Re:A coach is probably the highest-paid public employee in y...
by jofer on Friday May 10, 2013 @01:01PM
(#5687337)
Good point.
However, alumni donations are often strongly correlated to the performance of the sports teams (at universities with traditions of popular sports teams, anyway). Donations are a non-trivial part of a university's income stream.
Also, a prestigious sports team can definitely boost undergraduate enrollment. It's effective advertising, as several people have pointed out.
From an academic standpoint, I've seen the bad side of popular sports teams (_Heavy_ pressure on professors and TA's to give star players high grades despite a complete lack of attendance.). I personally feel like most (particularly in the southeast US) of the large schools with popular sports teams have absolutely awful undergraduate programs. That's partly just a function of being a large university, though.
There are certainly negatives along with the positives.
However, alumni donations are often strongly correlated to the performance of the sports teams (at universities with traditions of popular sports teams, anyway). Donations are a non-trivial part of a university's income stream.
Also, a prestigious sports team can definitely boost undergraduate enrollment. It's effective advertising, as several people have pointed out.
From an academic standpoint, I've seen the bad side of popular sports teams (_Heavy_ pressure on professors and TA's to give star players high grades despite a complete lack of attendance.). I personally feel like most (particularly in the southeast US) of the large schools with popular sports teams have absolutely awful undergraduate programs. That's partly just a function of being a large university, though.
There are certainly negatives along with the positives.