My little brain at work...

[lmanchur.]

(this is my 200th post... woo hoo!.. this one will probably make a few people angry since college football is like a religion down there, but I just have to bring this up...)

I put my brain to work (which can sometimes be a scary thing ;)) after watching the January 2nd edition of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC.

On it, they had one of their regular features, "Jaywalking," where they interview people on the streets and ask them SIMPLE questions... this time, they interviewed players on the Washington Huskies and the Perdu (whatever-they-are). Questions they asked varios players were: "Who is Washington state named after?", "What is the capital of Washington?", "What is the capital of California?", "Does Washington state border a foreign country?", and "Does California border a foreign country?".

Now, they asked various players these questions, and TWO of them got ONE right answer.

This is my theory: these colleges should put millions and millions of dollars into education funding rather than into their football and basketball programs, especially since I knew ALL of the answers to these above questions except for "What is the capital of Washington?".

Did anyone else see this? It was pathetic.

[iFroggy]

Now, I'm not discounting what you saw. But, everything, or most of everything, you see on TV is a production. If people get the wrong answers, viewers laugh and enjoy it more then them getting them right. They could have been told to say things wrong or they wouldn't be on TV or they could have just aired mostly wrong answers and a few right ones, things to that extent.

Just something to think about. :)

[lmanchur.]

Have you never watched Jay Leno before!?... these guys aren't acting, and they do this "Jaywalking" segment every week, usually Tuesdays (although they did probably interview a lot of the players, and most of them got them right, but they just showed the 5 or 6 that got them wrong).

However, BEFORE watching Jay Leno on Tuesday, I I turned to every American network I had available to me during the afternoon on Monday and all I saw were college bowl games, and during that time I still thought to myself that all the universities & colleges down there would be better off putting more money into education than sports... I mean, is that not what college is about!?

[Tom Baker]

Hmmm, I don't know. I'm not sure how people can't know who Washington was named for and what the state capital is--especially people who go to school in said capital--but there are quite a few ignorant people in the world.

All you have to do is look at the dollars being paid out by the bowl games and the BCS to realize why schools don't put millions more into their academic / educational programs instead of pumping up athletics. Bowls and big-ticket sports generate millions for the universities. Much of those dollars go back into the athletic departments themselves, to keep the programs on the cutting edge and upgrade facilities so schools can stay in line for richer paydays yet to come. (as the old saying goes: you have to spend money to make money) But SOME of those dollars do trickle down into academic programs and other developments for the student body at large (read: non-athletes). I know because it happened when I was in school. Some is better than nothing.

The reality is that in the Rose Bowl Monday night there were over 90,000 paid attendees for a football game. Millions more watched on TV. If a school sponsored a physics problem-solving tournament or a calculus contest, it could be held in one of the Rose Bowl locker rooms and have more than enough room for everyone who wanted to see it. Not saying that's right, that's just the way it is.

As far as ignorant people representing a university--well, I'd be embarrassed if I was Washington's president or on their board of trustees and some students couldn't answer such basic questions. But there's nothing that says having a college education automatically makes you intelligent. I know plenty of people holding degrees (even Master's degrees!) who I hold in contempt for their ignorance; on the flip side, one of the most brilliant people I know of holds only a G.E.D. and had to go back to school years later to earn even that.

Jay Leno showed a small sample of ignorance, on the part of few players. It was probably designed to make us laugh and to illuminate some problems with the "higher" education system at the same time. But outside of college there are people of every stripe wandering around, some of them foolish, some very smart. Life has all kinds.

[lmanchur.]

Well, whatever... I was just thinking that if the USA has over 200 million people living in it as citizens, you guys could be a whole lot smarter pumping more money into education than college sports.

Marc and I have had a few discussions on a topic similar to this... It really must be an American thing, because I simply can't comprehend WHY you all love college football and basketball. Someone please explain this to me... a university football stadium with a capacity of 90,000 people just makes no sense to build in Canada with a live audience of about 1,000 and a TV audience of about two. :)

[Tom Baker]

College football and basketball have been around longer than pro sports. Some colleges have been fielding football teams for 110 years or more. Basketball was envisoned as an amateur sport.

I can only speak for myself as to why I love college over pro--quite simply, the college game isn't a bunch of overpaid behemoths beating each other up for money. College basketball is much truer to the ideal version of basketball--zone defenses, a longer shot clock, and a pace that favors teamwork over individual highlights. Although the line between college and pro sports seems to get a little blurrier every year (a lot of college players are really just minor leaguers), in general there seems to be more pride in college sports. Even though most college players only have four years of eligibility, you don't have players switching teams every season or two for a better contract.

That's just me, though.

[lmanchur.]

College football and basketball have been around longer than pro sports. Some colleges have been fielding football teams for 110 years or more. Basketball was envisoned as an amateur sport.... College basketball is much truer to the ideal version of basketball--zone defenses, a longer shot clock, and a pace that favors teamwork over individual highlights..... Even though most college players only have four years of eligibility, you don't have players switching teams every season or two for a better contract.

