Penn State had a ridiculous culture that favored football over academics, that put the football coach as the most revered and powerful person at the university. It's a good thing for the students that the shift will be back to academics. It's a university not a football team.
When a Penn State student applies to medical school, the medical schools are going to be interested in the academic rating of the school and not the number of football wins. The student's potential future employer won't care that Penn State went to the Cheetos Bowl. This idea that a good football team is beneficial to students is a myth-- and a silly one when you think about it. You may be shocked to learn that degrees from Cal Tech, Rice, Duke, NYU and Vanderbilt are considered highly desirable by grad schools and employers, even though the school's football teams are mostly horrible.
If someone cares about academics and education, he should be glad at the new focus. If someone wants the school to retain old Paterno football as center of power, he cares only about football.
Do you ever wonder why MIT doesn't have a Division I football team, even though they could easily afford one as they have a larger endowment than Penn State and Alabama put together? Because they feel their mission is *gasp* educating their students.
College athletics can be a good thing, going to your school's games is nice, but it is bad for the university and its students when football dominates the school as it did at Penn State. And at other schools.
Last edited by drc; 07-27-2012 at 12:00 PM.
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07-27-2012, 11:36 AM
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