The Death of College Sports

College sports have changed dramatically in the last few weeks, but not because of anything that's happening on the field or court.

Pittsburgh and Syracuse bolted from the Big East Conference and have decided to join the ACC. The Big 12 Conference is slowly disintegrating. Long-time rivalries, such as Texas vs. Texas A&M, may go poof before the fans have a chance to dust off their parking lot grills.

The reason? Money, of course. Specifically money generated from television. A few large conferences have signed highly lucrative TV contracts to broadcast college football. Other conferences have established or are looking to establish TV networks of their own, taking queues from professional teams-- such as the Yankees-- that have turned TV into a profitable side-enterprise to the gloves and dirt on the diamond. Universities want their own pay dirt from these deals and are looking to change their conference allegiances, as necessary.

Don't get me wrong. College sports have long been professional pursuits, and individual teams have been violating the spirit of college's amateur status for years. The demise of former Ohio State University football coach Jim Tressel hit deep in the core of even the most optimistic football fan. Everyone, it seems, cheats to get ahead, and then hides behind apologies and nuances when the moves are uncovered. To quote UCONN basketball coach Jim Calhoun, "We may have broken rules...but we don't cheat."

The doublethink behind the obfuscation of responsibility demonstrated by college teams--these are, after all, teams of students who are allegedly learning about life from their coaches--means bad things for the actual spirit of the college game. Then again, I am being very naive. College sports got sick long ago. The latest moves are just symptoms that the disease has metastasized.

Consider the thousands of athletes that that are playing college sports for the right reason-- for a chance at a college degree and the scholarship that helps pay for it. These gymnasts, wrestlers, softball players and participants in numerous other sports-- they occupy a place the New York Times labels as "non revenue" teams. Given the expected changes in conference alignments, these true student athletes now will be forced to travel long distances to participate. Baylor, which is in Texas, might join the Big East, which includes the University of Connecticut.

I have done the flight from New England to Texas. I can't imagine being a college athlete having to take that flight, play in a contest (let's say men's tennis), then fly back home in time to study for a midterm exam. Geographic boundaries have no place in the new era of college sports, the students themselves be damned.

The original purpose of the college scholarship, to recognize the dedicated student-athlete who might need a little financial help to get a degree...well that all seems so juvenile now. You either generate revenue in college athletics, or you don't really matter.

In this mindset, enter the laughable state of athletics at my Alma Mater, Boston University. Alumni joke that the BU football team has not lost a game in over a decade. Football was eliminated in 1997. And while we are derided by other college grads for our own athletic pursuits, I now think BU students are clearly better off. BU cannot be distracted by the hullabaloo happening elsewhere.

Ironically enough, it is at BU-- a school with no football program-- that some of the most groundbreaking research regarding football concussions is taking place. BU's research was cited in league-union negotiations during the recent NFL lockout; the university is helping to make football a safer sport. BU's decision to terminate its own football program has inevitably made its own campus safer for academics, free from the harm of professional college football.

The seismic symptoms within the college athletic apparatus are happening fast, and the governing bodies seemed powerless to get in the way. College sports are not regulated. Which means greed and American capitalism can run their course. As Gordon Gekko famously put it, "Greed is good."

The Day The Tower Fell

Boston University Campus

Boston, Mass.

November 29, 2008

It's almost as if they wanted it done by the dark of night. The radio antenna above the Boston University College of Communication came down today, on a Saturday when most of the campus was empty, the students still away celebrating the long holiday weekend.

Not that the moment really means much to non-BU students and grads. The eye-sore antenna hasn't been functioning since the 1950's, and back then, WBUR (now Boston's NPR affiliate) was the University's student radio station. However, the tower symbolized COM, as we all call the College. Its removal has sparked somewhat of a debate on campus, since the BU president recently ordered a construction freeze. A well-written story in BU's student newspaper, The Daily Free Press, talks about other unsightly architecture on the campus that should face a similar fate, even during the freeze. (I love the reference to tearing down the BU Law Tower; as the famous BU joke goes: "The best view of Boston is from the high floors of the BU Law Tower, because you can't see the Law Tower.")

I saw the antenna coming down today as I was walking from Louie's, where I have gotten my hair cut since I started at BU. Maybe only a BU COM grad can understand, but it was somewhat of a poignant, if accidental moment. We recognize COM by the antenna in diametrically opposed ways. You think radio, of course, when you see it, but its derelict status always reminded the COM student of the equally decrepit halls of the building itself.

Tribute: Jack Falla

Boston University Professor Jack Falla passed away a week ago. He suffered a heart attack on September 14 while in Maine with his family. It is impossible for me to put in proper perspective the number of lives Professor Falla touched during his years as an author, PR professional and university professor.

A commenter on a new Facebook group honoring Falla put it best: Jack Falla taught everyone that for life it is worth getting up in the morning. He would teach a sports journalism class that met at 8 a.m. He meant it to wean out the non-committed.

Professor Falla taught me, as I enrolled in his publicity course when I was a sophomore at BU. The class didn't meet at 8. However, Professor Falla had absolutely no sympathy for those who showed up late. I remember one day when a few people came into class five minutes late, and Professor Falla reminded them to be on time. "Leave earlier," was his quick response when one tardy student noted that the T train was running behind. To this day, I can't stand it when I show up late for a meeting, and I owe that to Professor Falla.

Above all, Professor Falla had a love of life, his profession and his students. He made his class fun. Everyone talked about him and his ways of helping former students. Professor Falla's door was always open.

Professor Falla often made sports analogies while he taught. When he took attendance, he read from the "roster." Well, the roster that is Jack Falla's is several encyclopedia books in length, and it would be hard to find any on that list that don't remember him. And remember him fondly.

Professor Jack Falla was 62 years old.