What is more important: Money or Athletes?



My American Sport in the 21^st Century class lecture on September 4^th 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 8^th.  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).