Intercollegiate sports, particularly football and basketball, have ever so slowly, over the years, inserted themselves insidiously into the fabric of most universities with the support of alumni, the business community,…
Fifty years ago, I entered the University of Tennessee-Knoxville as a freshman scholarship runner on its high-profile track team. The NCAA held athletes to a strict amateur code in which…
The importance of college football to university education is vastly overrated. Rather than an integral part of the college experience, football means more student debt, another burden for taxpayers, and…
College athletics is big business. And head coaches of successful teams have the salaries to prove it, particularly in football and men’s basketball. Although sports are canceled, for now, it’s…
College admissions standards are meant to determine whether a student is academically prepared to succeed at college. Colleges also have Minimum Admissions Requirements (MARs) and Minimum Course Requirements (MCRs), which…
Fans in the Carolinas are crazy about college sports. Six schools in the Carolinas boast membership in the “Power Five” Atlantic Coast or Southeastern Conferences, and they often perform quite…
Jenna A. Robinson, President Jacques Barzun’s magnum opus, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, has been a revelation—of my own inadequate history education. As the title says,…
People who analyze and write about higher education generally fall into two camps. One camp consists of those who believe that our system is “the envy of the world” and…
Public universities in North Carolina can’t fund their athletic budgets from only ticket and merchandise sales; they must use subsidies to foot the rest of the bill. Sometimes the extra…
It is increasingly apparent that college basketball serves as an unofficial minor league for the National Basketball Association (NBA) rather than as an extracurricular activity for students. And it is…