6 ms·

Can anyone explain the interrelation between sports players and college for me? We don't really have such a concept in Australia as far as I'm aware. Am I under

by zainny 13y ago

Can anyone explain the interrelation between sports players and college for me? We don't really have such a concept in Australia as far as I'm aware. Am I understanding correctly that to play a sport professionally a person must first attend a college and complete some degree? Why does the US even have this system? Do any other countries do this as well?

eru 13y ago
People play while at college, I thought. The colleges make money off of the media spectacle. Lots of the players are good at sports, but not good at any of the things they are supposed to be in college for. (But I'm no American, and have only visited once. So take my explanation with a pot of salt.)
ef4 13y ago
That's not really it. You don't need a degree to play professional sports, and some of the most talented players skip directly into professional leagues without finishing college. But college is where they have the best chance of honing their abilities and getting noticed. College sports is all about money. Consider this map: http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-a-co-489635228 http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-... Why are the mostly highly paid "public servants" in most states athletic coaches? Because the public universities make huge amounts of money from sports: the TV licensing deals, the ticket sales, the merchandising. The players get paid nothing -- at most they get their tuition waived.
- gaadd33 13y ago
  Do any NFL players go directly from high school? I think I've heard of a few NBA players that have come close and MLB has its own minor league system so they recruit directly from high school.
  - CyrusL 13y ago
    Nope. It's because of physical development more than skill. A top tier 18 year old body can hang in the NBA but would get wrecked in the NFL.
  - yardie 13y ago
    No, NFL has a gentleman's agreement with NCAA-FB. A highschool graduate would have to sit out 3[1] years before being eligible to tryout for the NFL. They could play in Arena football or CFL. Uni is the best path because you have competition and training. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_draft#Eligibility http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_draft#...
  - GBond 13y ago
    In the NBA, the current rule is a draftee must be 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft and one year out of high school. There were players in the past who have gone straight from HS before the rule was in place. Most notable, Lebron James.
- JoeAltmaier 13y ago
  If you're a naïve boogerbrain, they don't get paid anything. Then why do they wear expensive clothes and drive sports cars? They get plenty of 'in kind' gifts and privileges. Colleges are investigated all the time for outright bribing promising students.
  - ForHackernews 13y ago
    > Colleges are investigated all the time for outright bribing promising students. I think you mean "promising athletes". I guarantee colleges do not care how these young people perform as students.
- alexeisadeski3 13y ago
  >Why are the mostly highly paid "public servants" in most states athletic coaches? Because the public universities make huge amounts of money from sports: the TV licensing deals, the ticket sales, the merchandising. That's not why. The coaches are paid a ton because were they to quit, they could be paid a ton somewhere else. Why would they be paid a ton somewhere else? Because other colleges want to win! Why do they want to win? Because without their football team, schools like Alabama and Texas and USC and and and would have ZERO credibility.
  - tcpekin 13y ago
    Zero credibility?? I can't speak for Alabama but I know several people who went to Texas and USC for the education. Both have strong (top 15 [1,2]) engineering programs, USC has well known med, law and film schools, UT Austin is labeled a "public Ivy" and has a law school, and highly ranked architecture school as well. Both schools have several other well known departments. If football left it would definitely hurt these two schools. However, they have a LOT of academic credibility aside from athletics. [1]http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/eng-rankings http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-gradu... [2]http://coe.berkeley.edu/about/rankings.html http://coe.berkeley.edu/about/rankings.html
    - alexeisadeski3 13y ago
      If these schools never had the huge football programs, yes they would have zero credibility. Without the notoriety and prestige granted by their athletic programs, no one would respect their academics. For a recent example, witness the transformation of USC from a joke of a school (academically) to a somewhat respected, some might even say moderately prestigious (!!) university. A transformation which coincided 100% with their successful football program. The great team builds recognition. It builds respect. You graduated from a school which is a football powerhouse, people respect you. Even if you graduated decades before they rose to football prominence. Even if you never cared about football. People want to be affiliated with success, thus they want to be affiliated with you.
jsumrall 13y ago
