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Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

nytimes.com

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Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#21

Post by whyenot »

impendia wrote: post #10
partialrecall wrote: post #3

It's not at all clear to me why we allow American football and universities to have such a perverse relationship, when it's plain to see that football itself has nothing to do with education, except insofar as it's an activity that many students enjoy (but there is no shortage of other non-academic activities that many students share, such as baseball...) And in cases like this, where students are leaving the game ea…

> Why can't the American football industry run itself more like the American baseball industry? I am a very strong opponent of the overwhelming sports culture at American universities, and of the absurd sums of money spent to sustain it. (Example: Dabo Swinney was just given a $93 million contract to remain the football coach of Clemson.) This >Defenders of the current system will often claim that football is profita…

> they encourage more strong high school students to apply for admission

By encouraging more students to apply, they have the opportunity to turn down more applicants and appear more selective, boosting their position in college rankings.

The whole thing is ridiculous. We are supposed to be educating students, not giving them brain damage.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#22

Post by qws »

impendia wrote: post #10
partialrecall wrote: post #3

It's not at all clear to me why we allow American football and universities to have such a perverse relationship, when it's plain to see that football itself has nothing to do with education, except insofar as it's an activity that many students enjoy (but there is no shortage of other non-academic activities that many students share, such as baseball...) And in cases like this, where students are leaving the game ea…

> Why can't the American football industry run itself more like the American baseball industry? I am a very strong opponent of the overwhelming sports culture at American universities, and of the absurd sums of money spent to sustain it. (Example: Dabo Swinney was just given a $93 million contract to remain the football coach of Clemson.) This >Defenders of the current system will often claim that football is profita…

Is it really still profitable in e.g. that case of Dabo Swinney landing a 93 million dollar contract?

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#23

Post by magduf »

linuxftw wrote: post #14
harryh wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should schools only provide a basic education? There are a great many reasons to participate in after school sports: general health and fitness, teamwork, confidence, community. Schools can't do this too?

The reason is money. Where I'm from, only the rich kids do after school sports. The poor kids have two working parents and they can't afford to miss work to pick them up after school. We're subsidizing the rich kids to play sports with public funds, and that's total BS. Not everyone lives in a city, so they can't just take a public bus home after school and the after-school activity buses were canceled.

In better-run countries, poor kids don't need to be picked up by parents, or take a bus home; instead, they just walk home.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#24

Post by aphextim »

partialrecall wrote: post #3

It's not at all clear to me why we allow American football and universities to have such a perverse relationship, when it's plain to see that football itself has nothing to do with education, except insofar as it's an activity that many students enjoy (but there is no shortage of other non-academic activities that many students share, such as baseball...) And in cases like this, where students are leaving the game ea…

There was push-back a while ago to where the schools were using the student's identity for college based video games and profiting off the student's names, and the students never saw anything from it.

There was a suit and the college kids won!

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/18/sports/ncaa-video-game-la...

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#26

Post by irrational »

Next step is tracking students' locations to penalizing them for not attending the games at all. I attended a Division 1 school and in the six years I was there (bachelors and masters) I never attended a sports event. It seemed (and still seems) like an incredible waste of time and money to me.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#27

Post by jimmaswell »

impendia wrote: post #10
partialrecall wrote: post #3

It's not at all clear to me why we allow American football and universities to have such a perverse relationship, when it's plain to see that football itself has nothing to do with education, except insofar as it's an activity that many students enjoy (but there is no shortage of other non-academic activities that many students share, such as baseball...) And in cases like this, where students are leaving the game ea…

> Why can't the American football industry run itself more like the American baseball industry? I am a very strong opponent of the overwhelming sports culture at American universities, and of the absurd sums of money spent to sustain it. (Example: Dabo Swinney was just given a $93 million contract to remain the football coach of Clemson.) This >Defenders of the current system will often claim that football is profita…

If investing in the sports really brought the university more revenue than otherwise, I wouldn't mind, so long as that money went to things like research and lowered tuition, which I know it unfortunately likely wouldn't.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#28

Post by phil248 »

partialrecall wrote: post #3

It's not at all clear to me why we allow American football and universities to have such a perverse relationship, when it's plain to see that football itself has nothing to do with education, except insofar as it's an activity that many students enjoy (but there is no shortage of other non-academic activities that many students share, such as baseball...) And in cases like this, where students are leaving the game ea…

Given the increasing public backlash to football-related injuries, specifically brain injuries, this is likely a problem that will solve itself over time. There's an increasingly small pool of parents who are willing to let their children play a sport where there's a very slim chance of professional success but a pretty high chance of permanent brain damage.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#29

Post by magduf »

rorski wrote: post #15
stirbot wrote: post #7

Towards the end of my time as a student at the University of Michigan I stopped buying tickets to the games. Between the crowds, security, drunk strangers, the sun in September or the cold rain in November - it's just more fun and more comfortable to watch at home with friends.

The crowds and drunk strangers are the major reason why people go to games. And tailgating for most sports fans is fun. Of course you get a better view of the game at home, but the live atmosphere can't be replicated by any TV.

Exactly. Hanging around and drinking a lot, and being around a bunch of noisy, drunk people, is something that most Americans greatly enjoy.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#30

Post by partialrecall »

haunter wrote: post #8
partialrecall wrote: post #3

It's not at all clear to me why we allow American football and universities to have such a perverse relationship, when it's plain to see that football itself has nothing to do with education, except insofar as it's an activity that many students enjoy (but there is no shortage of other non-academic activities that many students share, such as baseball...) And in cases like this, where students are leaving the game ea…

>why we allow Who do you mean by we? I'm not familiar with the american university system but how much public (say tax) money does a private university like Stanford get (which also has a good football team).

I am concerned primarily by the involvement of public schools. I think private schools doing it is also dumb, but perhaps it's their prerogative to be dumb in ways that shouldn't be tolerated from public schools.
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