July 16, 2011

NYT uncovers world's least pressing problem

One of my favorite genres in the prestige press is the Self-Refuting Article. These are articles that contain all the facts necessary to undermine the premise of the piece, but reporters, editors, and readers all conspire together in an act of collective stupidity to Not Get the Joke.

For example, from the New York Times:
GENDER GAMES 
At Two-Year Colleges, Less Athletic Equality 
By KATIE THOMAS 7:58 PM ET 
Community colleges are routinely failing to provide enough athletic opportunities to women.

The details are pretty funny. I'l inject a few wisecracks, but, really, it's hardly necessary. This kind of article exists as a test of whether you are well trained enough to not guffaw.

(For my puzzled foreign readers, I'll point out that nobody in America cares about community college [2-year or junior college] sports. Americans are crazy about high school, college [4-year university], and pro sports, but nobody cares about JuCo sports, except the guys playing them and a few recruiters looking for  superstars who were too much trouble (Cam Newton) or too young (Bryce Harper) to be playing college sports.)
Los Angeles Southwest College has a new athletic field house and football stadium, but almost no female athletes. 
Women make up more than two-thirds of students at this community college in the city’s South Central neighborhood, but less than a quarter of its athletes. The college’s decision to suspend the track team this year left women who wanted to play a sport with a single option: basketball. 

I'm shocked to hear that a bunch of Latino and black ladies in their 20s and 30s, many with kids and/or jobs, who are interested in, say, learning how to draw blood for a living, aren't really into women's polevaulting. (For an example of the type of young woman who is into women's polevaulting, think back to the rich, athletic family in the Sandra Bullock movie The Blind Side who adopts the homeless left tackle so he can play for their alma mater, the U. of Mississippi. Remember, dad was point guard for Ole Miss and mom was head cheerleader. Well, their daughter went on to be Mississippi state high school girl's pole vault champion and won a polevaulting scholarship to a four year college.)

Perhaps the NYT can shed light on this mystery:
Henry Washington, the college’s athletic director and head football coach, acknowledges that his program is most likely violating federal law by failing to offer enough roster spots to women. But he said many of the female students are also juggling jobs and child care, and do not have time to play sports. Then there is the question of money. “I just keep my fingers crossed that we can keep what we have,” he said. 
Pensacola State College in Florida has suffered through its share of budget cuts, and athletic officials have long faced the thorny question of how much interest there is at a college that devotes an entire campus to health sciences programs, where students tend to be older, overwhelmingly female and, supposedly, less eager to play sports. 
But there is no shortage of women playing sports at Pensacola. The college invests about $1 million a year in the athletics program, and coaches scour the state and beyond for talented female players. The women’s basketball team won the state championship this year. ... 
No one disputes that community colleges face distinct challenges, with a lack of money paramount. But Pensacola, one of the rare exceptions among community colleges, offers evidence that the demands of the law can be met. 
... In many ways, Los Angeles Southwest’s struggles — and Pensacola’s success — echo the conversations that took place decades ago at elite four-year colleges and major public universities. 
“People who say they can’t find students who are interested or they can’t recruit, it sounds very much like what I heard 30 years ago, 40 years ago in the 1970s,” said Carol Kashow, the athletic director at Hostos Community College in the Bronx. “That’s the reason for Title IX, so there can’t be an excuse to not give opportunities.” 
But community colleges have rarely been scrutinized. That may change as an influx of recent high school graduates have entered community colleges, seeing them as an affordable alternative to four-year universities. This shift in the student body — already majority female — could lead to heightened demands from students who could well expect and even legally demand the opportunity to participate in sports.

 "Could lead" -- in other words, decades of millions of women in JuCos hasn't yet led. But, it still could lead ...

Or, more likely, the demands will come from a handful of lesbian gym coaches looking for sinecures.
“While some of our states and regions have seen the handwriting on the wall, many are still sitting in the dark,” Karen Sykes, a former president of the National Junior College Athletic Association, warned officials at a meeting several years ago. Sykes said “it was only a matter of time” before community colleges would come under scrutiny for their shortcomings. 
Because community colleges have a mandate to educate all comers, they have a special obligation to offer women a legitimate shot at playing sports, said Jaime Lester, an assistant professor at George Mason University who has studied gender issues at community colleges. “It’s crucial to hold these democratic institutions — these bastions of people’s colleges — up to that level of scrutiny,” Lester said. “If we don’t hold them up, why should we hold anyone else up?” 
Henry Washington has served as athletic director at Los Angeles Southwest College for 27 years, and each year, he said, women’s basketball faces the same challenge: the team starts out with a roster of 12 players only to dwindle to five or six by the end of the season. 
“Sometimes they’re not motivated, they may have a child,” he said. “There are all kinds of obstacles that are getting in the way of trying to even keep teams.” 
It is a common refrain among athletic directors at community colleges: women, they say, do not sign up for sports. While the economic recession has expanded the pool of traditional-age students, men and women who attend community colleges do not fit the typical mold of  student-athletes. They tend to be older, and almost half of all community college students work more than 25 hours a week, according to federal education statistics. 
But federal statistics show few differences between the men and women who attend these colleges: the men work, too, and tend not to be any younger. 
And yet the men, despite similar hardships or responsibilities, still manage to play sports in significant numbers.

Why? Why? Why?