Yes and no. Ideally it's just a university sports team. But now college sports have gone from university students playing football in their spare time to exceptional athletes who attend classes in their spare time. Some universities, such as UNC and Virginia Tech, have seen massive profits by selling merchandise thanks to these sports teams, and have made sports a higher priority than the actual academics. Now younger people are choosing to attend universities based on their sports team rather than the academics. Anyone who disrupts this big business of college sports can expect to feel massive backlash from the university and the crazed fans of the sports teams.
- jsumrall 13y ago
  And as someone else pointed out, the coach of the teams get paid more than the president of the university! They get paid more than even their most valuable professors!
  - yardie 13y ago
    I haven't met a professor yet that could pack a 25000 seat arena. Good professors hold chairs which are paid by endowments. So maybe a few million $ a year in donations. Good coaches can make a few million $ on a good weekend. If they make it to the bowls, 10-20 million $.
    - sdoering 13y ago
      Sorry, but that system is so utterly strange to me. I really do not have the ability to understand this. Might be my problem, might be a cultural problem, as I am not an American. But in what universe could this be a good thing? What does sports do for the development of mankind? It distracts, it is just "panem et circensis"[1] and it is nothing more than a big business. So the people trying to teach people the ability to better the world have to "fight for the scraps" while others reap the benefits of telling youngsters to run faster, kick harder or throw better? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panem_et_circenses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panem_et_circenses
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jasonwatkinspdx 13y ago
It depends on the particular sport and the leagues involved, but most future professional players will play a couple years at the college level. High-school super stars in some sports may go into the professional league directly but it's uncommon. In many sports no matter your skill level you cannot build the physique necessary to compete until a bit later in life (american football for example). Also, some leagues have implemented rules designed to prevent direct recruitment from high school, notably the NBA. There's typically no requirement to finish college however. It's relatively common for athletes to move up to the pros and skip the last years of their academics. The US's system is mostly due to history, but the current structure continues because it is worth an extraordinary amount of money. The schools with top athletic teams bring in revenues of 100 million or more. The governing body for college athletics generally prohibits significant payments to the athletes themselves, so all that income goes to coaches and other staff, as well as supporting businesses. College coaches are usually the highest paid people on campus. This continues to be a bitter political topic, because many people see it as unfair that college athletes are generating so much money for everyone but themselves. The other side points out that allowing paid recruitment and player endorsement/advertising would have a corrupting effect as well as make it difficult for smaller schools to be competitive. As far as I know, our system is unique, and that's probably because we were televising college athletics earlier and more heavily than other nations.
- KC8ZKF 13y ago
  Most baseball players go to the minor leagues right out of high school.
  - _delirium 13y ago
    The general lack of interest in minor-league baseball also shows one reason why other sports aren't keen to move to that model (though the long history each sport has built up makes that kind of change pretty hard to do anyway). From a marketing perspective, college sports are a minor league that comes with a built-in fanbase, the students & alumni at the universities (especially large universities). The top end of college sports teams are essentially the NFL's and NBA's minor league outfits, but compare how many fans and attention a Texas, Michigan, USC, Stanford, etc. game gets (in either football or basketball) to what a minor-league baseball team gets...
pirateking 13y ago
I highly recommend the 1994 film Hoop Dreams[1]. It provides a look into the world where school meets sport. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoop_Dreams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoop_Dreams
- chops 13y ago
  Also, South Park Episode "Crack Baby Athletic Association" skewers the college sports system in the US. http://beta.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e05-crack-baby-athletic-association http://beta.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e05-crack-...
forgottenpass 13y ago
Am I right in assuming you have below-pro level "farm leagues"? In the States, for various historical and financial reasons, some sports will effectively replace their farm leagues with Division I inter-collegiate sports.
- rplnt 13y ago
  This is probably the case. However, I don't see how it is relevant to education (other than money mentioned elsewhere). "Minor/second/.." leagues could survive on their own. No need to take schools into account.
_delirium 13y ago
> We don't really have such a concept in Australia as far as I'm aware. There do seem to be university sports leagues in Australia, they just aren't taken as seriously afaict, e.g.: http://www.aurl.com.au/ http://www.aurl.com.au/
- vacri 13y ago
  It's not that they're not taken seriously, just that they're not in any way a requirement to be a professional player. To play cricket, aussie rules, rugby, hockey, netball and so on at the professional level doesn't require a feeder system of athletes from the tertiary education sector. Professional athletes also aren't introduced by sportscasters as 'name, college'. Who knows, it might catch on. Other American sports oddities have, like that annoying singing of the national anthem before each match and providing a role for athletic women in professional sports by making them cheerleaders...
