Big-Time Sports in American Universities

by Clotfelter, Charles T.

• ISBN13: 9781107004344
• ISBN10: 1107004349
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-07
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

For almost a century, big-time college sports has been a wildly popular but consistently problematic part of American higher education. The challenges it poses to traditional academic values have been recognized from the start, but they have grown more ominous in recent decades, as cable television has become ubiquitous, commercial opportunities have proliferated, and athletic budgets have ballooned. Drawing on new research findings, this book takes a fresh look at the role of commercial sports in American universities. It shows that, rather than being the inconsequential student activity that universities often imply that it is, big-time sports has become a core function of the universities that engage in it. For this reason, the book takes this function seriously and presents evidence necessary for a constructive perspective about its value. Although big-time sports surely creates worrying conflicts in values, it also brings with it some surprising positive consequences.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. viii
List of Tables	p. x
Preface	p. xi
Glossary of Abbreviations and Terms	p. xvii
Commercial Sports as a University Function
Strange Bedfellows	p. 3
Priorities	p. 23
The Bigness of ôBig Timeö	p. 43
The Uses of Big-Time College Sports
Consumer Good, Mass Obsession	p. 69
Commercial Enterprise	p. 94
Institution Builder	p. 125
Beacon for Campus Culture	p. 152
Reckoning
Ends and Means	p. 177
Prospects for Reform	p. 207
Appendix	p. 223
Notes	p. 249
References	p. 293
Index	p. 303
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