[Please note: No answers to this question other than Sexism / Discrimination are allowed.]
Even Washington, the Los Angeles Southwest athletic director, said he did not accept the excuse that women at his college and others like it were not interested in sports. “One thing I did learn is that if you hire a woman full time to recruit women,” he said, “then the outcome would probably be a little different.” 
But because of his college’s financial situation, he said, all of his coaches work part time. 
Washington said surveys of local high schools have shown that potential students are interested in playing women’s soccer and softball, but that his plan to add softball had been delayed by budget troubles. California has cut nearly $400 million in aid to community colleges over the past two years, and recently cut another $400 million in financing for the next academic year. The reductions led Los Angeles Southwest to cancel 200 classes over the past two years. 
Jack E. Daniels III, the president of Los Angeles Southwest, said he was aware of the need to add women’s teams.  But the college’s financial situation is so dire, he is considering eliminating the entire athletic program, which currently costs about $300,000 a year. 
“Right now, it’s probably a 50-50 proposition,” Daniels said. The new field house and football stadium were built using bonds approved by voters several years ago, when the economy was flush and “there was no indication of any financial downturn,” he said.

The Los Angeles Times recently ran a six part series on all the corruption and incompetence in spending that $5.7 billion in bonds for remodeling of LA's JuCo campuses.
In many ways, Pensacola fits the profile of a typical community college. ...Still, Pensacola has found a way to preserve sports programs, and women at the moment make up some 56 percent of the college’s athletes. 
The athletic budget of $1 million, for example, pays for men’s and women’s basketball teams as well as baseball, softball and women’s volleyball. Many athletes receive scholarships for tuition and books. Some are given housing and stipends for meals. 
Hamilton’s coaches visit tournaments across the country, attend camps at four-year colleges and pore over scouting reports. Filling female rosters “isn’t something we do by luck, it’s by design,” Hamilton said. 
Brenda Pena, the softball coach, sent her assistant to Colorado in June to recruit at a tournament that drew more than 100 teams nationwide. Although her team finished last in its conference this year, she said, Pensacola has a reputation for fielding strong teams and for helping its students transfer to four-year colleges. As a result, Pena said, she is able to avoid the obstacle of attracting players from an older, less engaged student body by instead recruiting students straight from high school.

Okay, so Pensacola's secret is that they go to Colorado and recruit a bunch of middle class white girls who aren't quite good enough to get softball scholarships to four-year scholarships as freshmen, but still hope they can get them as juniors, and Pensacola pays for their room and board.

And this is helping Florida citizens how?

UPDATE: A reader from Pensacola writes into point out that Pensacola makes its athletic department budget go a long way by putting on a lot of sports, except for football, and using old sports facilities, not building new ones like LA Southwest. Football is expensive, and it's hard to sell many tickets at the juco level to defray costs, so why not skip football and sponsor a bunch of cheaper sports?

As to the recruiting trips to Colorado, I imagine they are more of a networking opportunity more than anything else – 15 of the 17 members of the 2011 softball team are from Florida or surrounding states. ...  Finally, it should be mentioned that Pensacola is essentially a small Southern town, with the expected small town obsession with team sports.  The area’s only four-year school, the University of West Florida, recently claimed the Division II national championship in baseball, and the area can lay claim to many great athletes, most notably NFL legend Emmit Smith.  So a certain amount of civic pride is behind the emphasis on athletics, even at the relatively obscure juco level.

That makes sense: juco women's sports is a relatively cheap way to bring some distinction to your juco.

Of course, the NYT's perspective is that if one juco invests in good women athletes, then that proves that every juco should do it. And that's missing the point entirely, as the diversity mindset so often tends to do because it doesn't think in terms of systems effects. If juco women's athletics was hugely competitive, then it would be hugely expensive to earn some distinction for your juco in women's athletics, so then few could afford to do it.

That's an interesting critique of Kant's categorical imperative: In looking for some way to distinguish itself, organizations should not behave as if what they specialize in should become a universal law.

88 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could words such as these be just down the road...

"We just can't figure out why our gay population isn't coming out for football. I know they have their hands full with music and dance and theater and all, but you'd think with our Outreach Program that we'd get some of those guys to drop by and stick with us. I have film of Lynn Swann and Bambi, Lance Alworth. They might like watching Freddie Biletnikoff's toe taps down the sidelines, but so far, we can't get them in here. I just don't understand.

"They're having the same problem getting the lesbians to try out for women's gymnastics. What the heck is goin' on?"

Eric Falkenstein said...

Clearly the stereotype threat at work. QED.

RS said...

> Why? Why? Why?

If I can't puzzle it out, I may slowly go insane.

In other news the men there probably pump more iron and booze more. They may even do more stupid shit after drinking off a few.

The only solution I can conceive is to triple the PC catechizing, stat.

JerseyGuy said...

I think college athletics in general are one of the worst aspects of American exceptionalism. My old co-worker who was on a two year rotation from Ireland just couldn't grasp how 100,000 people could fill a stadium to watch amateur athletes. I have to say that as someone who graduated from a large state school, I totally agree. It's a huge distraction, waste of money (including football), etc.

Anyone else agree?

RS said...

> But federal statistics show few differences between the men and women who attend these colleges

Truly awesome sentence. I can't really add anything to that.

Anonymous said...

For an example of the type of young woman who is into women's polevaulting, think back to the rich, athletic family in the Sandra Bullock movie The Blind Side who adopts the homeless left tackle so he can play for their alma mater, the U. of Mississippi. Remember, dad was point guard for Ole Miss and mom was head cheerleader. Well, their daughter went on to be Mississippi state high school girl's pole vault champion and won a polevaulting scholarship to a four year college.

Will Komment Kontrol allow me to note that Allison Stokke's career finally ended this spring at the Pac-10 Championships?

Sigh.

.

Anonymous said...

The real question is - why is ANY community college giving scholarships for sports?

There is no rational answer. Its the numbskull 'AMURICAN' love of sports.
So, when this 'idiocy' is combined with Amurican pussy-whipped feminism you get the stupidity you've highlighted.

As stated, other people from the rest of world think this love of sport is bizarre. But when you give a whole rich continent to a bunch of 2nd rate Englishmen (whoops, sorry Scot_Irish), this is the result.

Anonymous said...

