Football culture

The problem was identified with dark humor a long time ago by Ambrose Bierce:

From The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

ACADEME, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.

ACADEMY, n. (from ACADEME) A modern school where football is taught.

There you have it. What is needed is a return to the earlier focus of academe. To do this, the major sports cultures -- football and basketball -- major because it is here where the university becomes a voluntary farm system for professional sports, must be demolished so something new (old!) and better can be born.

A university president with courage could get the ball rolling immediately. Call a summit meeting of university presidents at schools with major sports programs. The topic at hand: how to make a smooth transition to changing the culture. First step, abolish all athletic scholarships. I repeat, abolish all athletic scholarships for football and basketball (worry about lesser "cash insignificant" sports later). Then work with professional sports to arrange a lease arrangement so they can use present stadiums for the new farm league system they themselves will have to start, manage and pay for. In other words, college football and basketball become intramural sports played without any scholarship players. Those who want a professional sports career go to farm leagues, which the professional leagues will be forced to create, and the university benefits financially by leasing stadiums for these new farm league games.

This changes the culture by castrating the present system. The horrific cover-up at Penn State is a direct consequence of the power and arrogance of football programs at major sports universities. This culture must be demolished.

Of course, this won't happen. There's no way in hell this will happen. But nothing less, in my view, is going to change a damn thing, and so Bierce's insight, made so long ago, will remain as the sad theme song of university major sports programs.

A final thought. I've thought it here before. If men didn't have dicks, would there be any news to report other than natural disasters?