I, for one, did not come to Ohio University simply to catch a football game.
Please note, I also did not decide to attend OU simply to pick up a copy of The Post, to watch a play at Memorial Auditorium, to marvel at the Marching 110 or to eat at the Baker Center food court. Thus, I take issue with The Post editorial titled Foul play published in Wednesday's issue.
My decision to attend OU's Scripps School of Journalism master's program came about because the program is nationally renowned, the school offered me a nice financial package and OU offers all the things listed above - things that add cultural choices, opportunity and fun to my experience here.
For the last 12 years, I have worked as a sports reporter on the West Coast and covered everything from Little League to the Super Bowl. Admittedly, I bring to this letter the bias that I am a sports fan. But a recent rash of Post staff editorials has brought with it an undisclosed, underlying contempt for college athletics - and a laughable style of journalism.
In the Wednesday editorial, authors reference a USA Today study that is neither explained nor put into any kind of context. The authors judge attendance at all sporting events without producing any hard numbers or context. They toss out Ball State's funding model, but provide no details or suggestions as to how OU might make similar implementations. And, in the final paragraph, the writers introduce a totally new idea - dropping OU down a competitive division - without any evidence it would save money.
A little research might have made this editorial credible, but as it stands, it is nothing more than filler.
I cannot argue that belts need to be tightened and more transparency is needed in the subsidizing process, but the Bobcats aren't flailing in any lake, as the editorial suggests.
The football team just won the Eastern Division of the Mid-American Conference in a nationally televised game against Temple.
It's hard for me to imagine traveling to Detroit for a conference championship game would be any more expensive than traveling to the University of San Diego every other year for a Division I-AA football game in the internationally-envied Pioneer League (also home to the University of Dayton and Butler football programs, among others.)
Were the authors of this editorial referring only to dropping the football team, or did they simply not care to be specific? Because I'm sure not interested in watching our volleyball team - MAC champs for six of the last seven years - in noncompetitive routs against Ashland and Tiffin in the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
In 2007, then-NCAA president Myles Brand told the SportsBusiness Daily that only six of all NCAA programs are self-sufficient. That means nearly every athletic department in the country receives subsidies from one place or another. So, a large portion of student fees going to athletics is not a unique phenomenon.
From tangible factors such as the 425 student-athletes and student employment opportunities to the intangibles such as tradition, spirit and togetherness, the value of athletics to a campus and a community can't be added on a calculator. So if The Post wants to convince me of the negatives, bring me something of substance.
Molly Yanity is a graduate student studying journalism.
4 Opinion
