Minster: Basketball is blocking education

By By Brandon Minster

Thursday, February 15, 2007

You’ll forgive me if I don’t get drunk and call Free-For-All like the rest of you the next time the basketball team has a home game. I’ll be busy circling parking lots trying to go to the library.

Yes, the library. That building that houses books which the athletic corporation needs in order to maintain its cover as a university. With no library there would be no NCAA tournament bid, and with no tournament bid, there would be no first-round loss to a backwoods junior college. Having lost to virtually every degree-granting institution in the country, the basketball team plans to get knocked out of this year’s tournament by your younger sister’s band camp team.

The basketball team exists as an excuse for the athletic corporation to make money and for the student body to party.

The University of Kansas breeds the worst fans in the nation. Continual dominance with no other purpose has created a fan base of poor winners and poor losers. Earlier this season when the team had scored nearly twice as many points as Emporia State, the fans were disappointed that they didn’t score 100. I’ve heard all about how Bucknell was an underrated seed two years ago, and how Bradley shouldn’t have been a 13 seed. What’s more likely is that Kansas wasn’t supposed to be a four seed.

The basketball team exists as an excuse for the athletic corporation to make money and for the student body to party. Neither of those goals helps educate anyone. Enhanced exposure is not the same thing as enhanced prestige.

Running a basketball program that did no harm to the university’s chartered mission of education wouldn’t be bad, if it were done honestly and fairly. However, talented athletes are used to make money for everyone but themselves. When the team plays like a bunch of individuals who want to impress professional scouts, where does the university community get off complaining? That’s the only incentive they’ve been given. They aren’t playing for anyone besides themselves, and they know it.

In many ways the basketball program distracts from the university’s mission. Two nights a week, campus libraries are virtually inaccessible, as the bus service shuts down and seemingly every professional in Lawrence invades campus to watch a basketball game.

Why does the University of Kansas exist, to educate students or to make money? There are better ways to make money. Simple robbery would be more efficient, and in a way it would be more honest, too. At least then we could stop lying to ourselves about an educational mission, and we could stop getting worked up when the system we’ve created turns out a team that loses first-round tournament games and then enters the NBA draft early for large signing bonuses.

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