- jstevens85 13y ago
  While university sport certainly exists, the major differences are that i) they don't generate any revenue, and ii) student athletes don't receive any advantage in university admissions.
  - ams6110 13y ago
    In the USA, only mens basketball and football typically generate revenue. Maybe in some areas baseball or hockey might. Those programs support the vast majority of athletes (track and field, swimming, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, volleyball, wrestling, etc. as well as all the women's teams) who are in programs that do not generate any revenue.
    - johnward 13y ago
      I would say hockey probably only does for the big hockey schools in the US. In other places, especially high school, hockey is a club sport so the players pay for everything. Which is the complete opposite of football.
gadders 13y ago
It does seem strange compared to the UK system as well. Here, for football (soccer), most people would join a club or youth team at 16 or so. Nobody expects football players in the UK to have brains. I can think of only a couple of footballers with a college degree - Graham Le Saux and Steve Coppell, I believe. Joey Barton has A Levels but is probably not a good advertisement.
fit2rule 13y ago
On the other hand .. Australia has a huge sports-worship culture, akin to the US in many ways with regards to ferocity and cult behaviour among the proponents. I've never understood how it is that certain realms of Australian culture think that being a sporty person is more important than being an intelligent, well-informed person - but there is some sort of cultural disassociation between these two worlds that appears to be culturally driven. In the US, its been driven even further in that there are billion-dollar industries behind the sports cult. Perhaps thats the ticket: sport is a cult because there's money to be made.
- stormcrowsx 13y ago
  Evolution has ingrained competitiveness in us and its our way of proving our little section of the world produces better things than yours. A mostly wasteful use of resources but to the majority this is a sufficient way to prove your city/state/country is better than another. I'd rather see who can fly the furthest into space but eh enjoy what you got.
  - fit2rule 13y ago
    Culture ingrains competitiveness. It is why we are in such a mess. Evolution ingrains cooperation. It is why we have come so far as a species, as we have.
AlisdairSH 13y ago
In addition to the responses already entered, the NFL (in combination with the NFLPA, the union that represents players) also requires athletes entering the draft to be three years out of high-school (typically 21 years old in the US). So, even if you happen to have the physical aptitude to play professionally at age 18, you are barred from doing so.
waylandsmithers 13y ago
As far as I can tell, this is a uniquely American phenomenon, and how we got here could easily be the subject of a full research paper. Here's my theory: It all starts with Harvard and Yale wanting a leg up on each other in their football rivalry, which dates back to 1875. Professional football did not start in the US until many years later. Football, and to some degree basketball and other sports, came to represent a very serious way for colleges to express rivalries with each other. Seriously: "After The Game of 1894, which came to be known as the "Hampden Park Bloodbath" and about which newspapers reported seven players carried off the field "in dying condition," the two schools broke off all official contact including athletic competition for two years." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard%E2%80%93Yale_football_rivalry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard%E2%80%93Yale_football_r... As such, each institution became hell-bent on defeating the other at football, which led to the relaxing of academic standards to admit superior athletes. Things have spiraled out of control from there. Many schools now face very serious pressure from alumni and other donors who demand athletic success. Recruiting top high school athletes is an extremely shady business, as both schools and athletes have a lot at stake. Harvard, Yale, and the other Ivy League schools today do not do this to the extent that some others do and have policies against awarding scholarships based on athletics-- they are small and elite institutions that can't get away with admitting students who literally cannot read. But even the schools with these policies admit athletes who would probably not get in based on their academics alone.
AutoCorrect 13y ago
Here, SouthPark says it best: http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e05-crack-baby-athletic-association http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e05-crack-b...
maxerickson 13y ago
A tradition of friendly competition turned into a huge business. The leagues have some rules about when players can be drafted, but those rules are more about simplifying and reducing competition in recruiting than they are about the players.
rayiner 13y ago
In the U.S. a number of sports developed first at the college level. American Football, in particular, was developed and popularized by colleges (particularly the Ivy League schools, and particularly by Yale). Collegiate football remained more popular than professional football well into the early 20th century.