But when you give a whole rich continent to a bunch of 2nd rate Englishmen (whoops, sorry Scot_Irish), this is the result.

Jennie Finch, Arizona Wildcats.

Natalie Coughlin, UC-Berkeley Golden Bears.

Anonymous said...

The fact that the President of the community college is named Jack Daniels is like something out of Animal House. Love it.

CJ said...

Southwest Junior College ... that rings a bell. I read about it after the 1992 Rodney King riots, which liberals attributed to a lack of opportunities for the denizens of south central LA. It was pointed out that tuition at Southwest Junior College was $10 a course, including all the university transfer credit courses.

Jersey Guy wondered about U.S. college sport mania in general. I'm not an American, but I'm the next thing to one -- a Canadian who grew up regarding the USA as the land of baseball and ice cream (Colby Cosh's words) and who lived and worked in west coast states for a total of 15 years. Even I do not understand the mania for college sports. I understand the enthusiasm for high school sports, which can be a big positive, especially in small towns. However, college sport and everything associated with it causes an immediate MEGO effect. Why can't football and basketball develop their own development leagues the same way baseball and hockey do?

Anonymous said...

"As stated, other people from the rest of world think this love of sport is bizarre."

Did the world stop loving soccer yesterday or something?

Anonymous said...

[Please note: No answers to this question other than Sexism / Discrimination are allowed.]

That precisely is the reason why women don't make up more than half the student athletes, while being 60% majority at colleges.
Why don't you like US winning women's football(the real kind) world cup?

Secondly as the article states:

"less engaged student body by instead recruiting students straight from high school."

we need Title IX at high school level so that women who are denied opportunity to play sports at college level due to discrimination can have enough self-esteem to break through the ranks when they get to college.

But that's a hopeless thing considering the law has been in effect for more than 30 years.
What we need to look at now is the ten-centuries long affirmative action for white men in the hard sciences,

http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200305/backpage.cfm


"And this is helping Florida citizens how?"

Stimulating the economy. Adding to vibrancy?

florida.lesbiannightlife.com

Anonymous said...

whoops, sorry Scot_Irish

Technically speaking, Erin Andrews wasn't a varsity athlete, but she was a member of the Flordia Gator's basketball dance team as an undergraduate.

Also, she is rumored to have dated Bobby Frasor, and he has an NCAA championship ring.

Whiskey said...

Sports are important, because they build community bonds and mutual trust. It is why every place that has had an Anglosphere tradition of sports to match a mostly White population generally has an Anglosphere type of polity, high-trust, low crime, etc. There is a reason culturally that various ball games in England built so much communal feeling. An aristo like Jefferson preferred hunting/shooting, aristo pursuits unsuited for building communal bonds.

Harry Potter makes much of Quidditch, the magical version of soccer. Even Rowling caught the communal vibe (and the respect often unwisely granted ex players) that communal sports brings. Really what else is there to regularly bond lots of strangers together? Reading the Federalist Papers? Average IQ people don't work that way -- it needs to be emotional.

Anonymous said...

JerseyGuy,

Sports is probably the only useful thing you learn in school. Not hitting or throwing skills, but sports teaches teamwork, leadership, and is one of the few things on campus with a genuine objective and competitive goal (as opposed to everyone getting As for repeating buzzwords to a teacher in their gender studies class). Most people take those lessons long after they've forgotten nearly everything in their classes, which is by and large useless anyway (yes, even if you take science/math).

It also keeps people in shape and socializes them. Its great training if you are going to go into business or sales. My guess is college athletes perform better then non athletes in life. And no I'm not including the 70 IQ black kid they recruited out of the hood as a ringer, but among white kids of equal IQs I would expect athletes to do better then non athletes.

I'm sorry if you are butt hurt that you weren't an athlete. I find a lot of people reject sports as some kind of mark of pride when its really just a way of rationalizing their own weaknesses.

Anonymous said...

When is Ny Times going to address such pressing issues as the ATHLETIC GAP between blacks and Mexicans, between blacks and Muslim-Americans, and between blacks and Asian-Americans? And even between blacks and whites in certain sports?
How can we close this gap? When are we going to have Mexican superstars in the NBA and the NFL? Doesn't the NY Times care about diversity?
And what about the athletic gap between men and women in the NFL and NBA? When are gonna have some women in those leagues?

Anonymous said...

"I'm sorry if you are butt hurt that you weren't an athlete. I find a lot of people reject sports as some kind of mark of pride when its really just a way of rationalizing their own weaknesses."

There are any number of group endeavors that teach a person teamwork. Most majors at most colleges will have a certain amount of coursework that requires working with a group of peers. And there are any number of informal opportunities to play sports. And you will, of course, have PE credits to complete while an undergrad.

I think Sailer's issue is the money spent on "official" team sports especially in a population that really isn't being deprived of opportunities unless you deliberately misinterpret demographic information.

Anonymous said...

"And even between blacks and whites in certain sports?"

"even"

If you can barely admit of a large white-black athletic gap then you don't belong on a hbd blog. stormfront for you.

Anonymous said...

Speaking as an English person, I find it bizarre that anyone would care about university sport. Why would you care about that? It makes no sense.

Anonymous said...

"Anyone else agree?"

Football is the opiate of the masses.

Peter A said...

"We just can't figure out why our gay population isn't coming out for football."

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there are and always have been plenty of gay football players. I grew up on the same street where a starting tight end (yes, that was really his position) for the Redskins lived and his homosexuality was a pretty open secret. There are also certain well known prima donna wide receivers and running backs in the NFL now who I would bet money are gay.

JerseyGuy said...

Sorry I meant the love of college sports, not professional sports. I'm a huge soccer fan myself (but professional of course).

Shouting Thomas said...

The thing that really pisses me off about college athletics is...

My alma mater, the University of Illinois, is apparently too low on the pay scale.

