My American Sport in the 21st Century class lecture
on September 4th introduced the sociology of sport and one of the
perspectives that we discussed was the financial part of sport. One of the
topics we discussed was the financial importance that sports have for colleges.
This past weekend, the 2012 college football season kicked off with many
exciting games and a decent amount of mismatches.
A matchup between reigning Big 12 conference champion
Oklahoma State and FCS-level Savannah State is the source of my concern. The final score: Oklahoma State 84, Savannah State 0. This final
score was not a surprise to anyone, including Savannah State, who knew that they had no
chance of winning, let alone competing in this game. So, why play a game you can’t
win? It’s fairly simple, for the money. This is also the reason that we will be
seeing Savannah State play at Florida State (another BCS power) on September 8th.
Savannah State's first-year athletic director,
Sterling Steward Jr., is the man responsible for scheduling these first two
games. In an era where concern for player safety and the study of concussions
is front and center in the world of football, scheduling opponents from the
division above you certainly is not going to help limit any concern about
player safety. This concern gets pushed behind the value of money, because most
universities rely on college football to be their highest revenue collector.
All official school sports need funding and receive public support and
sponsoring by showing their value of common good to the community; and in
return receive the support of the public/school government through tax money
(Coakley, 2010; p.10). This directly relates to the fact that a lot of
universities rely on the money brought in by their football team to fund and
support other athletic sports and events.
Sterling Steward Jr. has earned
Savannah State $860,000 by agreeing to send his Savannah State football
team, who plays in the lower level of Division 1 (FCS), to play high-marquee
teams such as Oklahoma State and Florida State. I do not support this because The
Savannah State players are less talented, smaller, and weaker than the top-tier
BCS teams. Participating in a “money-grab” game puts these players at a much
higher risk of suffering a severe injury. Also, these players
will never even touch the $860,000 that they have earned their school.
I say it is time to look at morals and put the livelihood of
college athletes above money. The health and well-being of a school’s
football team is more important than signing up for two beatings just to make
$860,000 for the school’s athletic department budget. To read the whole article
you can go to: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/page/BMOC-090412/big-man-campus-weighs-week-1-college-football
. The first two parts pertain to this blog. (20.
Cupcake cha-ching and 19. Cha-ching -- Part
II).