by zainny 13y ago

eru 13y ago

People play while at college, I thought. The colleges make money off of the media spectacle. Lots of the players are good at sports, but not good at any of the things they are supposed to be in college for. (But I'm no American, and have only visited once. So take my explanation with a pot of salt.)

ef4 13y ago

That's not really it. You don't need a degree to play professional sports, and some of the most talented players skip directly into professional leagues without finishing college. But college is where they have the best chance of honing their abilities and getting noticed. College sports is all about money. Consider this map: http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-a-co-489635228 http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-... Why are the mostly highly paid "public servants" in most states athletic coaches? Because the public universities make huge amounts of money from sports: the TV licensing deals, the ticket sales, the merchandising. The players get paid nothing -- at most they get their tuition waived.

gaadd33 13y ago
Do any NFL players go directly from high school? I think I've heard of a few NBA players that have come close and MLB has its own minor league system so they recruit directly from high school.
- CyrusL 13y ago
  Nope. It's because of physical development more than skill. A top tier 18 year old body can hang in the NBA but would get wrecked in the NFL.
- yardie 13y ago
  No, NFL has a gentleman's agreement with NCAA-FB. A highschool graduate would have to sit out 3[1] years before being eligible to tryout for the NFL. They could play in Arena football or CFL. Uni is the best path because you have competition and training. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_draft#Eligibility http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_draft#...
- GBond 13y ago
  In the NBA, the current rule is a draftee must be 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft and one year out of high school. There were players in the past who have gone straight from HS before the rule was in place. Most notable, Lebron James.
JoeAltmaier 13y ago
If you're a naïve boogerbrain, they don't get paid anything. Then why do they wear expensive clothes and drive sports cars? They get plenty of 'in kind' gifts and privileges. Colleges are investigated all the time for outright bribing promising students.
- ForHackernews 13y ago
  > Colleges are investigated all the time for outright bribing promising students. I think you mean "promising athletes". I guarantee colleges do not care how these young people perform as students.
alexeisadeski3 13y ago
>Why are the mostly highly paid "public servants" in most states athletic coaches? Because the public universities make huge amounts of money from sports: the TV licensing deals, the ticket sales, the merchandising. That's not why. The coaches are paid a ton because were they to quit, they could be paid a ton somewhere else. Why would they be paid a ton somewhere else? Because other colleges want to win! Why do they want to win? Because without their football team, schools like Alabama and Texas and USC and and and would have ZERO credibility.
- tcpekin 13y ago
  Zero credibility?? I can't speak for Alabama but I know several people who went to Texas and USC for the education. Both have strong (top 15 [1,2]) engineering programs, USC has well known med, law and film schools, UT Austin is labeled a "public Ivy" and has a law school, and highly ranked architecture school as well. Both schools have several other well known departments. If football left it would definitely hurt these two schools. However, they have a LOT of academic credibility aside from athletics. [1]http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/eng-rankings http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-gradu... [2]http://coe.berkeley.edu/about/rankings.html http://coe.berkeley.edu/about/rankings.html
  - alexeisadeski3 13y ago
    If these schools never had the huge football programs, yes they would have zero credibility. Without the notoriety and prestige granted by their athletic programs, no one would respect their academics. For a recent example, witness the transformation of USC from a joke of a school (academically) to a somewhat respected, some might even say moderately prestigious (!!) university. A transformation which coincided 100% with their successful football program. The great team builds recognition. It builds respect. You graduated from a school which is a football powerhouse, people respect you. Even if you graduated decades before they rose to football prominence. Even if you never cared about football. People want to be affiliated with success, thus they want to be affiliated with you.

jsumrall 13y ago

Yes and no. Ideally it's just a university sports team. But now college sports have gone from university students playing football in their spare time to exceptional athletes who attend classes in their spare time. Some universities, such as UNC and Virginia Tech, have seen massive profits by selling merchandise thanks to these sports teams, and have made sports a higher priority than the actual academics. Now younger people are choosing to attend universities based on their sports team rather than the academics. Anyone who disrupts this big business of college sports can expect to feel massive backlash from the university and the crazed fans of the sports teams.

