Professor emeritus Barry Thomas has a letter in The Post  critisizing Ohio Athletics.
In this case its about Coach Solich's contract.

I'm sorry nobody could hear you Barry Thomas, we all had a Sweet Sixteen appearance and a win over Penn State in our ear!

BOOM...Roasted

These letters mean less and less as Ohio posts huge athletic wins. 

While coaches salaries will always be a hot button topic, I can't imagine a worse time for this guy to try to make a point. 

The national recognition the university has received in the past year, via athletics, has trumped anything I can remember in my lifetime. I'd like for them to try and put a dollar figure on the rebranding jumpstart athletics accounted for. Can anyone honestly envision someone recognizing us as OHIO without the Basketball or Football team's accomplishments?

I understand the issue at hand but just disagree with his premise: that this is a "misuse" of student's money. I wonder why he doesn't talk about all the other ridiculous things students pay for? You know, like $500 each quarter for text books that you barely use. Or maybe that class pamphlet that costs $50? The one written by the professor. 

The athletic fee seems like a bargain when you start to add up all the unnecessary things students pay for... Especially when the fee grants you free admission in to all athletic events.

In the end, athletic support only accounts for around 2-3% of a students overall costs. Why don't we focus on finding efficiencies in the other 97-98% first?  Barry seems to like to center his attention on athletics but I'd love to get his take on why such a small percentage of student spending has him so up in arms.

I also think it is interesting that this letter appeared in the Post the same day they ran a story about Ohio's net tuition being one of the highest in the country. 

I don't think anyone has said or would ever say that Athletics are more important than Academics.  Completely agree that's a well paved road to Ohio A&M levels of corruption.  

Standing up for something that you believe in and support isn't idol worship.  I think it's safe to say the vast majority of the folks on this board graduated from Ohio.  Obviously, we all chose the institution for educational reasons and during our time there fell in love with it for others.

When someone (faculty or not) feels the need to voice their opinion publicly they open themselves up to dissenting response.  I'd like to know how many hours he puts in throughout the year as compared to Coach Solich.  I'd also like for him to understand a few things...

Specialized talent = Higher earnings.  It's the same in any society in any country.

Scrutinized performance = Higher earnings.  There's no such thing as tenure outside of academia and that is most certainly a good thing.

Athletics (like it or not) can be an extremely effective front porch to a University.  The impact of our recent success on the field / court has already shone through.

Academics are more important than athletics long term, I agree there. But these professors who proclaim that athletics are too big at Ohio University are out of their minds. I like where we are now in the balance of athletics and academics, but I also feel athletics is a great marketing tool for the university that needs to be accelerated any time you get the opportunity. Wins in the NCAA tournament, bowl wins, and wins over BCS programs in football don't come around to often for schools of our size. We need to take advantage of this glorious era of Ohio Athletics while we still have the chance.

Why is it that so many German profs have such a hate for Ohio Athletics?

I thought that the title of this thread was indicative of ...well, where is Bobcat Love?  We need his thoughts after last Saturday.

Very well done, Scott.  Thanks.

Semi colons were always my weakness...  

I also realized after the fact that I used "support" twice in the same sentence...Such is the risk when writing with emotion...   

Very nicely reasoned argument. Congrats.

The benefits of athletics, when you boil it down, are:
1. It benefits the local economy (apparel sales, food and beverage sales, etc), thereby closing the gap between town and gown
2. It advertises the University
3. It adds to the campus social life
4. It adds diversity to the students at the University
5. It creates a tie that connects alumni to the University, and a reason to return to campus, thereby promoting future giving

I think most reasonable people would agree that all five benefits exist. The problem is what value to place on each of the benefits. I think there is also some disagreement about how to assess the costs of the investment in athletics as regards the situation where Title IX requires the addition of women's sports. It surprises me a little bit that no one every really tries to put numbers on costs or benefits.

There has to be some way to value the marketing.

Good point, Ted. I should have included that, too.



Ah, but there is the fear of the athletics haters. They fear that people will replace donations to the general university with athletics donations, exactly what they don't want to happen. My suggestion is that people will be more likely to donate not only to athletics, but also to the University as a whole because they have a closer connection to the University, and regular visits to Athens.