Terra Extraneus

Two “college students” broke NCAA and University rules and were “dismissed” from the football team of the University of Oklahoma this week. The state and local media have been overrun with stories about it and from the drying ink you would think a crisis of devastating consequences had been addressed.

Because I did not attend either OU or OSU, although I paid for someone else to obtain a degree from OU and I am paying for someone else to do the same at OSU, I have never been able to comprehend fully the emotions that seem to attach to these local teams. However, some of the most ardent fans, and sometimes the most annoying, also did not attend either school. Confront one of these fans about the reason(s) for their loyalty or fervor with great trepidation. I have theorized that some of this emotion is somehow linked to state pride rather than school pride. But, in any case, it is a great mystery.

Given the amount of money OU and OSU consume, the return on investment has been less than one might reasonably have expected. Given the economies of scale businesses, governments and the military have been able to achieve in Oklahoma through lower operating costs due to cheaper land, water, energy and labor, OU and OSU should have accomplished more than just a football heritage.

Neither OU nor OSU has ever won a national debate championship. Academic competition teams and research writing competitions are either not reported or are not being won. In either event, expectations should be high given the economics possible in Oklahoma and given their budgets. Oklahoma’s smaller regional universities have managed to be successful in these areas, and they assuredly have less budgetal depth than OU and OSU.

Thus, while the new scars on Oklahoma’s football powers will likely heal, and fans will likely be faithful in that eternal mantra of all sports fans, that next year will be the year, one has to wonder if it should ever be so for schools? Rather than ever and only worrying about whether a football player might succumb to temptation and sink the team or the program, should not, in the media and the public mind, these two schools be required to justify their budgets and their preeminence academically? Should not this justification be required often rather than only as an after thought?

I did not attend any of Oklahoma’s private universities, so there may be a rational limit to the theory, but should not anything non-academic achievable by private universities, including training NFL recruits, be left to them and the taxpayers relieved of the duty? I am not suggesting that sports programs are not legitimate educational program, indeed, to the contrary, we probably need them now more than in the past. But, we do not need government funded universities to compete for television contracts by recruiting football players rather than students.