Okay... that makes a lot of sense and I see where you are coming from... agreeing with you so far, but I question this part of your statement:

...the college game isn't a bunch of overpaid behemoths beating each other up for money.

You do realize, though, that these players are playing for the big-league scouts, hoping to one day make it to the NFL and NBA, looking for big-dollar Nike contracts and multi-million dollar salaries with pro clubs? :)

[Nate]

It would be nice if your "little brain" knew how to spell PURDUE! ;)

Just thought you might like to know... :)

btw, Purdue's mascot is the Boilermakers.

[iFroggy]

Lee... I don't LOVE college sports. In fact, I don't like them. lol :)

[Tom Baker]

Originally posted by SC-Lee
You do realize, though, that these players are playing for the big-league scouts, hoping to one day make it to the NFL and NBA, looking for big-dollar Nike contracts and multi-million dollar salaries with pro clubs? :) [/B]

SOME of them are...the odds of a college player making it to the NFL or NBA are long at best. There are typically 85 scholarship players on a college football team, and if even 25% of those had any shot at all at a pro career, that would be an extraordinarily high number. The odds of even being drafted by the pros are usually (this isn't scientific, just what I've heard) somewhere around 2 in 10. That's just to be drafted--to actually make a team is even steeper. The majority of college athletes have little or no shot at playing pro ball.

[lmanchur.]

oic... so how does one get on a major league team!?

...and even if I can't spell Purde or Purdue or whatever, I at least know that both Washington state and California border foreign countires :)

[Tom Baker]

Supply enormously outweighs demand when we're talking about college players getting to the pros. There are 115 teams in NCAA division I-A football, the highest division (i.e., the Florida States, Oklahomas, Washingtons,etc). Each team has around 85 scholarship players. Not every player on every team is draft eligible (the NFL rarely considers drafting anyone below a junior), but let's say 50% of them are. That's about 5000 players who could be trying for a pro career. Probably less than half of these even have the skills to play in the pros, but never mind that for now. Add another 1000 to 2000 or so (again, this is highly unscientific) from the lower divisions (1-AA, II, and III)and you're talking about a pool of around 6000 to 7000 football players who *WANT* to play in the NFL each year.

The NFL has about 30 teams. Assuming the roster is the same, that's around 2600 total positions on all NFL teams. Only a small segment of these are up for grabs each year, as you have established veterans on some teams and an active free agent market. For this example, let's assume (very generously; the true number is probably much lower) that about 1/4 of those 2,600 total positions have openings that need to be filled via the draft. That's a max of 650 openings. Obviously 6000 doesn't fit very well into 650. So for around every 10 players trying for a pro career each year, there's room for 1-2 to make it.

So the odds of a college player making the pros are remarkably long. Some players fool themselves into thinking they have a shot when they don't, but most probably realize they'll never play at the NFL or NBA level. Some catch on with other leagues (arena football, World League, CFL, now the XFL) but most know they have no realistic chance and move on to something else.

The same theory generally holds true for basketball and baseball, (and probably hockey, to a lesser extent) although baseball teams don't have the same size rosters as football, and basketball teams certainly don't.

[lmanchur.]

Okay now you are making sense to me!

...so is there no minor leagues for the NFL or NBA? I've never heard of any (except for the IBA (International Basektball Assosication) -- I think... Manitoba has a team in that league). -- do all the players come from college teams?

...in hockey, some players come from college or universities, but most come through the Canadian Hockey League (weird that the CHL also has franchises in America) and the Americna Hockey League (weird that the AHL also has franchises in Canada), so is there anything like that for the NFL and NBA?

[Marc]

Originally posted by SC-Lee
Okay now you are making sense to me!

...so is there no minor leagues for the NFL or NBA? I've never heard of any (except for the IBA (International Basektball Assosication) -- I think... Manitoba has a team in that league). -- do all the players come from college teams?

...in hockey, some players come from college or universities, but most come through the Canadian Hockey League (weird that the CHL also has franchises in America) and the Americna Hockey League (weird that the AHL also has franchises in Canada), so is there anything like that for the NFL and NBA?
There are no official "minor leagues", but in the NBA, there is the CBA, and in the NFL, the AFL (should I add XFL to the list? :))

The way it works is if the players aren't good enough out of college, they aren't good enough, period. It's extremely rare for a player to go to a "minor league" before going pro in the states.

[Rick Dogg]

I have seen Jay Leno before and it is obvious that they say the wrong answers on pupose. And even if they didnt, look around the NHL, those players don't look like scholar's either. You also brought up money, well hockey players get paid to. College sports are great to watch because of all the rivalries, excitement, and the NCAA Tournament(in basketball) Fact is, basketball is world wide, hockey is stuck in Canada (and in some other places in the world too.)