Over twenty years ago, my friend Art pointed to the basic issue in college athletics. He said “when they got to the bottom of Watergate they’ll find a college basketball coach.” Art was a graduate of Indiana during the Bobby Knight era. He loved basketball but never let me forget that many parts of its culture were corrupt.
Eric Frazier and David Perlmutt, at the Charlotte Observer, point to the cultural issue underlying the Duke Lacrosse scandal:
Critics of big-time college athletics say the lack of uniform rules leaves too much room for misbehavior before an athlete is benched, suspended or kicked off a team.
They contend that, in an era of rising tuitions and declining educational standards, colleges tolerate hard-partying behavior as the price of keeping students happy.
"The NCAA doesn't want to go anywhere near this issue," said Murray Sperber, an Indiana University professor and frequent critic of major college athletics. "Schools have to give kids something, so you can see where a university would be very ambiguous about this situation.
Duke is only one of many recent high profile cases of corrupt athletic culture. The University of Colorado is accused of hiring prostitutes to attract high school athletes. St. Johns University suspended five basketball players for breaking curfew to visit a strip club. Virginia Tech suspended Marcus Vick after a string of legal infractions and unsportsmanlike play.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is, however, deeply concerned with the impact of athletics on the American culture. It is zealously guarding the country from the damaging effect of Colleges using Indian Native American names for their teams.
Apparently the NCAA considers stereotyping more wrong incorrect than hiring women to remove their clothes and then (allegedly) raping them. Demeaning minorities is a violation of NCAA rules. A culture of exploiting women is a matter for individual schools.
Maybe the NCAA should meditate on Matthew 23:24:
You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
Or on Matt 5:28. Oops, it would be politically incorrect to use this passage as a matter of NCAA policy.
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