Duke Lacrosse?

The scandal at Duke University is only the tip of the iceberg. The problem is not rich, privledged white boys gone wild. That problem has always and will always exist. The problem is college sports.

At what point in history did the institutions of higher learning, those institutions whose first order of business is to serve and protect civilization, tie their fortunes to the 18-22 year old athletes?

Contrary to the myth, college sports produce very little in the way of revenue. Research indicates that only a few (about 25-30) elite football schools operate athletic departments that operate in the black. For the majority of colleges and universities, athletics is net financial loss. So why are virtually all American colleges and universities so hell bent building and maintaining their athletic programs.

Unfortunately, the answer is still money. But it isn’t the direct revenue stream that you have been led to believe.

The general populace, which funds higher education through regular citizens taxes, tuition, direct gifts and garments bearing the college logos, has never had much interest in education, or the service and protection of civilization. Most citizens get bored with discussions of genetics, mathematical theory, literary theory, particle physics, and art history. But the citizenry loves sport. In particular, they like football, but many can be enticed to watch the other sports as well. Even most Duke University graduates don’t know about the two new literature professors Duke just hired, but they know who the basketball coach is, and they know that Duke’s lacrosse team is ranked in the top 5. That is, until the team embarrassed itself with a series of extra curricular activities so boorish that team members are finally facing court dates.

By maintaining a sporting presence, the universities essentially justify their existence to the general populace. Colleges have joined the entertainment industry. And this industry justifies their existence to the people who support them. Few citizens of Georgia would care that the University of Georgia was planning to eliminate its philosophy department. But there would be thousands of letters to the state congress, the governor and the president of the university, if it were planning to eliminate its football program.

The result, our colleges give athletes a lot of rope academically and socially. Universities dramatically lower academic standards for athletes, because the athletes are the connection between the university and the populace. For the same reason, the university is likely to overlook misbehavior, until that misbehavior creates enough bad publicity to offset the positive publicity created by the athletic program.

It is often argued that the college athletes don’t behave any worse than the average student and certainly this is true. But the average student doesn’t matter because the average student isn’t part of the college entertainment industry that funds the institution.

So long as colleges and universities are tied to the populace in this fashion, great institutions like Duke University will be susceptible to the misbehavior of a handful drunk lacrosse players.