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Stanford dropping wrestling (and other sports)

If colleges determined what teams they had by profit and attendance.

We'd have two and a half teams at most schools. This is one of the more ignorant takes I see from the fanbase at my own alma mater. Yup, let's cut everything, unknowingly shunning the situation and advocate for a move to Division II and putting the school at risk of gender-equity lawsuits.

Top notch.

PSU should cut half the sports.



Do you know the difference between HALF and EVERYTHING?

If you actually cared about the bottom half the events would not be empty.
 
Keep pissing into the wind, arguing with Jason Bryant who knows first-hand more about this than anyone here.

You can keep pissing in the wind. Sports that lose money are all on the block. If you want to keep wrestling then you better suck it up and be willing to cut the bottom half of sports that draw nothing. Stanford knows first hand too.
 
One thing that is obvious when discussing non-revenue sports, is that many people do not know the meaning of revenue.
 
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At the very least we should ditch conference affiliation for non revenue sports. It is worthless. Does psu really need to send non revenue teams across country to play in from of 80 fans? Absurd.
You can keep pissing in the wind. Sports that lose money are all on the block. If you want to keep wrestling then you better suck it up and be willing to cut the bottom half of sports that draw nothing. Stanford knows first hand too.
Like Stanford?

Like you. Revenue ≠ profit. Every sport that sells a ticket is a revenue producing sport. Every sport that sells a t-shirt or an over priced bottle of Aquafina is a revenue producing sport.
 
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Like you. Revenue ≠ profit. Every sport that sells a ticket is a revenue producing sport. Every sport that sells a t-shirt or an over priced bottle of Aquafina is a revenue producing sport.
I can't tell whether you think you are (A) describing the actual meaning of "non-revenue sport" or whether you are (B) merely tilting at a windmill and prescribing your preferred logic for our language.

If (A), then I think you are looking at things rather simplistically. You overlook several points, including:

(1) Revenue to whom? Revenue is less about whatever money that end customers give up than it is about money that an entity gets in. Even within one business, there can be multiple entities within the business such that each entity has its own revenue. The word revenue in "revenue sport" may refer to revenue that the University entity gets from the Team entity, and the word needs not refer to revenue that the Team entity gets from paying customers.

(2) Secondary meaning. Just because you arguably know the meaning of a word in isolation in general does not mean you know the meaning of a specific term in a specific context that includes the word. The word vacuum literally means total absence of, e.g., air. And yet a vacuum cleaner has many particles of air within it. There is no vacuum anywhere!

(3) Usage beats logic. People use "non-revenue sport" in a certain way. You're not going to change the prevailing definition using logic or etymology. For example, if Penn State beats Rutgers and you say "fantastic!", no one will be confused and ask you why you think Penn State's beating Rutgers is so unexpected that it should happen only in a fantasy. Fantastic now can mean good; you can't change that. :)
 
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I can't tell whether you think you are (A) describing the actual meaning of "non-revenue sport" or whether you are (B) merely tilting at a windmill and prescribing your preferred logic for our language.

If (A), then I think you are looking at things rather simplistically. You overlook several points, including:

(1) Revenue to whom? Revenue is less about whatever money that end customers give up than it is about money that an entity gets in. Even within one business, there can be multiple entities within the business such that each entity has its own revenue. The word revenue in "revenue sport" may refer to revenue that the University entity gets from the Team entity, and the word needs not refer to revenue that the Team entity gets from paying customers.

(2) Secondary meaning. Just because you arguably know the meaning of a word in isolation in general does not mean you know the meaning of a specific term in a specific context that includes the word. The word vacuum literally means total absence of, e.g., air. And yet a vacuum cleaner has many particles of air within it. There is no vacuum anywhere!

(3) Usage beats logic. People use "non-revenue sport" in a certain way. You're not going to change the prevailing definition using logic or etymology. For example, if Penn State beats Rutgers and you say "fantastic!", no one will be confused and ask you why you think Penn State's beating Rutgers is so unexpected that it should happen only in a fantasy. Fantastic now can mean good; you can't change that. :)
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Since I am a CPA, I have to chime in, this is a painful thread that requires adult supervision.

When they say 'Revenue" sport, what is really meant is "big profit". You may not like it, you may find it unfair, but the two big money makers in college sports are men's football and men's basketball.

No matter how much we know the woman's field hockey team is filled with great athletes, working their tails off to play, the simple fact is you can't get 100,000 to watch the games, millions to park their keisters in from of the boob-tube and get people to buy untold millions in licensed "merch".

The only reason the term "revenue" is used is because colleges and universities like to posture as "non-profit", and that's only because the average person on the street thinks that a business organized under § 501 (c)(3) operates an enterprise that is somehow selfless and indifferent to the bottom line. Trust me, anything run like that is either a hobby or headed for bankruptcy.

Truth, the term "non-profit" is simply a misnomer of the tax code term "not for individual profit", meaning that there are no stockholders eligible to receive dividends. Yes, you need an "exempt purpose" to obtain the status, but those are broad and that just means management does pretty much whatever it wants that won't cause a public scandal.

The truth is actually worse. The colleges and universities, through the auspices of the NCAA, are running a professional sports league that makes enormous profits, and in an ideal world should be required to pay "unrelated business income tax" or UBIT on the profits.

Oh and if you are going to cite this:

"As a non-profit organization, we put our money where our mission is: equipping student-athletes to succeed on the playing field, in the classroom and throughout life. "

The nature of a tax exempt charity is in how the money is produced, not how it is consumed.
 



And some good stuff here. Morgan O'Brien uses 15 successive Tweets describing the situation at Stanford.