The big bruisers keep going to Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Clearly, we need to pay better at U of I.

Big Bill said...

Isn't this the same as Harvard recruiting the children of rich blacks (from Africa) to eradicate the Legacy of Slavery (in America)?

Following the liberal Doctrine of Parity, the government has various rules that mandate proportionate participation in sports, corporate hiring, fire departments, university enrollments, etc.

Harvard meets that requirement by importing many blacks and hispanics from overseas.

Pensacola solves the problem by importing white girls from Colorado. Oakland solved the problem by dropping (or proposing to drop) higher math and science courses.

The result is the same: more injury to the minorities that are allegedly being served.

Rather than spending more money on child care at Pensacola so more single women with multiple babies from multiple baby-daddies can get a nursing or technician certificate of some kind, they are funding white girls from Colorado.

Rather than paying for scholarships to poor blacks (who live in the American ghetto), Harvard imports rich blacks from overseas (who live in white communities).

Of course Harvard gets away with it by pointing to the "diversity" of having Africans on campus.

On the one hand, it is doubtful that Pensacola would advance its Colorado white girl sports program using the same "diversity" argument.

On the other hand, HBCUs DO seek white enrollment for "diversity" reasons, which is a patent absurdity, given the reasons the HBCUs were created to begin with.

There must be some word for "following a rule so slavishly that one injures the very people the rule was intended to benefit."

NOTA said...

Anon 7/16/11 10:32 PM:

No doubt, sports are a good thing for many students. But why should they have anything to do with admissions or scholarships? I mean, debating politics or playing complicated RPGs also probably benefit some students, teach some valuable skills, etc. And yet, there are no scholarships, and nobody obsesses over the lack of female participation in those activities other than the lonely guys taking part in them, who fervently wish for more girls to be involved.

Gilbert Ratchet said...

As stated, other people from the rest of world think this love of sport is bizarre.

Well, other people love sport too, esp. soccer. They just retain the common-sense notion that the athletic and the intellectual are different areas of achievement, and see no reason why their university systems should act as the minor leagues for the professional ones.

Absolutely agree that this is one of the worst aspects of American exceptionalism.

Gilbert Ratchet said...

Speaking as an English person, I find it bizarre that anyone would care about university sport. Why would you care about that? It makes no sense.

I suppose it has to do with the history of higher education in the US. In England, the Two Universities were essentially for the upper class. I have met working-class Brits who spoke of university life with surprising vituperation, until I realized that it was an aspect of that British obsession, social class. But Ohio State University, for instance, a Land Grant institution, is seen by most Ohioans as "theirs," whether they have gone there or not, and they all cheer for "their" team. This dynamic is even more pronounced in states that don't have any professional clubs, e.g. Alabama or Mississippi.

It's still stupid, though.

Henry Canaday said...

American government, both in spending and regulation, is increasingly like the automatic pilot on a French jet trying to make it across the South Atlantic in a little choppy weather. Sometimes the auto pilot does not work and, uh, maybe the pilots should take over. But the pilots no longer know how the plane works, let alone how to fly it.

Mel Torme said...

"RS said...

> But federal statistics show few differences between the men and women who attend these colleges

Truly awesome sentence. I can't really add anything to that.


That one is pretty damn funny now that I think about it (rather than skimming through the BS, as I did at first).

I can think of only two logical explanations:

a) Hard to believe, but these federal statisticians are true geeks, and, though they learned about Gaussian distributions, standard deviations, and root-mean-squared curve fitting at the tender age of 14, they never got taught about the birds and the bees. "It's just a shame that the government schools failed them so terribly." (/Toby Flenderson, of "The Office", after he gets asked "where is the clitoris?" by Dwight Schrute, after one of Michael Scott's sexual awareness meetings.) Funniest damn show ever on TV!!!

b) Something about these community colleges attracts a large percentage of the local female population that have undergone procedural addadictomies. Hell, they're statisticians; they should be able to confirm this, right? No, you don't need to be an M.D. or medical student to know what that operation is about.

Camlost said...

Well, this is all typical libspeak.

We all know that there's a huge, bottomless piggybank out there for funding things like Women's Golf at HBCU's in the Mississippi Delta region. We just have to shake down the white man responsible for denying the necessary funding and equality will soon be achieved...

Anonymous said...

Why can't football and basketball develop their own development leagues the same way baseball and hockey do?

They have no need to spend money on that as long as colleges are eager to do it for free.

Peter

Anonymous said...

Across America is prima facia evidence of a vast sexist conspiracy. Self organized and funded adult semi-competitive athletics is dominated by men. Relatively few women are playing golf, softball, backetball, soccer, hockey and bowling. Men no doubt monopolize the facilities, excluding women from participation. Oddly enough, there are few recreational pole-valuters or shot putters.

My wife did want to me to go to that jazzercise, but told her my hockey league had a game scheduled that night and I couldn't afford to leave my game on the dance floor.

Kylie said...

"There must be some word for 'following a rule so slavishly that one injures the very people the rule was intended to benefit.'"

Stupidity.

Kylie said...

"'As stated, other people from the rest of world think this love of sport is bizarre.'

Did the world stop loving soccer yesterday or something?"


No and apparently soocer fans haven't stop rioting, either.

Soccer fans behave bizarrely but predictably

Anonymous said...

Flyover state college football teams rely on coastal JC's for their most intimidating black thugs.

JSM said...

"I have to say that as someone who graduated from a large state school, I totally agree. It's a huge distraction, waste of money (including football), etc. Anyone else agree?"

Oh, boy, do I.

Of course, maybe that's just because I'm middle class with a boy who is exceptional in math but too skinny to play football, and I keep thinking about all those prestigious schools that won't be offering him full rides because they gave those scholarships to foo'bah stars to sit in 900 level math classes.

Anonymous said...

