4 ms·

I wish I could start a tech focused university without any sports at all. Be interesting to see what happened.

iliis 13y ago
This seems to be the norm here in Europe. Our university does have a very diverse offer of sports activities (everything from running, dancing, boxing or paragliding to jazz and waterboarding), but it is more a hobby-thingie and doesn't touch normal study-life at all.
- itsbonczek 13y ago
  True, but there's a pretty good chance that you have a local football club to root for. College athletics is the American equivalent of that.
  - johnchristopher 13y ago
    No, really. Our equivalent is much less hyped and attended and players are rarely university or college students. Most don't have any HS degree and are "international" or at least "inter-city player".
    - brudgers 13y ago
      I think you missed the basis of comparison. In the US, the role of local sports team is largely filled by scholastic sports programs - i.e. small towns in the US turn out on Friday nights to root for the local high school football (American) team in 8000 seat stadiums in part because there are no significant second and third and fourth division professional sports teams. The public land grant universities tend to fill a similar role at the regional level due to the geographic expanse of the US relative to European countries - e.g. Alabama is about the size of England as a catchment area. It might be argued that the US minor league baseball system maps onto the European football pyramid model - but it is probably a mistake. Unlike the lower tiers of the footballing pyramid which tend to consist of independent teams which sell players on for profit, minor league baseball consists almost entirely of developmental teams affiliated with major league franchises and have their rosters and lineups and substitution patterns dictated from above rather than in the interest of points on the scoreboard or standings.
hugh4life 13y ago
FWIW, here are some tech focused universities that usually have pared down athletics programs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Independent_Technological_Universities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Independent_Tech...
mkr-hn 13y ago
We call them technical schools here. You get highly focused professional degrees in two year schools and more versatile (but more expensive) degrees in four year schools. One of the local technical schools just broke ground on a new campus down the road: http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-06-25/barrow-schools-lanier-tech-break-ground-joint-campus http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-06-25/barrow-schools... The main campus for Lanier Tech (2 year school) is right next to the four year Gainesville State College, and they have a credit transfer agreement. They rarely have sports programs on the level of a university.
acjohnson55 13y ago
MIT has sports, but they're hardly overshadowing the academics. The Ivy League was founded with the very purpose of combating the out of control expansion of college football [1]. None of them offer athletic scholarships (although it is known that strong athletic ability can help get you admitted). A lot of top universities, such as the members of the University Athletic Association [2], have chosen NCAA Division 3, which also does not permit athletic scholarships. Spelman College, a very highly regarded historically black college for women, just recently dropped their interscolastic sports [3]. Plenty of examples exist, but it's clear that the periodic backlash against college sports is not a prevailing trend. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Athletic_Association http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Athletic_Association [3] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/sports/at-spelman-dropping-sports-in-favor-of-fitness.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/sports/at-spelman-dropping...

iliis 13y ago

This seems to be the norm here in Europe. Our university does have a very diverse offer of sports activities (everything from running, dancing, boxing or paragliding to jazz and waterboarding), but it is more a hobby-thingie and doesn't touch normal study-life at all.

itsbonczek 13y ago
True, but there's a pretty good chance that you have a local football club to root for. College athletics is the American equivalent of that.
- johnchristopher 13y ago
  No, really. Our equivalent is much less hyped and attended and players are rarely university or college students. Most don't have any HS degree and are "international" or at least "inter-city player".
  - brudgers 13y ago
    I think you missed the basis of comparison. In the US, the role of local sports team is largely filled by scholastic sports programs - i.e. small towns in the US turn out on Friday nights to root for the local high school football (American) team in 8000 seat stadiums in part because there are no significant second and third and fourth division professional sports teams. The public land grant universities tend to fill a similar role at the regional level due to the geographic expanse of the US relative to European countries - e.g. Alabama is about the size of England as a catchment area. It might be argued that the US minor league baseball system maps onto the European football pyramid model - but it is probably a mistake. Unlike the lower tiers of the footballing pyramid which tend to consist of independent teams which sell players on for profit, minor league baseball consists almost entirely of developmental teams affiliated with major league franchises and have their rosters and lineups and substitution patterns dictated from above rather than in the interest of points on the scoreboard or standings.

hugh4life 13y ago

FWIW, here are some tech focused universities that usually have pared down athletics programs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Independent_Technological_Universities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Independent_Tech...

mkr-hn 13y ago

We call them technical schools here. You get highly focused professional degrees in two year schools and more versatile (but more expensive) degrees in four year schools. One of the local technical schools just broke ground on a new campus down the road: http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-06-25/barrow-schools-lanier-tech-break-ground-joint-campus http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-06-25/barrow-schools... The main campus for Lanier Tech (2 year school) is right next to the four year Gainesville State College, and they have a credit transfer agreement. They rarely have sports programs on the level of a university.

acjohnson55 13y ago

MIT has sports, but they're hardly overshadowing the academics. The Ivy League was founded with the very purpose of combating the out of control expansion of college football [1]. None of them offer athletic scholarships (although it is known that strong athletic ability can help get you admitted). A lot of top universities, such as the members of the University Athletic Association [2], have chosen NCAA Division 3, which also does not permit athletic scholarships. Spelman College, a very highly regarded historically black college for women, just recently dropped their interscolastic sports [3]. Plenty of examples exist, but it's clear that the periodic backlash against college sports is not a prevailing trend. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Athletic_Association http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Athletic_Association [3] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/sports/at-spelman-dropping-sports-in-favor-of-fitness.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/sports/at-spelman-dropping...