Extensive study of attendance in football

[donovan]

College athletics is a scholarship program. It is a way someone who maybe couldn't qualify another way or couldn't afford it could go to school. I have no problem increasing the stipend they get because the amount of time they put in and the NCAA rules make it hard for them to get a part time job while going to school like many other kids. I am not for paying them under a personal services contract for the sport. That would make them professional athletes and most of these kids aren't going to in the NFL.

I am a big proponent of giving athletes, all sports, a stipend for incidental expenses. Not sure what the figure is today, 200 bucks, 300 a month.....something. I know there are students that can not take athletic scholarships because they do not have any source of money to exist at school, even when room and board, tuition and books are paid. They are not allowed to work during their sport. So absolutely we need reform. But I am oppose to any NFL model for college. Including scheduling models.

[Spence]

We agree. I believe if the NFL wants a farm club they have the money to do it. The schools need to run it lime a scholarship program that creates their own endowment.

[WoVeU]

The NFL should consider taking the opportunity to lead in needed reform. They (and the NBA) should partner with Technical Schools and targeted Community Colleges and run their own Junior League, that says what it is, "Football First". Where the kids primary job is football, paid of course, but they must take certain basic classes over the course of 2 or 3 years. Basic Economics, Micro, Macro, Principles of Finance, Accounting, Sociology, and some classes in trades of interest, electronics, mechanics, culinary, etc.. Something to give these kids applicable life skills. Then maybe we can quit fooling ourselves (read very few) that we need these 100's of obtuse degree plans.

[billybud]

Let's not kid ourselves...College football is big time entertainment business.

When Leagues sign billion dollar contracts with the media...there is no longer pretending it is anythin akin to my school days where one game a week was shown in black and white and the bowl games could be watched on New Years day after lunch...jocks were still jocks and usually not scholars....but most people who watched college football back in the day did so from the stands. Even Bama with Joe Namath wasn't on the TV that much. I listened on the radio.

I do not bemoan that change..in fact, I think that we have been in college footballs golden age.

[Spence]

It is big time entertaiment. Even so. It is also entertainment to support a scholarship program. The 100,000,000 dollars Ohio State gets to support it's athletic programs pale in comparison to the amount of money the school gets for research programs and the amount of money the school raises to support it's mission. Sports is mostly just a tool Ohio State uses to raise money.

[donovan]

And it is great entertainment. But that is not, in my opinion, it's sole purpose. I know that I beat the drum of a losing battle. I just don't like it. I think also, my friend, that we have lived in the golden age of so much. Memories of the radio are great and I am sure the ball never went quite as far in reality as it did in my mind and the receiver never caught one where he was not leaping in the air, horizontal to the ground. But TV has brought so much we could have not otherwise seen. Who did not love seeing the Berlin Wall come down, or Boise vs Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. But somehow, the fall afternoon drive to the stadium where we walked amongst the leaves and sat in the stands with our friends, laughing and giggling, cheering and crying, and have hot cider and fresh donuts by the fire later that night, has been lost to 60 games on TV and 45,344 advertisements. I know defeat for staying in the past...I just want my grandchildren to know the thrill of smelling the roses.

[WoVeU]

Just out of the "green" days and a fresh 40. And I don't think for one minute that my generation had it better (or the following.) If I could pick my mid teens to young adult years I'd place them between 1948 and 1963. More than enough technology but mom still actually made apple pie. I'd know the horror of the great war and more appreciate the bounty that followed. I wouldn't have been that Greatest Generation, but I could have walked behind in their footsteps and learned from them first hand. And the way I hear it...football was always football!

I know there was more work, and I am fully aware it was more difficult. But you could sit on a fender and adjust a carburetor!

[GoBoilers]

I still love college football but, I don't have the intensity I used to about it. The money, the off field problems seem to have gotten more frequent and bigger etc etc. While I can afford the tickets, I am actually asking myself is it worth it? I know more and more are asking themselves that question. Some of this may be from the lenses of a fan that has seen the ups and down of my own team that is certainly on a downer and I am sure that also is a factor!

[billybud]

And it is great entertainment. But that is not, in my opinion, it's sole purpose. I know that I beat the drum of a losing battle. I just don't like it. I think also, my friend, that we have lived in the golden age of so much. Memories of the radio are great and I am sure the ball never went quite as far in reality as it did in my mind and the receiver never caught one where he was not leaping in the air, horizontal to the ground. But TV has brought so much we could have not otherwise seen. Who did not love seeing the Berlin Wall come down, or Boise vs Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. But somehow, the fall afternoon drive to the stadium where we walked amongst the leaves and sat in the stands with our friends, laughing and giggling, cheering and crying, and have hot cider and fresh donuts by the fire later that night, has been lost to 60 games on TV and 45,344 advertisements. I know defeat for staying in the past...I just want my grandchildren to know the thrill of smelling the roses.

And they still can...when Oklahoma came to town last weekend, my son and I walked on campus, tailgated with any Sooner passing by, and had a great time. Listened to the pregame band concerts, chanted the warchant by Bobby's statue, etc. No falling leaves, but that has never been a Florida thing in the fall. But Matt will remember to one day take his children.

[billybud]

And it is great entertainment. But that is not, in my opinion, it's sole purpose. I know that I beat the drum of a losing battle. I just don't like it. I think also, my friend, that we have lived in the golden age of so much. Memories of the radio are great and I am sure the ball never went quite as far in reality as it did in my mind and the receiver never caught one where he was not leaping in the air, horizontal to the ground. But TV has brought so much we could have not otherwise seen. Who did not love seeing the Berlin Wall come down, or Boise vs Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. But somehow, the fall afternoon drive to the stadium where we walked amongst the leaves and sat in the stands with our friends, laughing and giggling, cheering and crying, and have hot cider and fresh donuts by the fire later that night, has been lost to 60 games on TV and 45,344 advertisements. I know defeat for staying in the past...I just want my grandchildren to know the thrill of smelling the roses.

[Derek]

Pretty interesting. It is getting easier each week now for me to be Okay going and watching the local high school team. Like my interest in professional football died...I can see that happening with collegiate ball...

I understand that, and feel that the sentiment could grow on me as well.