Why can't football and basketball develop their own development leagues the same way baseball and hockey do?

This is because basketball and football began as college sports and only about half a century later became important professionally. In other words college football and basketball were big earlier than their pro equivalents. You can see this even in NFL Films documentaries about the 1950's. Jim Parker, who was one of the first prominent black offensive tackles in the NFL said that when he joined the Baltimore Colts that their training facilities were noticeably inferior to what was available at Ohio State where he played in college. This is despite the fact that the Colts were one the more successful franchises in the NFL at the time. Even today the second most popular sport in the US, after the pro football and above pro baseball and basketball is college football.

Marlowe said...

The only inter-collegiate sport event of public significance in England is the annual Boat Race of the Oxford & Cambridge rival blues on the Thames. The BBC televises it each year and it enjoys an audience in the millions. It does permit women rowers; however, men enjoy something of an advantage in upper-body strength.

Anonymous said...

"Speaking as an English person, I find it bizarre that anyone would care about university sport. Why would you care about that? It makes no sense"

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Dollars. Lots of them. It's called gambling.

Anonymous said...

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but there are and always have been plenty of gay football players. I grew up on the same street where a starting tight end (yes, that was really his position) for the Redskins lived and his homosexuality was a pretty open secret. There are also certain well known prima donna wide receivers and running backs in the NFL now who I would bet money are gay."

You're not bursting my bubble. It stands to reason a few are indeed gay, but try-outs for football at all levels will never be the place you'll see more than the rare gay guy.

(Watching Larry Fitzgerald parade his butt around and take all kinds of care with how his hair and uniform look have made me wonder about him, although I know he has a kid, which means little, really.)

Anonymous said...

@ Peter A:

On this blog, it is vitally important to grasp that a "handful" is not the same as "many".

Not to mention, gays wishing certain heteros were gay - come on, that's been going on quite a while.

Get Off My Lawn! said...

The real question is - why is ANY community college giving scholarships for sports?

That was the real surprise in the article. I had no idea that community colleges even had sports teams, let alone gave scholarships.

What a ridiculous waste of money! These places are not universities, they're vocational schools. Sometimes, they're also prep schools for people who couldn't get into, or couldn't afford, a real university straight out of high school.

In neither situation is there any justification for more than minimal support (providing a gym, playing field, equipment, etc.) for any sports above the truly amateur, intramural level.

As for sports at four-year universities, I think the concept of college sports is great. It provides cohesion on campuses that are otherwise often so scattered and diverse (in the true meaning of the word) that the students would feel little connection to the school if not for the uniting influence of supporting the teams. The same is true even across some entire states, especially in the Midwest.

I also agree with the comments pointing out both the physical and psychological benefits of playing sports. Colleges should do everything they can to encourage students to play whatever sport they enjoy for fun and exercise, not for profit.

So, yeah, by all means let's have sports play a significant role on campuses, but they should be strictly, honestly amateur, without the taint of big money or recruiting for professional leagues.

I think it would be a great idea for the NFL to have its own farm teams and cut off college recruitment. Let the colleges field teams that play each other for fun, just as they (mostly) did before WWII. I see it as analogous to theater and drama: something some college students do because they like it and something that some schools come to be very good at. The schools could still offer scholarships for talented players as long as they met other admission requirements.

In such an environment, most athletes will be men. If we lived in a sensible world, that would be an utterly non-controversial and expected outcome.

Women who are athletically inclined can individually play tennis or golf or any one of a number of other non-team sports using the same resources the men use. If there are enough of them who want to play team sports, great - let them form their own teams and leagues. Or let them play on the less-competitive, just-for-fun men's teams if they want. (If a girl wants to join the hackey sack team and can play respectably, let her do it. Who cares?)

Ronald said...

But when you give a whole rich continent to a bunch of 2nd rate Englishmen (whoops, sorry Scot_Irish), this is the result.

That seems like a fairly nasty thing to say about the founding stock of this country. Do other readers of this cite agree that we are "second-rate" human beings?

Anonymous said...

Athletics should be a fun, low-budget extracurricular activity. Why are these schools spending scarce money on nonsense like stadiums and athlete recruiting? Do the Community Colleges feel they have to mimic the bad habits of big state schools?

PS What's with the completely gratuitous comment about "a handful of lesbian gym coaches"?

Anonymous said...

Thanks to the internet I can look up other examples of Katie Thomas's award winning journalism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/sports/29softball.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1310936969-8kHlLbcrCZOzxTK4RNbEuA

And Slates reaction,

"Bogus Trend Story of the Week: "Girls' Sports Pack Economic Punch"
The New York Times whiffs.
By Jack Shafer."

I think we all get it: Katie Thomas is a lesbo stringer for the NYT living in Tenafly, NJ with her PE coach grrlfriend.

Anonymous said...

"I mean, debating politics or playing complicated RPGs also probably benefit some students, teach some valuable skills, etc. And yet, there are no scholarships, and nobody obsesses over the lack of female participation in those activities other than the lonely guys taking part in them, who fervently wish for more girls to be involved."

Uh, fervently wish for more girls to be involved [in these games]?

or just fervently wish for more girls?

Anonymous said...

"Jack E. Daniels III, the president of Los Angeles Southwest, said he was aware of the need to add women’s teams. But the college’s financial situation is so dire, he is considering eliminating the entire athletic program, which currently costs about $300,000 a year."

That is L.A. for ya'. The most sober opinion to be heard comes from Jack Daniels!!!

Marco Lalo said...

To be fair, that it's not pressing is reflected in the story's low rank as tallied by the New York Times, herself. Katie Thomas who shares the name of porn star might be forgiven for doing exactly the sort of thing.

Anonymous said...

Steve,
Speaking of "least pressing problems," have you seen the article in The Guardian attacking David and Victoria Beckham for having too many (four) chikdren?

