Can't Cut It

I read an AP story today to make my blood boil.  It seems LSU is all ready to start football while the University of Akron is starting to toss varsity athletes overboard.  They will judge us by our actions in times like these.

 

At LSU, the athletic director Scott Woodward offered, “We have really top concern for our student athletes—their safety and welfare—and both in their academics and their physical pursuits.”   Woodward thinks football players will be better off quarantined at school rather than at home.  They’ll be exposed to fewer potential COVID-19 carriers and be under the supervision of coaches and staff “making sure their food is done together, making sure that the weight rooms are clean and immaculate.”

 

The level of concern here is touching.  I wonder if the classrooms and labs will be as immaculate, or the university library; oh, those dirty books.  Now, here’s a thought—if you can’t trust the general student body—except to show up lemming-like at home games, that is—just keep the LSU “student athletes” out of class; that shouldn’t be too hard.  It’s all about the kids, right?

 

No doubt, that’s why Akron announced it was dropping men’s cross-country and golf along with women’s tennis.  School AD Larry Williams called the decision to cut the sports “very difficult” yet  “important and necessary” given that the athletic department expects to take a 23 percent hit on its budget.

 

According to my son-in-law Chris (who’s coming off like a prophet on this), mid-level NCAA D-I schools are feeling the pressure with the anticipated loss of football revenue and, I’m sure, basketball.  You have to wonder how the teams to be cut were chosen.  Maybe by lot?

 

You also have to wonder if athletic departments should be the ones to decide.  Does the quintessential student on-campus experience with sports require a television camera be on-site?  What starts with tennis and cross-country doesn’t necessarily end there.  Left to their own devices, athletic directors along with compliant school presidents will play God, or Darwin.  The big sports will survive, the smaller ones not so much.

 

The AP story noted that a number of college conferences plan to do away with postseason tournaments.  When Clare was at Valpo, the team qualified for the NCAA softball tournament by winning its conference tournament.  Goodbye to that, and who knows what else?

COVID-19 is both a cause and effect here, with funding for college athletics more slap-dash than anyone cares to admit.  The virus will go away, but not the damage done to college sports, unless more enlightened people move to intervene.  Please.