I read an interesting email from the boy’s basketball coach, Matt Doherty, right before their season started. In this email, he encouraged students to attend the games. He went on to make the claim that if more students attended, the more driven the team would be. The more driven the team would be, the better the team would be. The better the team is, the more recognized SMU is. The more recognized SMU is, the more our degree is worth in the long run. I thought this was an interesting way to persuade students to attend games. Then, I started to think whether that was true or not.
When I look at the University of Texas or USC, it kind of started to make sense. Would those school be as prestigious as they are if their athletics program was not as good as they are? In all honesty I do not think so. Texas and USC have become powerhouses in more sports than one. Thousands of students apply each year and only a small amount are accepted. But what makes those schools so appealing? Do you think athletics play an important part?
2 comments:
To be honest, I don't think so. I think people are looking for a good education, which both of these schools offer, UT-Austin at a good price. I think Harvard and Brown, Duke and Vanderbilt all attract a high-caliber student body regardless of their athletic teams. Or take U of Chicago--no football team at all and one of the best schools in the nation. Academic rigor is what people want to sink their investment into, not sports. Sports are nice, but they are the icing on the cake.
I would have to agree with you in the sense that athletic programs due not determine how prestigious the schools are. There are many schools in this nation whether Division 1 caliber or Junior College caliber that due not have prestigious athletic programs. Yet I don't believe that that was Coach Doherty's point. Being a soccer player at SMU I would agree with the email he sent that if more students attended, the more driven the team would be, the more driven, the better they would be, the better the team is, the more recognized SMU is. When he says the more recognized, he means the SMU basketball program, not just SMU as a whole. I feel that if more students would attend our games, the better we would be, the more we would be driven to win, and the more we would want our soccer program to be more recognized throughout our nation.
Post a Comment