I admit I know very little about them, but I've never heard of anything really bad about them. So why make a married couple who are more than capable of financially provding for their children the poster children for having too many babies?

Anonymous said...

I went to a white, suburban middle class high school and many of the girls I knew loved sports. Most never wanted or expected to become professional athletes, but their participation in sports was good for their physical and emotional health. I know this is hard for a male mind to grasp, but sports undertaken in a non-competitive frame of mind are still FUN. I doubt sports are at all a moneymaker for community college, and they wouldn't/shouldn't be adding female teams for MONEY. They would be adding them for those who want to play them, which is more than you'd think.

Oliver J said...

Title 9 nonsense is just another "let minorities pretend to make accomplishments no matter what the impact on others & society" measure.

Anonymous said...

So why make a married couple who are more than capable of financially provding for their children the poster children for having too many babies?

Obvioulsy starving Ethiopians can never have too many kids but a rich white couple?

The question answers itself.

Anonymous said...

But when you give a whole rich continent to a bunch of 2nd rate Englishmen (whoops, sorry Scot_Irish), this is the result.


Ah yes, if only America's demographics had mirrored Haiti's from day one, what a veritable paradise it would be. Alas, only those 2nd raters showed up.

Steve Sailer said...

David and Victoria Beckham are rich, healthy, athletic, good-looking, and have a sense of style in clothes that is well above the admittedly low average for their time and place. Beckham, while a good athlete, is somebody who went farther by cultivating particular skills, kind of like a golfer's. That shows self-discipline. Of course they should have lots of kids if they want.

Natalie Portman should have about five more kids. She's got everything except acting talent. Maybe one of her kids will be the outstanding actor or actress that she isn't.

Munch said...

Agree that community college should stop at intermural sports.

However, this Euro-British inability to understand American college sports is puzzling, in iteslf, to me.

If you look at the Greeks, one of the greatest philosophers said that the happiest day of his life was when his son wore the olive leaf crown, bringing glory to his city.

The Greeks are the founders of Western Civilization. They believed in a ballance of intellectual and physical virtues.

A lot of the West today is simply prejudiced in favor of mental activity: it is OK to admire and respect Einstein for his mind, but base to admire and respect Gina Davis for her hot physicality.

Anonymous said...

I can just see the uplifting Hollywood comedy about a group of JuCo black and Hispanic female players. What will it be called?

"A League of They Own"

or

"A Liga of Their Own, Mami"?

Anonymous said...

"Ah yes, if only America's demographics had mirrored Haiti's from day one, what a veritable paradise it would be. Alas, only those 2nd raters showed up."

Yes, then everything changed. All the immigrants after 1900 were the cream of the crop. The only reason they couldn't make it in their home countries was because of OPPRESSION. Just give those geniuses a chance.

Alas, we Anglo-Saxon types were the lazy riffraff and criminals of Europe but, all the rest of the immigrants, marginalized due to jealousy and assorted prejudices. I think we should die out and let these wunderkind take control.

Anonymous said...

"..and have a sense of style in clothes that is well above the admittedly low average for their time and place."

Yet they can't pick a name that is much better than Apple. I've been wondering if all those celebs really gave their children painfully bad names or if those were fake names for the press and public.

Camlost said...

Why can't football and basketball develop their own development leagues the same way baseball and hockey do?

Because development is nowhere near as important in high-impact contact sports.

If you're not a freakish physical specimen - i.e. 6-8 and coordinated (NBA) or 6-3, 245 lbs and running a 4.35 in the 40-yard dash by age 21 (NFL) you will never "blossom" into a player of significance in these two sports, and giving you a tryout will just take a roster spot away from some other explosive athlete with potential.

Major league baseball is different - you can have pitchers (especially lefties) who need 5-7 years of honing and seasoning of their arms before they are ready for the bigs. The NHL has such a narrow player development base (Northeastern White folks) that it almost doesn't count.

Upper West Side Schmuck Of The Week said...

In the words of G.W. Bush make the pie higher

But don't pick on Katie Thomas, even NYT stalwarts like Nagourney write silly PR puff pieces about non-problems:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/us/01prison.html

[Tim Robbins's prison-theatre troupe has to work harder because states have, unpredictably, cut funding for the jailbird arts. Not so trivial/futile as Title IX set-asides but preposterous nonetheless]

Anonymous said...

What Steve said is right on.

stari_momak said...

"But when you give a whole rich continent to a bunch of 2nd rate Englishmen (whoops, sorry Scot_Irish), this is the result."

Uh, dude, we *took* it. Three hundred years of fighting 'the merciless Indian savages'. Granted we had some huge advantages, but at times it was a touch and go thing, as the lady for whome Sailer's main outlet is named could attest.

Anonymous said...

"Ohio State University, for instance, a Land Grant institution, is seen by most Ohioans as "theirs," whether they have gone there or not, and they all cheer for "their" team."

Considering what they pay in taxes to support higher ed in their state, I can understand a citizen who never attended considering it "theirs."

Anonymous said...

"Most never wanted or expected to become professional athletes,"

Oh no, get these poor girls Hope Solo jersies now.

"I know this is hard for a male mind to grasp, but sports undertaken in a non-competitive frame of mind are still FUN."

Amazing how much the female minds agree:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WjKMDpQPoU


Article on Title ix and men's football:
http://bit.ly/m9nT4v

Letting aside the attempt to not come off as sexist at the start, has some good parts, and

"Of those 2,500 athletes per year, is it not likely that one player may “develop late” and come into his own as an athlete beyond the age of 18? I certainly did. I was a much better rower even with one knee than I ever was a soccer player largely because I did not realize how to utilize my post-pubescent body in sport until I was 18."

Anonymous said...

"I went to a white, suburban middle class high school and many of the girls I knew loved sports.... They would be adding them for those who want to play them, which is more than you'd think."

