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  • "People Can Violate NCAA Rules and Then Walk Out with $750,000."

    By UD February 25, 2008 4:26 pm

    "Elsewhere, when you violate the law or the rules, you go to jail or pay a fine," says an amazed Andrew Zimbalist, a man who's been following university sports closely for decades and ought to be way past amazement.

    But universities, as institutions, are different. Better. Universities with multi-billion dollar endowments get tax breaks. University professors who've plagiarized from their own students keep their jobs. University coaches like Indiana's Kelvin Sampson, who deliver winning teams by playing filthy, get spectacular buyouts.

    Indiana, an article about Sampson notes, has paid over four million dollars in the last few years to people, like Sampson, who don't work for the university. Sampson's reward would cover tuition for almost a hundred of the university's students.

    Places like Indiana get a lot of attention when scandals like Sampson break. But spare a thought for under the radar schools like San Diego State, ruled lo these many years by jock-mad Stephen Weber, who has destroyed the university because of his insistence on spending tons of money on sports teams no one cares about. The campus has "sunk to the level of a mediocre community college," a commenter notes in response to an article about that university's latest sports-generated fiscal disaster. "The best profs are leaving or left. Students cannot get in to required classes and sit in filthy rooms, crowded to the gills. Now SDSU bosses demand that students pay more than double fees to keep the library open, while the football program, as well as the other sports programs, drain what dollars are left."

    Having impoverished itself through sports fuckupery, SDSU will admit, its administration now announces, "greatly reduced" numbers of students in the next few years.

    Under a delusional president, SDSU has betrayed its fundamental mission -- to educate Californians.

    UD's way past amazement about Indiana. SDSU, however, retains its capacity to dazzle.

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Comments on "People Can Violate NCAA Rules and Then Walk Out with $750,000."

  • Posted by Billy , Dr. on February 26, 2008 at 8:00am EST

  • Sir:

    Your comments about San Diego State are unfounded. Please support your assertions with any relevant facts.

    What was the average SAT score for enrolled applicants the year prior to him taking the post and what is it today?

    What was the average GPA for enrolled applicants the year prior to him taking the post and what is it today?

    What were the research dollars per annum the year before him taking the post and what is it today?

    What were the number of joint doctoral degrees offered at San Diego State the year prior to him taking the post and today?

    Cal spends 5X the amount on athletics than San Diego State, is their education mission diminished?

    BTW, as a proponent of diversity. Athletics is one of the best tools to bring diversity to a campus not to mention the marketing and community out reach that it provides.

    I look forward to you posting replies to my queries.

  • partial replies
  • Posted by billy's mom , a reader's reply at CSUN on February 26, 2008 at 8:50am EST

  • your post asks for several data, many of which are difficult to find for those not in the administration of the school in question. if you have them, post them rather than posing these questions.

    secondly, your post suggests that a campus is more diverse by admitting more athletes. to clarify: you are assuming that athletes are more often from underrepresented minorities (a plausible assumption) and you are assuming that when universities are looking for diversity they mean an admission system in which academic merit and race among the resulting student body necessarily become correlated. it's possible that this is not so much a good thing.

  • Wow.
  • Posted by Billy , Dr. on February 26, 2008 at 2:40pm EST

  • The information is not that hard to find as it is published yearly by San Diego State. It only takes about an hour to compile the imformation. I was not making the assertion that San Diego State was a Community College, it is the author that needs to support his assertions. I can not believe that this opinion was put forth without any real analysis to support that opinion. It does however, shed light on the opinion.

    At San Diego State, the athletes have graduation rates that are comparable if not higher than the general population, so offering the ability for these students to obtain an college degree has been working for years.

  • The Myth Continues
  • Posted by Observer in SD on June 27, 2008 at 6:05pm EDT

  • It is amazing how often big-time college sports supporters get away with a false comparison--notably "athletes graduate at higher rates than the general student population."

    They dang well should--most real students have to work part-time jobs at lousy pay to afford the tuition, so it takes them much longer to finish school. Sometimes, they have to drop out and work full-time, to ontinue schooling years later.

    Big-time athletes, however, get free tution, housing, and all their college costs free, plus any-time-they-want-it tutoring [not that many do], plus priortiy registration for classes (and maybe even free use of textbooks, does anybody know the truth about this?) If the general population had these benefits, the graduation rate would be far more than the football team's paltry downside of 40 percent. (SDSU and the NCAA cannot be relied upon to provide accurate figures.)

    It's amazing the students don't hold a referendum and just reduce or eliminate all the fees they pay to support the jocks. Oh, wait, SDSU president Stephen Weber will just invalidate the election. What a guy!

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