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<div class="articleHeadlineBox headlineType-newswire"><ul class="cMetadata metadataType-articleStamp"><li class="articleSection first"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-sports-scores.html">SPORTS</a></li><li class="dateStamp">May 4, 2012, 6:35 p.m. ET</li></ul>
<h1>Why College Football Should Be Banned
</h1><h2 class="subhead">The costs are high, the benefits to students are low, argues <strong>Buzz Bissinger</strong>. And academics pay the price</h2></div>
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<div id="article_story_body" class="article story"><div class="articlePage"><h3 class="byline">By <a href="http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=BUZZ+BISSINGER&bylinesearch=true">BUZZ BISSINGER</a>
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<div class="insetContent embedType-image imageFormat-F"><div class="insetTree"><div class="insettipUnit"><img src="http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-SV904_footba_F_20120504183008.jpg" alt="[football]" border="0" height="226" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="571">
<cite>NCAA Photos</cite>
<div class="targetCaption">The average student gets nothing from football programs that remain sacrosanct despite tuition increases.</div>
</div></div></div><a name="U6039605014950TF"></a><div>In more
than 20 years I've spent studying the issue, I have yet to hear a
convincing argument that college football has anything do with what is
presumably the primary purpose of higher education: academics.</div>
<a name="U603960501495TME"></a><div>That's because college football has no
academic purpose. Which is why it needs to be banned. A radical
solution, yes. But necessary in today's times. </div>
<a name="U603960501495BD"></a><div>Football only provides the thickest
layer of distraction in an atmosphere in which colleges and universities
these days are all about distraction, nursing an obsession with the
social well-being of students as opposed to the obsession that they are
there for the vital and single purpose of learning as much as they can
to compete in the brutal realities of the global economy.</div><div><br></div>
<a name="U603960501495UYD"></a><div>Who
truly benefits from college football? Alumni who absurdly judge the
quality of their alma mater based on the quality of the football team.
Coaches such as Nick Saban of the University of Alabama and Bob Stoops
of Oklahoma University who make obscene millions. The players themselves
don't benefit, exploited by a system in which they don't receive a dime
of compensation. The average student doesn't benefit, particularly when
football programs remain sacrosanct while tuition costs show no signs
of abating as many governors are slashing budgets to the bone.</div><div><br></div>
<a name="U6039605014951CE"></a><div>If the vast majority of major college
football programs made money, the argument to ban football might be a
more precarious one. But too many of them don't—to the detriment of
academic budgets at all too many schools. According to the NCAA, 43% of
the 120 schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision lost money on their
programs. This is the tier of schools that includes such examples as
that great titan of football excellence, the University of Alabama at
Birmingham Blazers, who went 3-and-9 last season. The athletic
department in 2008-2009 took in over $13 million in university funds and
student fees, largely because the football program cost so much, The
Wall Street Journal reported. New Mexico State University's athletic
department needed a 70% subsidy in 2009-2010, largely because Aggie
football hasn't gotten to a bowl game in 51 years. Outside of Las
Cruces, where New Mexico State is located, how many people even know
that the school has a football program? None, except maybe for some
savvy contestants on "Jeopardy." What purpose does it serve on a
university campus? None.</div>
<a name="U603960501495CKI"></a><div>The most recent example is the
University of Maryland. The president there, Wallace D. Loh, late last
year announced that eight varsity programs would be cut in order to
produce a leaner athletic budget, a kindly way of saying that the school
would rather save struggling football and basketball programs than keep
varsity sports such as track and swimming, in which the vast majority
of participants graduate.</div>
<blockquote><div>If you want to establish a minor league system that the National Football League pays for—which they should—that is fine.
<cite class="tagline"></cite>
</div></blockquote><a name="U603960501495YQD"></a><div>Part of
the Maryland football problem: a $50.8 million modernization of its
stadium in which too many luxury suites remain unsold. Another problem:
The school reportedly paid $2 million to buy out head coach Ralph
Friedgen at the end of the 2010 season, even though he led his team to a
9-and-4 season and was named Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the
Year. Then, the school reportedly spent another $2 million to hire Randy
Edsall from the University of Connecticut, who promptly produced a
record of 2-and-10 last season.</div><div><br></div>
<a name="U603960501495L3H"></a><div>In an interview with the Baltimore Sun
in March, Mr. Loh said that the athletic department was covering
deficits, in large part caused by attendance drops in football and
basketball, by drawing upon reserves that eventually dwindled to zero.
Hence cutting the eight sports.</div>
<a name="U603960501495HOC"></a><div>This is just the tip of the iceberg.
There are the medical dangers of football in general caused by head
trauma over repetitive hits. There is the false concept of the football
student-athlete that the NCAA endlessly tries to sell, when any major
college player will tell you that the demands of the game, a year-round
commitment, makes the student half of the equation secondary and
superfluous. There are the scandals that have beset programs in the
desperate pursuit of winning—the University of Southern California, Ohio
State University, University of Miami and Penn State University among
others. <br></div><div><br></div>
<a name="U603960501495Q0D"></a><div>I can't help but wonder how a student
at the University of Oregon will cope when in-state tuition has recently
gone up by 9% and the state legislature passed an 11% decrease in
funding to the Oregon system overall for 2011 and 2012. Yet thanks to
the largess of Nike founder Phil Knight, an academic center costing
$41.7 million, twice as expensive in square footage as the toniest
condos in Portland, has been built for the University of Oregon football
team.</div>
<a name="U603960501495B6F"></a><div>Always important to feed those Ducks.</div><div><br></div>
<a name="U603960501495LDB"></a><div>I actually like football a great deal.
I am not some anti-sports prude. It has a place in our society, but not
on college campuses. If you want to establish a minor league system
that the National Football League pays for—which they should, given that
they are the greatest beneficiaries of college football—that is fine. </div>
<a name="U6039605014956JG"></a><div>Call me the Grinch. But I would much
prefer students going to college to learn and be prepared for the rigors
of the new economic order, rather than dumping fees on them to
subsidize football programs that, far from enhancing the academic
mission instead make a mockery of it.</div>
<cite class="tagline">—Mr. Bissinger is the author of "Friday Night
Lights." He will participate in a debate Tuesday evening at New York
University, sponsored by Intelligence Squared, in which he and Malcolm
Gladwell will argue that college football should be banned. (<a class="" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303916904577375890074638950.html">See Ideas Calendar</a>)</cite>
<div class="articleVersion">A version of this article appeared May 5,
2012, on page C3 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with
the headline: Why College Football Should Be Banned.</div></div>
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