“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”

Isaiah 55: 6-7

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It’s Time for Higher Education in the U.S. to Pay the Fiddler

Sometimes, a short, simple statement gets to the heart of the matter. Where our nation’s institutions of higher learning are concerned, William F. Buckley, Jr. probably said it best:

“I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty.”

Buckley went to Yale. He could have said Yale, Stanford, UCLA, Northwestern, or Georgia Southern. The problem he saw has infected almost every college and university in America, and it’s eating away at their foundations like termites.

In the days ahead as the movement toward paying “student athletes” plays out, many problems in our colleges and universities will be revealed. If you focus all of your attention college athletics and “student athletes”, you will miss seeing the bigger picture. University administrators who allowed the problem in athletics to develop are the most important problems we have in academia. They should have known better, but they didn’t.

No one in his right mind would have concluded that universities would be or should be allowed to rake in billions of dollars a year indefinitely from the performance of “student athletes” many of whom shouldn’t even be in college. But that’s exactly what university administrators across the nation did for decades. Now, it’s time to pay the fiddler. University administrators fought like crazy to maintain the status quo, but the day of reckoning is finally here.

Several decades ago, I told my leadership students at the University of Virginia that universities should be honest about what they are up to in athletics. I told them that university football and basketball programs have become the minor league programs for professional football and basketball and that the “student athletes” are being used.

Winning college football and basketball teams inspire donors with deep pockets to contribute large sums of money to their alma maters, and they give their money without doing due diligence. That’s something they would never do in their professional endeavors. University administrators used their football and basketball teams to take advantage of the generosity of their alumni. It was like waving a lollypop in front of a small child.

I told my leadership students that universities should have two athletic programs that run simultaneously. One should be for legitimate student athletes who compete with student athletes at other universities. The other one should be for athletes who are not students. They should be paid for their work the same way minor league baseball players are paid.

We could call the for-profit teams university football and basketball clubs or something like that. The players don’t even need to be students. For many of them, attending class is a waste of time, and it cheapens the notion of college education. Some great athletes are also great students. They should be allowed to chose which team they will play for, the for-profit or the not-for-profit team.

“That’s honest,” I said.

Most of my students laughed. They thought I was kidding, but I was not. I watched firsthand what happens at a university when the lust for big money takes control. Administrators from top to bottom become fundraisers more than anything else, and cashing in becomes the order of the day. “Student athletes” are the big losers. Most of that money should have gone to them, not to the universities they play for.

Below is the list of the highest paid college football coaches in America. Those are eyepopping salaries. I’m not suggesting that the coaches on the list don’t deserve those salaries, but I am saying that they are not running programs for student athletes. We should stop pretending that they are.

1. Nick Saban, Alabama: $9.1 million
2. Ed Orgeron, LSU: $8.7 million
3. Dabo Swinney, Clemson: $8.3 million
4. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M: $7.5 million
5. Gus Malzahn, Auburn: $6.9 million

Below are the highest paid assistant coaches in college football. It buttresses the point I am making. They are in professional sports, too, not in academia. They are being paid for performance. There’s nothing wrong with that, but they are not running programs for student athletes. We should stop pretending that they are.

1. Steve Sarkisian, Alabama: $2.5 million
2. Kevin Steele, Auburn: $2.5 million
3. Brent Venables, Clemson: $2.4 million
4. Bo Pelini, LSU: $2.3 million
5. Mike Elko, Texas A&M: $2.1 million

The recent unanimous Supreme Court ruling rejecting the NCAA’s assertion that college athletics deserve “immunity from the normal operation of the antitrust laws” is a step in the right direction. Schools will be allowed to pay athletes big salaries to play for their programs, plus other incentives. In addition, big-name college athletes will be allowed to cash in on their names, the same way athletes in professional sports are.

When the smoke clears, it will be obvious that college football and basketball programs are professional sports, not college teams. The athletes will be paid to play, and the best players will make big bucks, just like the best coaches. That’s as it should be.

Under the new system, colleges and universities will be forced, finally, to play by a different and better set of rules. They should focus on their primary mission, educating students. In academia, fundraising has been the tail wagging the dog for far too long.

One day, I may write a SnyderTalk editorial and/or a book titled “The Flimflam”. If I do, you will really enjoy it. UVA administrators won’t.

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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”

John 10: 14-18

See “His Name is Yahweh”.