Friday, June 1, 2012

Should College Football Be Banned?

Here's an entertaining (and informative) Intelligence Squared US debate ("Ban College Football") that you can watch or listen to (I know, I know, a dangling preposition, but as Winston Churchill once remarked, "That is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put").

The motion being debated is "Ban college football." Arguing on behalf of the motion (i.e., college football should be banned) are Buzz Bissinger, author of what some consider to be one of the best books ever written about football, Friday Night Lights, and Canadian-born Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers. Arguing against it are Tim Green, who is a former professional football player for the Atlanta Falcons, a lawyer, and the author of 26 books (I'm not kidding), and Jason Whitlock, who played college football at Ball State, is a columnist for FoxSports.com, and who won a National  Journalism Award from the Scripps Howard Foundation in 2008, the first sport writer to win such an award.

As with all Intelligence Squared debates, those attending vote before and after the debate, and the winning team is decided by how many minds were changed and in what direction. Not only can you listen to or watch the debate at the Intelligence Squared website ("Ban College Football"), but you can access transcripts of the debate as well. The debate can also be downloaded from iTunes.

3 comments:

  1. Michael SchneickertJune 9, 2012 at 10:55 AM

    I think they should pay the college players (with a salary cap)...let's face it, it's basically minor league ball for the NFL and no one really uses their scholarship for attending class. And, if you paid them, maybe they could save a little money for those who don't go on to the NFL...then they'd have the money to go back to school!
    With a scholarship, when your time is up, you're done and you've lost the opportunity to get an education.

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  2. There is a movement to do this, and it may be in the near future that college basketball and football players will get paid.

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  3. I agree with the salary idea as well

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