He caps it off with this:
 
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Considering I attended home (and a number of away) events throughout the course of my extended run as an undergraduate in college and until I moved away for EVERY sport, I actually do care. Strike two.
As an undergraduate did you not get in free?
 
As an undergraduate did you not get in free?
That isn't the point being argued - the initial statement was if people showed up. The point I'm discussing doesn't even consider whether or not these sports (at any school) are ticketed events. Ticketed or not, I was still there at my alma mater for EVERY sport.

Most of the time, mid-major pretenders like my alma mater would rather not ticket it and call it "non-revenue" than actually spend any time or effort promoting the sports or trying to find some GA to staff the gate to come in, and then use that as an excuse. "No revenue" - uh, no effort to generate revenue is more like it.
 
Wow.

"When college leaders were surveyed in 2009 by the landmark Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, one respondent expressed this prevailing attitude among so many in the ivory tower: “There’s too much identification of a university with non-academic aspects, distracting from the values of higher education and from desirable values in society.”"
 
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Wow.

"When college leaders were surveyed in 2009 by the landmark Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, one respondent expressed this prevailing attitude among so many in the ivory tower: “There’s too much identification of a university with non-academic aspects, distracting from the values of higher education and from desirable values in society.”"
That quote explains a lot about a percentage of administration and staff at colleges and universities.
My father who is 82 has a high school classmate that has been College professor at Temple for 50 plus years. He has disdain for the sports programs at Temple and other schools. To him higher education should only be about academia.
 
Wow.

"When college leaders were surveyed in 2009 by the landmark Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, one respondent expressed this prevailing attitude among so many in the ivory tower: “There’s too much identification of a university with non-academic aspects, distracting from the values of higher education and from desirable values in society.”"
The University of Chicago use to be a member of the Big Ten, they then dropped all sports (Universities are for academics). Eventually they added back D3 sports, they found out that the lack of sports hurt the quality and quantity of the students interested in attending their university. Sports provide something to do for many students, activities that have nothing to do with academics.

Reality is, sports are a big draw for students and they present a huge opportunity to market the school and attract more and better students. Take Alabama for example, they have used football to increase their attractiveness for better students. I know three kids from the Baltimore suburbs are were are outstanding students and are either attending or graduated from Alabama in the last 8 years. 15 years ago, their would have been zero interest. An excellent financial aid package didn't hurt either.

Typical elitism.
 
Wow.

"When college leaders were surveyed in 2009 by the landmark Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, one respondent expressed this prevailing attitude among so many in the ivory tower: “There’s too much identification of a university with non-academic aspects, distracting from the values of higher education and from desirable values in society.”"
That's what's known as a Kinsley Gaffe -- when a public figure accidentally says what he's really thinking.

Make no mistake, that attitude exists at Penn State too -- and has for decades. Joe was resented by a number of academics. And even without the resentment, I know higher-ups at PSU (in some cases Spanier direct reports) who wished the university didn't have a football team.

Luckily, those same people were pragmatic enough to know what impact that would have on academic fundraising. It was mostly wishful thinking -- and sure enough, they went to football games.
 
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I'm actually not optimistic about this.

When I hear "university president will follow the Board's recommendation" -- cue up Jim Gibbons. No sh**. Every university president's job is to do what the Board approves.

But note what he's not doing: making the recommendation to the Board. I.e., not being a leader.

So that statement tells me: he's going to do the politician thing, and let the Board take the heat for an unpopular decision.

Hope I'm wrong.
 
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Penn State dropped all sports scholarships in the 30s. Now we have 31 teams. Guess why.
 
The National Review article quoted an Atlantic article as Nittinsc posted.

The Atlantic had a Columbia Sociology professor who stated " Admitting too many athletes means denying admission to .... future artists and writers and political scientists and economists....

The National Review author wrote why can't an athlete also be an artist.

Then one guy I know who was an artist/athelete came to mind!
 
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The National Review article quoted an Atlantic article as Nittinsc posted.

The Atlantic had a Columbia Sociology professor who stated " Admitting too many athletes means denying admission to .... future artists and writers and political scientists and economists....

The National Review author wrote why can't an athlete also be an artist.

Then one guy I know who was an artist/athelete came to mind!

Mike Reid, Grammy winner?
 
The National Review article quoted an Atlantic article as Nittinsc posted.

The Atlantic had a Columbia Sociology professor who stated " Admitting too many athletes means denying admission to .... future artists and writers and political scientists and economists....

The National Review author wrote why can't an athlete also be an artist.

Then one guy I know who was an artist/athelete came to mind!
Things that Columbia prof would never say to John Urschel's face ...
 
That's what's known as a Kinsley Gaffe -- when a public figure accidentally says what he's really thinking.

Make no mistake, that attitude exists at Penn State too -- and has for decades. Joe was resented by a number of academics. And even without the resentment, I know higher-ups at PSU (in some cases Spanier direct reports) who wished the university didn't have a football team.

Luckily, those same people were pragmatic enough to know what impact that would have on academic fundraising. It was mostly wishful thinking -- and sure enough, they went to football games.
When Terry Pegula offered a 9 figure donation to fund a new hockey arena and facility, PSU academics pitched a fit to the point where Terry had to pony up significantly more money earmarked to academics to make the project happen. I don't recall any ADs whining when academic endowments are made.
 
I am guessing a lot of professors have bad memories of being bullied or beaten up by an athlete and would love to settle the score. This is the way they do it. That and the old - "Hey, why doesn't anyone think I am important? Look at me" mentality! probably plays into it also. It is sad to see when people destroy other peoples dreams and really gain nothing for themselves in the process. Small people will act like small people, because it is all they know. Let's hope some big people are around to make the choice of allowing people with big dreams to chase their dreams.
 
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