We will finish this season with the worst record since Tara went 14-14 in her 2nd year. And in all those years, with three national championships, more than a dozen final fours, and decades of consecutive NCAA appearances, not one of those teams was paid more than this one.
Unfair to say that? Of course it is probably unfair, given the changes that have recently taken place. But in another way it does accurately describe my own feelings. When amateur student-athletes under-perform, I find it easier to be charitable, to stay positive, to realize that their main purpose in life is not to entertain me but to get a first-rate education at a university I care deeply about. But now the motives of college athletes are much more mixed, and so my feelings about the student-athletes I cheer for are also much more mixed. Do we criticize as if we were watching pros, or criticize as if we were watching student-athletes? This discombobulates me.
Unfair to say that? Of course it is probably unfair, given the changes that have recently taken place. But in another way it does accurately describe my own feelings. When amateur student-athletes under-perform, I find it easier to be charitable, to stay positive, to realize that their main purpose in life is not to entertain me but to get a first-rate education at a university I care deeply about. But now the motives of college athletes are much more mixed, and so my feelings about the student-athletes I cheer for are also much more mixed. Do we criticize as if we were watching pros, or criticize as if we were watching student-athletes? This discombobulates me.