jsumrall 13y ago
And as someone else pointed out, the coach of the teams get paid more than the president of the university! They get paid more than even their most valuable professors!
- yardie 13y ago
  I haven't met a professor yet that could pack a 25000 seat arena. Good professors hold chairs which are paid by endowments. So maybe a few million $ a year in donations. Good coaches can make a few million $ on a good weekend. If they make it to the bowls, 10-20 million $.
  - sdoering 13y ago
    Sorry, but that system is so utterly strange to me. I really do not have the ability to understand this. Might be my problem, might be a cultural problem, as I am not an American. But in what universe could this be a good thing? What does sports do for the development of mankind? It distracts, it is just "panem et circensis"[1] and it is nothing more than a big business. So the people trying to teach people the ability to better the world have to "fight for the scraps" while others reap the benefits of telling youngsters to run faster, kick harder or throw better? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panem_et_circenses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panem_et_circenses

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

jasonwatkinspdx 13y ago

It depends on the particular sport and the leagues involved, but most future professional players will play a couple years at the college level. High-school super stars in some sports may go into the professional league directly but it's uncommon. In many sports no matter your skill level you cannot build the physique necessary to compete until a bit later in life (american football for example). Also, some leagues have implemented rules designed to prevent direct recruitment from high school, notably the NBA. There's typically no requirement to finish college however. It's relatively common for athletes to move up to the pros and skip the last years of their academics. The US's system is mostly due to history, but the current structure continues because it is worth an extraordinary amount of money. The schools with top athletic teams bring in revenues of 100 million or more. The governing body for college athletics generally prohibits significant payments to the athletes themselves, so all that income goes to coaches and other staff, as well as supporting businesses. College coaches are usually the highest paid people on campus. This continues to be a bitter political topic, because many people see it as unfair that college athletes are generating so much money for everyone but themselves. The other side points out that allowing paid recruitment and player endorsement/advertising would have a corrupting effect as well as make it difficult for smaller schools to be competitive. As far as I know, our system is unique, and that's probably because we were televising college athletics earlier and more heavily than other nations.

KC8ZKF 13y ago
Most baseball players go to the minor leagues right out of high school.
- _delirium 13y ago
  The general lack of interest in minor-league baseball also shows one reason why other sports aren't keen to move to that model (though the long history each sport has built up makes that kind of change pretty hard to do anyway). From a marketing perspective, college sports are a minor league that comes with a built-in fanbase, the students & alumni at the universities (especially large universities). The top end of college sports teams are essentially the NFL's and NBA's minor league outfits, but compare how many fans and attention a Texas, Michigan, USC, Stanford, etc. game gets (in either football or basketball) to what a minor-league baseball team gets...

pirateking 13y ago

I highly recommend the 1994 film Hoop Dreams[1]. It provides a look into the world where school meets sport. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoop_Dreams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoop_Dreams

chops 13y ago
Also, South Park Episode "Crack Baby Athletic Association" skewers the college sports system in the US. http://beta.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e05-crack-baby-athletic-association http://beta.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e05-crack-...

forgottenpass 13y ago

Am I right in assuming you have below-pro level "farm leagues"? In the States, for various historical and financial reasons, some sports will effectively replace their farm leagues with Division I inter-collegiate sports.

rplnt 13y ago
This is probably the case. However, I don't see how it is relevant to education (other than money mentioned elsewhere). "Minor/second/.." leagues could survive on their own. No need to take schools into account.

