Dr. Richard Vedder, Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Ohio University and Director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, wrote a column for Forbes on “The Cost Of Ball Throwing Contests.”
For some reason, American universities are obsessed with balls–footballs, basketballs, baseballs, volleyballs. Collectively, they literally spend billions of dollars promoting contests where balls are thrown, hit, kicked, shot, batted, or otherwise manipulated. To be momentarily alliterative, nowhere else in the world do advanced academic institutions possess a propensity for this peculiar perverse proclivity.
Why? The ball throwing contests can be immensely entertaining, even riveting. I have spent several hours in the past week watching or listening to my Ohio University Bobcats upset Toledo, and to Ohio State narrowly beat my alma mater Northwestern–almost as many hours as I have watched the pros from Chicago and Cleveland play with a smaller ball in the World Series. Highly visible sports contests increase the name recognition of universities–how many people would know much about Notre Dame if it were not for football? For the athletes involved there are some lifelong benefits: intercollegiate competition develops discipline, endurance, even leadership qualities–but so do the armed forces or participation in university theater productions, choral ensembles, or student stock investing groups.
Dr. Richard Vedder
Yet all of this comes at a horrible price–both monetary and in terms of a loss of moral standing.
Comments