At what point did college athletics lose its purity?

[HiCountryCowboy]

Football and basketball in particular. I'm not foolish enough to think it was within the last decade or two but when you look at old bowl match-ups you see teams like Occidental and William & Mary. Where did this parity go? Normally I'm capitalistic in nature but shouldn't amateur athletics be more about everyone having a fair shot and seeing where the chips fall than teams hoarding huge amounts of television and bowl revenue - especially since they are TAX EXEMPT? I won't be surprised if the same 10-15 schools win every "national championship" from here on out...

 

[Peanuts the Bulldog]

I remember this article from a couple years ago and thought that it was a sign that a new level of purity in college athletics is emerging. Obviously Football and Men's Basketball is different, but I could really see a lot of schools D-1 money losing sports drop down a club level.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/sports/02club.html

 

[WestWYOPoke]

Nice article. This reminds me of the UW rugby team. Rugby is a club sport at Wyoming just as it is across the country. If rugby were like football, a school such as Wyoming would be no match when compared to schools from rugby states such as California, Colorado, Texas, etc. However, as we've seen in the past, the rugby team is a perennial national contender at the highest level using players with little rugby experience (typically from CO) or using local players with no experience at all. The best part, without scholarships and having to actually pay money to play, these guys are doing it for the love of the game.

 

[Cornpoke]

College lost it's purity the first time they ever went to a TV timeout.... They are so worried about changing the rules of football to speed up the game but yet wouldn't take a precious minute away from the 50 TV timeouts during a game.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[WYCowboy]

Football and basketball in particular. I'm not foolish enough to think it was within the last decade or two but when you look at old bowl match-ups you see teams like Occidental and William & Mary. Where did this parity go? Normally I'm capitalistic in nature but shouldn't amateur athletics be more about everyone having a fair shot and seeing where the chips fall than teams hoarding huge amounts of television and bowl revenue - especially since they are TAX EXEMPT? I won't be surprised if the same 10-15 schools win every "national championship" from here on out...

This is the best post I have seen all year!

 

[calpoke25]

It used to just be the Fiesta Bowl, now its the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

It used to be the Orange Bowl, now its the FedEx Orange Bowl.

It used to be the Holiday Bowl, now its the Holiday Bowl presented by Sun Life.

It used to be the Copper Bowl, now its the Insight.com Bowl.

Now we have the papajohns.com Bowl.

Pretty soon we'll have the meatspin.com Bowl.

It started before these names came to exist, but they sure do show what its ll about.

 

[Bryoming]

I just lol'd thinking about all of you who went to meatspin.com after calpoke's post.