While in general I agree with what dannye has written (other than the
non-sequitor there at the end) he misses one rather
important point. Many
sports programs make
money for the
college. At the
University of Texas where
worship of the
football program is somewhat less important than worship of the state of
Texas and somewhat more important than worship of
God. The football program not only supports itself, but goes on to support the non-profitable sports programs at UT and then contributes (a very small amount) to the
actual purpose of the univeristy. Not only that, but there is a
correlation between the performance of the football team and the
donations recieved from
alumni.
The
conclusion I choose to draw from this is that college
athletes are not
students at an educational institution who happen to also play sports. They are, in fact, paid advertisers. They go out on the
field/
court/whatever and do their sport thing while wearing the
logo of an educational
institution. In return that institution gives the athletes
diplomas and makes it look like they got an education.
An
alternative, and perhaps more
amusing, way to think of college athletes is as the college
equivalent of those kids who come knocking at your
door selling
overpriced candy so they can get new
playground equipment at their elementry
school.