Nader officially jumps shark, blames college athletics for the "dumbing down of America"

[KamaAina]

Yes sirree! A Nader thread in the Sports Forum!!

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_19040362

Major universities such as UC Berkeley should eliminate athletic scholarships or risk losing their academic luster, consumer advocate Ralph Nader told a standing-room-only crowd Tuesday.

Speaking to more than 100 students, professors and others who packed a UC Berkeley lecture hall and most of a second room, the former presidential candidate said big-time college athletics has dumbed down society....

"If you get rid of the athletic scholarship, you deflate a lot of the problems," Nader said. "Education is a secondary concern at big-time programs. Exploitation is the inevitable outcome."...

Society's attention to athletics, Nader said, has moved people down what he called the "sensuality ladder," a theoretical scale of people's interactions with the world. Nader compared athletics to fast food, which "turns the tongue against the brain."

Ay caramba! :dunce: The number of athletes in "big-time" programs (mostly football and men's basketball, sometimes women's basketball) is a tiny fraction of the student body at a place like Berkeley. And most of the participants in other sports really are student-athletes ("...and nearly all of us will be going pro in something other than sports."). Just zip it, Ralph, or if you'd like, I'll get you some duct tape. :eyes:

[joeybee12]

1. I think he was referring to the entire SEC even though he was at berkley...

If so, he's got a point! :evilgrin:

[KamaAina]

2. Isn't Vanderbilt in the SEC?

Pretty good school, that. Also LSU's English department is among the best, and, of course, Ole Miss grew the pot for that federal program that got eveyone all atwitter. :)

[Scurrilous]

3. @#$% Ralph Nader. n/t

[Old and In the Way]

4. Why bring the message to Berkley?

Why not to Oklahoma or Nebraska or OSU or Wisconsin, etc?

[KamaAina]

5. His sister teaches there

she teaches a course about athletics in society, hence the odd choice of topic.

Cal actually does have pretensions to becoming a big-time football program. One year they were edged out of a Rose Bowl bid by hundredths of a BCS point, all because they didn't win a makeup game in a blowout. :grr:

[Auggie]

6. Well...

the values of this country are seriously fucked-up.

[KamaAina]

7. True dat, but...

...I really don't have college football or hoops on my radar as even one of the top ten fucked-upest values in society.

[Upton]

8. I disagree with Nader on this...

but I agree with him on about 90% of everything else..which is more than I can say for any other public figure.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Go Miami!

:woohoo:

[trumad]

10. Miami has excellent Grad rates.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2010-10-27-ncaa-graduation-rates-study_N.htm

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. Miami Lobbyist?

:shrug:

Your emotional investment in Miami™ troubles me.