On 6/9/2011 7:18 AM, Swingman wrote:
....
Speaking for myself only, this fixation on sports in our culture, and
particularly in our schools, has gotten completely out of hand. ...
... carrying a ball over a chalk
line in front of 50,000 other dufi, is totally inane, disgusting, a
waste of time, a waste of money, and an abomination.
....

I'll agree in part w/ Bill...while they've grown and TV revenues
dominate excessively, collegiate athletics in the US are a tremendous
generator of alumni support in real ways besides the obvious of fans in
the stadium on Saturday afternoon.

My alma mater was a complete doormat in a major conference for years
until quite some time after I had matriculated a new President made the
commitment to finally turn the program around and managed to do so.

The support to the university in all academic areas that followed was
not to be believed--success instills an awareness and commitment to
ensure success in other areas as well that for some reason is seemingly
nearly if not impossible to generate by simply appealing to the
straightforward campaign approach.

I don't agree that it's necessarily a capitalistic phenomenon alone,
however; one only has to look at the prominence in definitely
non-capitalistic countries for confirmation of that.

Back to the OPs comment, while as noted before I think the NBA form of
basketball is a terrible sport, I do pay at least a modicum of attention
(in large part because of limited over-the-air viewing, if there's going
to be anything at all on, it'll be it w/ the sound down while either
listen to a local baseball semi-pro broadcast and/or reading...

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