First off, the idea of a university without sports is a foolish idea all in itself.
Athletics often make up the reputation -if any -most schools have. Without sports like football and basketball, no one would recognize Ohio State, UC or, gasp... Miami. Although this example focuses on Ohio schools it works on the national scale too.
For example, Ohio got national recognition just for hiring Frank Solich as head coach for the Bobcats' football program. I had friends who were amazed at the fish good ole' OU was able to reel in. All of a sudden, people caught wind of the little college in Athens.
Another point, do you have any idea of how much publicity Ohio got when the story of men's basketball assistant coach Kevin Kuwik reached the national level? Our school was everywhere; on ESPN, in the papers and magazines across the country. This is all thanks to the basketball program reaching the NCAA Tournament and the aid of our coach that is currently serving in Iraq.
Without sports, no one would have a clue what OU was, except for the whole journalism school. Could Athens get the kind of attention Kuwik got without athletics? Absolutely not. Just imagine the help athletics will give OU to get more students to come here.
So while Phil may fill his debate with statistics and his so called facts
none of them will deny the fact that Ohio University not only wants sports, it needs sports.
Academics should create a school's reputation, not sports By Philip Ewing While it may seem difficult to imagine a typical American college without its beloved football and basketball squads, that's the way many schools are across the world.
In the United Kingdom, for example, there are informal, club-type sports, but you'll never see an official intercollegiate Oxford team square off against Cambridge on the cricket pitch. Nevertheless, those two venerable institutions -and many others like them -do just fine for themselves.
To bring the example back home, consider the football teams fielded last year by Harvard, Cornell or Yale. Certainly those boys gave it plenty of pep out there, but admissions counselors don't cite their in-or out-of-conference records when prospective students are strolling through the Yard.
Sports give colleges something less snobby than research and test scores to help create their identities; an excuse to license endless variations of athletic wear; and the chance to win national fame if their academic programs aren't necessarily top-tier.
Or, sport simply obscures a school's academic reputation: Ohio State University has a fine dentistry school, but do you think people in Chicago or St. Louis know that? No, but they probably do know that good people in Columbus lock their doors when the Wolverines are in town. 17
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Nick Miller
Sports programs at Ohio are a necessity, promote university
