is left to get excited about another 3% raise - will people begin to wonder about the disparity then? Are we really saying the football and basketball teams are more important than what professors do everyday to help young people grow, develop, and prepare for making our country the great place that it is???



What Needs to Be Done

Really, we just need a little fairness and common sense. College presidents need to begin to have dialogue about this train running off the tracks and come up with ideas of how to slow it down - and efforts less than that will result in increasing numbers of professors, administrators, and even students becoming more and more vocal about what colleges have been turning in to.

I'm not a college coach, nor am I a FT professor. I do not dislike college coaches, nor do I lose sleep over the current salaries of college professors. Honestly, I do not have a personal gain or benefit by speaking out about these issues. In fact, almost all of the college coaches, professors, and administrators I know are really outstanding people! The problem is the system, and the "sell job" colleges are using today in their attempts to claim they prioritize learning, yet they financially reward athletics at an alarming, disproportionate rate!

I say lets call it what is is (or isn't), and the facts dont lie: Todays colleges are far more interested in successful athletic programs and the related revenue stream than they are with your son or dughters educational experience and quality of instruction he or she will receive in the classroom.