Arkansas Blog

(The UA athletic department is self-supporting through ticket sales, booster contributions, licensing fees, etc.)

Thank you, Frank Broyles.

Consider the time and attention it pulls away from scholarship before we call the Razorback machine self-supporting.

The average GPA would measurably improve if we dismantled football and basketball, not only in Fayetteville but statewide.

The Razorbacks are a primary reason why if my daughter chooses to attend the UofA she'll do it on her own dollar without any help from mom and dad. Luckily she shows no sign of wanting to do that.

"Consider the time and attention it pulls away from scholarship before we call the Razorback machine self-supporting. "

The great bulk of the student population at the UofA or any other institution care little about athletics, Country Boy. Most high school students don't attend athletic events, etc.

I agree with Cato. My younger son goes to school now at UAF, has never been to a Razorback game, and has no desire to go to a game, football or basketball. He works six days a week, or he would probably enjoy a baseball game every now and then.

He had a presidential scholarship at a 4-year liberal arts college when he transferred, so he could graduate earlier and enroll in grad school at fayetteville to study... I always forget. Toxicology? he takes nothing but advanced science courses. I dont know where I went wrong wtih that child.

now that he's an independent student, self-supporting, he gets more money in Pell grants, but he still has to work to pay the bills and have a roommate to pay the rent.

I felt the same way you do when both of mine were deciding on colleges, but luckily for me (and for them) they were both offered presidential scholarships at the private college i mentioned already. My older son graduated college wtih zero debt and then proceeded to rack up a whole lot of that at law school, even though he had a 50% scholarship. 35K per year is a lot of tuition money.

Country Boy, I bet you anything that, if your daughter went to UAF, she would never, ever see a student ath=uh-leete sitting next to her in any of her classes, unless she plans to major in Underwater Basketweaving or something along those lines, and from your posts I don't think that's the case. ;)

They need to go ahead on and acknowledge that college athletics is a business, nothing more, and quit requiring the players to pretend to be students. Football or any big-time sport is going to take up all a student's free time. Couldn't possibly get a job and still go to practice, attend classes, etc., and some of these kids have to pay for their own food, car payments, etc.

Just pay them and get it over with. Quit pretending. remember Nolan's 0% graduation rate?? remember danny ford? Was that even his name? The football coach who said something to the effect of, That boy didn't even come up here to play football!! He came up here to get an education!!!!! Didnt mean it as a compliment either. What a role model.

and we might as well quit pretending that college athletes are role models, too. once they get up there, they find out they aren't All That (does the name Mitch Mustain ring any bells?) but instead, they're just part of the machine. their job is to make money for the UofA athuletic department.

when they get arrested and found guilty of felonies, we should put them a Greyhound and wish them well.

my sons always played baseball, son #2 played high school baseball but it took up all of his free time. Now when there's a football game on the UAF campus, he and his friends not only don't go to the game, they hate fighting the traffic to get to work. I guess the only students who really enjoy game days are the ones who live close enough to the campus to charge people to park in their yards.

The UA athletic department is self-supporting through ticket sales, booster contributions, licensing fees, etc.)

Thank you, Frank Broyles. --Cato

These "booster contributions," are they not tax deductions? Assuming that is true, our government is subsidizing 40% or so of that total. That's right, boys, send your tax deductible contributions up here to UA-Delaware and we'll give you a seat between the forty yard lines.

Did y'all see that tickets for this fall's Arkansas--Texas A&M game are going for $300? (And up, I assume. but i wont be going anywhere.)

So Frank is evil for obeying the law?

tina is almost correct. Most of the students I knew in 60s and 70s never attended a football game.
Before Eddie Sutton arrived anyone could walk into the bb arena and find a free seat.

But there are large blocks of seats reserved for students. That's for students who can wait in line overnite to get them, likely less than 15% of the student body.

After spending about 40 years in FAy-Springdale I've watched the Razorbacks play fuball 3 times and about a dozen bb games.

The extracurricular activity I remember the most-the most indelible-was meeting Alan Ginsberg, attending his recital, and later getting stoned with him and some friends. Unforgettable.

Unless things have changed at the University of Fayetteville since it was "the University." You had to pay a pretty big student activity fee and pay extra and stand-in line for the right to buy student tickets to the Basketball and Football games.

I go along with Tina. Pay them above the table. Have the University lend the name and Razorback logo for a fee and let the Football and Basketball program be honest professional athletes located near the University of Fayetteville.

eLwood, almost correct is closer than I usually get, so I'll take that. If you got to meet Alan Ginsberg, I'd say you got a good education up there at Fateville.

doc, I remember when it was called simply "the University." Now that every little 4-year college & 2-year vo-tech schools are now the U of A @ somewhere, its different, isnt it? soon maybe we can have a U of A @ Sallisaw, OK. Or the UofA at the Bass Pro Shop. Why not?
thank you for agreeing with me. remember back in the olden days, didnt the football players get "laundry money" every week and didn;t a whole bunch of them "work" at some men's clothing store owned by a big contributor? I would've probably remembered his name if I hadn't tried to do just that.

Y'all dont forget to read the article in the NY Times Sunday Magazine about Bill Clinton.