For every school president that ’sees the light’ and goes against alumni and conventional wisdom to shift funding, there’ll be two whose fundraising office and resume-building impulse will lead them to double-down on the athletic bet.
To be fair, I've known college and university presidents who were academically serious, ethical, farsighted and responsible. Even they had major investments in athletics, and often little control over the athletic departments. I've also known presidents who were fickle, ambitious, self-serving and borderline stupid, and the only thing that kept them from investing more in athletics was ... well, nothing, but the limits of the budget and need to maintain the fig leaf of accreditation.
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