_delirium 13y ago

> We don't really have such a concept in Australia as far as I'm aware. There do seem to be university sports leagues in Australia, they just aren't taken as seriously afaict, e.g.: http://www.aurl.com.au/ http://www.aurl.com.au/

vacri 13y ago
It's not that they're not taken seriously, just that they're not in any way a requirement to be a professional player. To play cricket, aussie rules, rugby, hockey, netball and so on at the professional level doesn't require a feeder system of athletes from the tertiary education sector. Professional athletes also aren't introduced by sportscasters as 'name, college'. Who knows, it might catch on. Other American sports oddities have, like that annoying singing of the national anthem before each match and providing a role for athletic women in professional sports by making them cheerleaders...
jstevens85 13y ago
While university sport certainly exists, the major differences are that i) they don't generate any revenue, and ii) student athletes don't receive any advantage in university admissions.
- ams6110 13y ago
  In the USA, only mens basketball and football typically generate revenue. Maybe in some areas baseball or hockey might. Those programs support the vast majority of athletes (track and field, swimming, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, volleyball, wrestling, etc. as well as all the women's teams) who are in programs that do not generate any revenue.
  - johnward 13y ago
    I would say hockey probably only does for the big hockey schools in the US. In other places, especially high school, hockey is a club sport so the players pay for everything. Which is the complete opposite of football.

gadders 13y ago

It does seem strange compared to the UK system as well. Here, for football (soccer), most people would join a club or youth team at 16 or so. Nobody expects football players in the UK to have brains. I can think of only a couple of footballers with a college degree - Graham Le Saux and Steve Coppell, I believe. Joey Barton has A Levels but is probably not a good advertisement.

fit2rule 13y ago

On the other hand .. Australia has a huge sports-worship culture, akin to the US in many ways with regards to ferocity and cult behaviour among the proponents. I've never understood how it is that certain realms of Australian culture think that being a sporty person is more important than being an intelligent, well-informed person - but there is some sort of cultural disassociation between these two worlds that appears to be culturally driven. In the US, its been driven even further in that there are billion-dollar industries behind the sports cult. Perhaps thats the ticket: sport is a cult because there's money to be made.

stormcrowsx 13y ago
Evolution has ingrained competitiveness in us and its our way of proving our little section of the world produces better things than yours. A mostly wasteful use of resources but to the majority this is a sufficient way to prove your city/state/country is better than another. I'd rather see who can fly the furthest into space but eh enjoy what you got.
- fit2rule 13y ago
  Culture ingrains competitiveness. It is why we are in such a mess. Evolution ingrains cooperation. It is why we have come so far as a species, as we have.

AlisdairSH 13y ago

In addition to the responses already entered, the NFL (in combination with the NFLPA, the union that represents players) also requires athletes entering the draft to be three years out of high-school (typically 21 years old in the US). So, even if you happen to have the physical aptitude to play professionally at age 18, you are barred from doing so.

waylandsmithers 13y ago

As far as I can tell, this is a uniquely American phenomenon, and how we got here could easily be the subject of a full research paper. Here's my theory: It all starts with Harvard and Yale wanting a leg up on each other in their football rivalry, which dates back to 1875. Professional football did not start in the US until many years later. Football, and to some degree basketball and other sports, came to represent a very serious way for colleges to express rivalries with each other. Seriously: "After The Game of 1894, which came to be known as the "Hampden Park Bloodbath" and about which newspapers reported seven players carried off the field "in dying condition," the two schools broke off all official contact including athletic competition for two years." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard%E2%80%93Yale_football_rivalry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard%E2%80%93Yale_football_r... As such, each institution became hell-bent on defeating the other at football, which led to the relaxing of academic standards to admit superior athletes. Things have spiraled out of control from there. Many schools now face very serious pressure from alumni and other donors who demand athletic success. Recruiting top high school athletes is an extremely shady business, as both schools and athletes have a lot at stake. Harvard, Yale, and the other Ivy League schools today do not do this to the extent that some others do and have policies against awarding scholarships based on athletics-- they are small and elite institutions that can't get away with admitting students who literally cannot read. But even the schools with these policies admit athletes who would probably not get in based on their academics alone.

AutoCorrect 13y ago

Here, SouthPark says it best: http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e05-crack-baby-athletic-association http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e05-crack-b...

maxerickson 13y ago

A tradition of friendly competition turned into a huge business. The leagues have some rules about when players can be drafted, but those rules are more about simplifying and reducing competition in recruiting than they are about the players.

rayiner 13y ago

In the U.S. a number of sports developed first at the college level. American Football, in particular, was developed and popularized by colleges (particularly the Ivy League schools, and particularly by Yale). Collegiate football remained more popular than professional football well into the early 20th century.