Weeknight college games run counter to academic mission

Phil Mushnick

EQUAL TIME

I'm not good at math, never have been. The guys I play golf with won't let me near the scorecard because once I have to "carry the one," I'm lost. In high school, I scored a "See me" on math SATs.

And I'm no better at applying math to TV issues. In 1989, NBC, 42 years the worthy home of MLB's "Game of the Week," lost the contract to CBS. NBC's Kevin Monaghan called with the news:

"You're not gonna believe this, but we just lost baseball. CBS won the bidding."

"Wow, that's incredible. How much did CBS bid?"

"Four hundred million more than us."

"Wow, geez. ... Ah, Kevin?"

AP

NIGHT & WRONG: Rutgers takes the field for a Thursday night game against Louisville last season. This year, the Scarlet Knights will play three Thursday night road games — at Fresno State, at Central Florida and at Louisville.

"What?"

"Is $400 million a lot or a little?"

Kevin: "I don't know."

And that was in 1989.

Anyway, I wanna give my TV/sports math one more shot, so try to stick with me, and circle in red all the mistakes.

Last week ESPN proudly announced that this college football season it will televise a record number of weekday games — 69 — almost all of them at night.

OK, so now let's figure, very conservatively, that each team brings 65 players to those weekday/night games. That's 69 games times two teams, 138 teams.

So 138 teams times 65 players equals 8,970 student-athletes. In exchange for ESPN money and TV promotion and attention, 8,970 student-athletes will be expected to forget all about school during the week — when classes are held — and instead concentrate on football. Just for one season and one TV network.

In many cases, thousands of these players will be absent from school for at least two days in order to travel, play, return to campus. Or will Arizona St. at Washington St. and Rutgers-Central Florida — Thursday nighters — be day trips?

Also consider that football players, recruited through full scholarships, are generally among the schools' weakest students. Often enrolled — begged to enroll — despite academic achievement far below the admission standards for non-athlete students, many-to-most are among those who can least afford to miss classes.

Then there are some bands and cheerleaders. We're looking at roughly 10,000 college students who this season will lose class time to just ESPN's weekday football schedule in service to their schools' chase for TV exposure and TV money.

Meanwhile, congenial third-year NCAA president Mark Emmert continues to claim that he recognizes the academic shortfall that plague D-I football and basketball, that he recognizes the need for reforms. Same NCAA song, different crooner.

As the latest reform-minded head of the NCAA, Emmert could've demanded that ESPN reduce or even eliminate weeknight televised games, or at least ensure that the games include only teams whose two campuses are close to each other.