And how many of your WSHS classmates went to COMMUNITY COLLEGES instead of 4-year schools? Taking a class or two in the summer because the credits are cheaper doesn't count.

Your CC student is different in important ways from your classmates at White Suburban High School.
--Discordiax

Marlowe said...

In Britain, talented young soccer players and cricketers are picked up at schools under the age of 18 by scouts for the professional teams and so never have to go to university if they don't wish to do so. Most don't as it would interfere with their career as sportsmen and earning power and no one thinks less of them for not having a bachelors' degree. Professional team sports therefore have no real connection to the universities in this country. The biggest inter-collegiate competition is a TV general knowledge quiz where rival teams of undergraduates represent their universities.

ben tillman said...

Women make up more than two-thirds of students at this community college....

Yes, the article refutes itself.

That imbalance violates Title IX. Men have to be 50% of the student body, if women have to be 50% of the athletes.

The governmedia pretends that Article IX is about sports. It's not.

Anonymous said...

"Sports is probably the only useful thing you learn in school. Not hitting or throwing skills, but sports teaches teamwork, leadership, and is one of the few things on campus with a genuine objective and competitive goal. [...] It also keeps people in shape and socializes them. Its great training if you are going to go into business or sales. "

By the same token you could claim that the most useful college activity is partying.

Truth said...

"Of course, maybe that's just because I'm middle class with a boy who is exceptional in math but too skinny to play football, and I keep thinking about all those prestigious schools that won't be offering him full rides because they gave those scholarships to foo'bah stars to sit in 900 level math classes."

Well when your son starts attracting 90,000 hot dog eating, overpriced parking, memorabilia buying people to watch him do a calculus equation, I'm sure he'll get plenty of scholarships.

Truth said...

"Title 9 nonsense is just another "let minorities pretend to make accomplishments no matter what the impact on others & society" measure."

Whites receive most college athletic scholarships. Blacks receive most college REVENUE PRODUCING athletic scholarships.

Anonymous said...

NOTA,

Politics is an elite activity, and non-elites that spend time debating politics are wasting it since they will never have the power to have an impact. They are just bitch sessions.

Complicated RPGs? I will take that as a joke.

Colleges give athletic scholarships, just like they give scholarships for playing an instrument, because talents such as these tend to indicate future success. College athletes are likely to be tall, charismatic, and extroverted, and driven, all things important to career and business success. Participating in a sport amplifies this.

Colleges don't give scholarships for being a book worm unless you are an insanely talented book worm, because book worms tend not to become elite, and being or becoming elite = donations and influence.

Yes, some colleges recruit dumb black thugs as ringers, but those tend to be the few big name schools that actually make money off athletics anyway, so you should look at their athletic departments as profit driven organizations.

Anonymous said...

"By the same token you could claim that the most useful college activity is partying."

If you don't think business deals get done at bars and cocktail parties, I got a bridge to sell you.

The image of the dumb jock is a prole thing. In elite circles people are both athletes and smart, which is a lot better then a socially maladjusted nerd who is only smart. Most of the best elite jobs only take an IQ of 120.

Anonymous said...

This probably wasn't Sailer's work either, too self-referential.

Jack said...

I think a lot about college sports, and I'm a huge college football fan. I'm almost more ok with the scholarships at the football and basketball factory schools like USC and Ohio State and Alabama than the athletes that get special privileges at places like the Ivies and Div. III schools. The big conference schools have a basic understanding that those athletes are semi-pro. At Ivies and Division III schools, recruited athletes get significant admissions advantages, and many of these athletes are white and affluent. These athletes are still pretty smart, and I'm generally ok with a football player getting in with a 1250 or so, but I've heard of ridiculous stories like wrestlers or tennis players getting recruited by Ivies with SAT of 1100 or so. For sports that are just a money sink.

I'm also conflicted on Title IX. I like the idea of female sports in the abstract but is it teaching them the right things? Female college athletes binge drink more than non-athletes, and from what I can gather, they tend to be promiscuous as well. Teaching the wrong values.

But, damn, google Alex Morgan.

Anonymous said...

That seems like a fairly nasty thing to say about the founding stock of this country. Do other readers of this cite agree that we are "second-rate" human beings?

If you're looking for a reaction, you have to post a comment about Israel being full of second-rate Jews.

Insulting Englishmen just ain't gonna getRdone.

Svigor

Anonymous said...

I admit I know very little about them, but I've never heard of anything really bad about them. So why make a married couple who are more than capable of financially provding for their children the poster children for having too many babies?

(Assuming the preceding is true)

I wonder if the Guardian has ever criticized non-white parents for having "too many" kids? Or are they a pack of racists?

Four kids while white & famous gets you an attack from the Guardian now. Jesus H Christ.

Svigor

Paul said...

Uh, dude, we *took* it. Three hundred years of fighting 'the merciless Indian savages'. Granted we had some huge advantages, but at times it was a touch and go thing,

Until the Colt Walker Dragoon was deployed in the mid-1800's, the Texas Rangers had a 50% annual mortality rate.

Anonymous said...

But when you give a whole rich continent to a bunch of 2nd rate Englishmen (whoops, sorry Scot_Irish), this is the result.

The funny thing is, I could've believed this comment came from a white person, maybe even an Englishman, until I re-read it and noticed the word, "give."

Only someone who despises whites (a non-white, or a formerly white, apostate Uncle Tom) would use "give" here.

Svigor

Anonymous said...

Does Natalie Portman actually lack acting talent? She was PDG in her debut in The Professional. The only other thing I can recall seeing her in is the Star Wars prequels. And judging someone's acting chops by her performance in a post-menopausal Lucas film is cruel and unusual punishment IMO.

Svigor

Anonymous said...

Until the Colt Walker Dragoon was deployed in the mid-1800's, the Texas Rangers had a 50% annual mortality rate.

