[Vision2020] Separation of Sport and State (was: Coach Gets Top Idaho Salary)

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Friday 02 January 2009 06:09:03 Tom Hansen wrote:
> Courtesy of today's (January 2, 2009) Spokesman Review.
>
> Coach gets top Idaho salary
> Among state employees, top 10 wage-earners work in education
>
> BOISE – Idaho’s highest-paid state employee isn’t the governor, a
> university president or a key scientist – it’s Boise State University
> head football coach Chris Petersen.

Why is it that intercollegiate athletics coaches and staffs are on the state 
(university) payroll at all? With all due respect to the U of I's somewhat 
better record of encouraging student-athletes' academic performances and 
graduations, generally speaking, the recent connection between collegiate 
academics and athletics has been more suspect than substantive. Rather than 
intermingle funds between two dissimilar functions, public entertainment and 
public education, why not require intercollegiate athletics to be conducted 
within the auspices of corporations separate and distinct from the schools 
with which they are nominally affiliated? This would allow the sporting 
franchises to succeed or fail on their own terms, and not require taxpayer 
subsidies forced from those who would rather not participate, thank you very 
much. It would also allow a separation of sport and state that likely would 
be better for both, allowing each to tend to its own interests better.


Ken