Sports, money and other troubling combinations

Sports, even at the non-professional collegiate level, involves an obscene amount of money. From the amount it costs to back the football team - their trainers to steak dinners - to the amount of revenue such a high-profile creates, the volume of money going both in and out of the athletic department amazes me. The Nike Deal, the Big House renovations, the cost of parking on football Saturdays... everything sports-related at this school just smells expensive to me.

Emily Achenbaum Diamond in the Rough

But the athletes don't get to touch the millions they help generate for the University or the profit apparel makers earn off selling their namesake jerseys. It doesn't seem quite fair that somebody is making a killing off top University athletes. Yet in order for our sports teams to be ethical, players can't get "benefits."

Universities want their student-athletes to be students first, athletes second. We want them to be "amateurs," that is, competing for the thrill of it. Not professionals, willing to sell themselves to the highest bidder. We want our athletes to win in an unadulterated way (hence the drug tests).

They are supposed to attend as many classes as I do, even if they aren't attending the University for academic purposes, but for a ticket to the NFL or NBA. Academics are important - that's what a university is for. But there's nothing wrong with admitting that we're all here for different reasons. The purity expected of these students can be pretty unrealistic - and borders on exploitive.

The athletic department, which is financialy independent from the University, has too much of a free rein - and both sides are at fault. University President Lee Bollinger's opting to exclude himself from the decision to fire ex-basketball head coach Steve Fisher neglected one of his fundamental duties as University president.

As an example, it was Bollinger's job to hire new Athletic Director Tom Goss - if he so desired, he could fire Goss along with every other administrator, faculty member and staffer at will. As the president of the University, it is Bollinger's duty to uphold the University's image. In order to accomplish this, he must be keen about every issue affecting the campus community, especially something of the basketball investigation's magnitude.

Michigan hails its athletic programs, placing them on the same level of its strong academics. It is the responsibility of the president to preside over the entire University, not certain aspects.

- Emily Achenbaum can be reached over e-mail at emilylsa@umich.edu

05-17-99