Having practically zero in the way of support probably didn't help, either.

Svigor

JSM said...

"Well when your son starts attracting 90,000 hot dog eating, overpriced parking, memorabilia buying people to watch him do a calculus equation, I'm sure he'll get plenty of scholarships."


I'm not saying there shouldn't be professional sports. I'm saying those guys shouldn't be attending elite schools to receive their remedial education.

Just like farm teams for baseball, there should be a farm team system for football and basketball players.

Let them learn to reduce fractions, if they want, in an evening class in an adult ed center somewhere, taught by a moonlighting high school teacher, not a 150K-a-year, 150-IQ, full Ph.D professor, and pay for it themselves.


Sports stars are entertainers.

Elite university is the wrong place to train them, just as it is the wrong place to train magicians or drummers or Vegas showgirls.

Norm Peterson said...

Does Natalie Portman actually lack acting talent? She was PDG in her debut in The Professional.

To be fair, she was playing herself in that film - a little girl.

Portman is like a lot of actors who do a great job of playing themselves but have little range beyond that. I'll call it the Shelly Long Syndrome.

Truth said...

"I'm not saying there shouldn't be professional sports. I'm saying those guys shouldn't be attending elite schools to receive their remedial education."

You're missing the entire point there, Vladamir:

A University is a capitalist institution. The "remedial education" guys are brought into the major universities because they BUILD the facilities for genuises such as your son.

Because one great football player, for the cost of tuition and books, does the job of 100, $50,000 outreach coordinators, and his travel budget is much lower. These guys bring in millions of dollars to the universities, and fund all of the "smart white boy" sports, as well as many of the revenue-eating, extra-curricular activites. It's all business.

Anonymous said...

JSM,

I was unaware that the big state schools were considered elite. Last time a checked Harvard wasn't loaded with ghetto black kids and competing for the national championship.

There are two reasons why there is minor league baseball but not football. First is historical. The second is that the top stars in college are good enough to compete at the pro level right away. First round draft picks are often better then the average player on an NFL roster right out of the gate. That is why the NFL draft is a prime time high ratings event, because those players can turn a team around right away, while the baseball draft is a joke since you won't see any of those guys for like five years.

ben tillman said...

I'm also conflicted on Title IX. I like the idea of female sports in the abstract....

Title IX is not about women's sports. Or sports. You're thinking about the executivve branch's "who/whom" interpretation/application of Title IX, which has nothing to do with the actual statute.

Title IX is actually about education.

Title IX says:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance....

JSM said...

"University is a capitalist institution."

Wrong. Its mission is inheritantly socialist.

University is *supposed* to be about educating the young, not turning a buck. Education is not *supposed* to be profit-generating of itself, just as child-rearing, in general, is not. We spend money to raise kids so they can be productive adults LATER, not NOW.

The economic justification for a school system is that the knowledge base formed through education will then allow the very mentally able to build on that base, to benefit the rest of us collectively, in ways that are not immediately obvious.

That's why mathematics (and history and English literature, and science, etc.) -- the subjects that comprise the very definition of academics -- are taught at academic institutions.

That's why colleges are supported by tax dollars.


And that's why people incapable of serious academics do not belong in serious academic institutions, taking up space and professors' time.

Football is ferociously expensive. Stadiums BUILT BY TAXPAYER DOLLARS cost millions, and "winning coaches" cost hundreds of thousands.
If college football is only about generating revenue for colleges, as it is, then, really, we should just have universities get their money with, say, gambling halls. Much less upfront investment required, and more sure payoff.


Since sports is about entertainment and profit, not societal benefit, then let the infrastructure for it be built, and the talent developed, at the expense of the capitalistic profiteers, UNSUBSIDIZED by my tax dollars.

Sure, just like fast-food workers, sports stars need trained. But let the capitalists do it through the farm-team system. And let the team owners PAY their farm-team players an honest wage.

There is no need for those people to take up space in classrooms or dorms. There is no need for junior-level professional sports (which is what college football *is*) to be on campus or associated with the university system, at all.

Truth, you claim to love the free market.
You yourself should be able to grasp that college football is neoslavery. After all, these players are NOT being paid congruent with the $$$$$$ they are generating through their physical prowess. They are being severely underpaid, enslaved, even, taking all the injury risks of playing professional football, with none of the monetary benefits. They get a place to sleep, sure, and food to eat, and a doctor for their concussion. Did massa provide less?

And it can't be said that they are compensated with the education they are receiving. Remedial math will NOT generate them a magnificent income to compensate for the physical injuries they endured or risked while playing college ball.

We should simply stop the charade.

Football and other pro-sports training should be disassociated from college. The players should be paid adequately while training in the farm teams, at it all should be conducted at pro-sports-teams owners' expense.

I'm, frankly, tired of pro team owners getting away with privatizing the profits while socializing the costs.

JSM said...

"JSM,

I was unaware that the big state schools were considered elite. Last time a checked Harvard wasn't loaded with ghetto black kids and competing for the national championship"

Even big state schools are overly elite to be teaching remedial math to humans whose talent revolves around muscles rather than mind.


Education, to the extent possible for those people, should, realistically, be done at an evening adult ed center, taught by moonlighting high school teachers or literacy volunteers.

The Ph.D. doing research at a state school should spend his time with students with the intellectual prowess to grasp the complex ideas he can teach, not babysitting foo'bah players only on campus to gain revenue for the school.

Better we funded state universities through the state lottery and let those young, physically but not mentally able, men be PAID a fair wage to play, as they are playing, on farm teams financed and run by the pro team owners.

Really, at root, WHY should organized football even be associated with institutions whose very mission is the discovery and transmission of academic knowledge?
It's nonsensical.

Truth said...

One thing I will never, ever understand, is self-proclaimed, high-IQ geniuses who can't read.