Delusions of grandeur

Basketball, Electromagnetic Fields, and the Ocean (4.00 / 2)

I was an undergraduate at Rutgers in the late 60s when athletics were important but academics and research were emphasized. Sure, I was a fan, especially of basketball, as players like Jim Valvano and Bob Lloyd excited the campus. I remember going to the National Invitational Tournament (Rutgers in post-season play was an anomaly then) and lamenting the loss in the semi-finals to Walt Frasier's Southern Illinois University. But my hero back then was Rutgers' Nobel Laureate Selman Waksman who was a trailblazer in the field of microbiology. Another hero was Professor Charlie Longo, who wrote a seminal text on electromagnetic fields and was able to tie the complex mathematics to the real world for this budding engineer.

First and foremost, Rutgers is a university - devoted to academics and research. We are still the world leader in certain areas like Dr. Scott Glenn's exciting work with autonomous submarines studying the effect of global climate change on the ocean.

Intercollegiate athletics has its place, but the emphasis on winning and revenue is way too high. We need to celebrate victories in the classroom and the laboratory - and support them both, as much as we support the Scarlet Knights.

Blog: http://www.deciminyan.org

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by: deciminyan @ Tue Nov 01, 2011 at 12:38:11 PM UTC

It's all about money (4.00 / 1)

Getting into a conference with an automatic BCS berth means millions for the school.  Which means less support from the state.  That's true even if you're an also ran in the conference.

Because of the money, football needs dictate.  The Big East would still be a good basketball conference because of the nonfootball schools.  But basketball doesn't bring in the money that football does.  Anyway, when's the last time they did anything in basketball.

An argument can certainly be made that Rutgers shouldn't be in big time athletics, and be more like, say, a UMass.  But it's tough to put the genie back in the bottle.  When I was at Rutgers, basketball was king.  But then the school pass up a chance to join the Big East for dreams of an all sports conference.  They sacrificed basketball for football.  It's been that way for nearly 40 years.

If they're going to stay in the "big time," the Big East is no longer the place to be.  Even academically.  South Florida?  UCF?  Not Syracuse or Pitt.  The ACC would be the best home for Rutgers (and Connecticut).

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by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Tue Nov 01, 2011 at 16:57:15 PM UTC

Dumbing Down Rutgers For Cash.... (0.00 / 0)

....is not the answer.

Let's face it, much of college athletics has become a semi-pro cash cow that cheapens and demeans the actual/real propose of going to college.

There's a place for college sports...but to let the money drive the process at the expense of academics is beyond counterproductive.

Better to put together a notional plan that gives every student in America what California already had prior to the influence of then Governor Reagan......a free public education for all who qualified for college admission.  

We should be focusing on ELIMINATING the student debt crisis that has millions of young American in virtual indentured servitude instead of nonsense like expanding semi-pro athletic entertainments in lieu of educational policy.  

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by: Nick Lento @ Wed Nov 02, 2011 at 15:55:12 PM UTC