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Re: Whose having a better year?
Mavs 1
You're right, that is where we disagree. Here's why.
As soon as sports turn professional, they become about winning and losing as a means to an end. And, I will even grant you that at BIG TIME college programs - I am talking about Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, and programs of that nature - it's about winning. Not only do those programs create national acclaim for their host institution, they also contribute financially. Only the top Division I programs can claim that kind of success.
With State, and many programs of equal size, the athletic program isn't chained to the budget and bottom line. It's understood that the program will lose money. The value of athletics is found in the way in which it is uniquely tied to public opinion. It's an easy way to mobilze the alumni and it attracts the attention of prospective students.
Jumping to Division I - the mere idea - has distanced State from any other South Dakota institution.
Now, I know you said you agreed that the jump was good for State, so I am not going to try and hammer that home. I just wanted to point out that there are only a few programs in the nation that have a reason to be obsessed with wins and losses.
There's a philosophical divide, obviously, between your mentality and mine. Perhaps its the way we were raised in sports and what sports means to us individually.
To me, sports is a methaphor for life.
Success is born through a combination of hard work, compassion, and preparation. When the time comes, you forget the pressure and execute. The object is to win, sure. But, no one wins every time. You hold your head high no matter the outcome, though, because you gave all you could.
Forgive all the cliche, but, there's a reason sports lingo creeps into our everday vernacular - because sports an easily identifiable and quantifiable blueprint for success in life. But, to care so much about wins and losses trivializes the nature of competition.
Since success is ALWAYS directly proportional to the size of the challenge, I appreciate the fact that State has decided to provide it's student athletes with a chance to achieve greater things.
When State was competing for recruits with other area institutions, I thought the decision-making process came down, basically, to non-sports factors. What do they want to major in? Where do they live? Where did their parents go? Now, though, I am proud to say that prospective athletes can choose State based on their committment to sports - to testing themselves against the toughest challenges.
It matters to me that future athletes will graduate from State better prepared to succeed in life - since, after all, "most of them will turn professional in something other than sports." It only means good things for State's future.
Go Jacks!
Mavs 1
You're right, that is where we disagree. Here's why.
As soon as sports turn professional, they become about winning and losing as a means to an end. And, I will even grant you that at BIG TIME college programs - I am talking about Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, and programs of that nature - it's about winning. Not only do those programs create national acclaim for their host institution, they also contribute financially. Only the top Division I programs can claim that kind of success.
With State, and many programs of equal size, the athletic program isn't chained to the budget and bottom line. It's understood that the program will lose money. The value of athletics is found in the way in which it is uniquely tied to public opinion. It's an easy way to mobilze the alumni and it attracts the attention of prospective students.
Jumping to Division I - the mere idea - has distanced State from any other South Dakota institution.
Now, I know you said you agreed that the jump was good for State, so I am not going to try and hammer that home. I just wanted to point out that there are only a few programs in the nation that have a reason to be obsessed with wins and losses.
There's a philosophical divide, obviously, between your mentality and mine. Perhaps its the way we were raised in sports and what sports means to us individually.
To me, sports is a methaphor for life.
Success is born through a combination of hard work, compassion, and preparation. When the time comes, you forget the pressure and execute. The object is to win, sure. But, no one wins every time. You hold your head high no matter the outcome, though, because you gave all you could.
Forgive all the cliche, but, there's a reason sports lingo creeps into our everday vernacular - because sports an easily identifiable and quantifiable blueprint for success in life. But, to care so much about wins and losses trivializes the nature of competition.
Since success is ALWAYS directly proportional to the size of the challenge, I appreciate the fact that State has decided to provide it's student athletes with a chance to achieve greater things.
When State was competing for recruits with other area institutions, I thought the decision-making process came down, basically, to non-sports factors. What do they want to major in? Where do they live? Where did their parents go? Now, though, I am proud to say that prospective athletes can choose State based on their committment to sports - to testing themselves against the toughest challenges.
It matters to me that future athletes will graduate from State better prepared to succeed in life - since, after all, "most of them will turn professional in something other than sports." It only means good things for State's future.
Go Jacks!
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