Universities are for education

I am an alumnus of the University of Oklahoma, where football tradition reigns. While Barry Switzer ran our football program, OU athletics had rapes, weapons and drug and alcohol prosecutions against athletes. Same thing when he ran the Dallas Cowboys. Yet years later, they name buildings after him, and he hangs around campus like a poltergeist. OU has spent a decade going through coaches in search of the next dynasty. Throughout my college career, I watched athletics take priority over academics. \nNow, when I hear students' comments about leaving a college because the coach is gone, my reaction is this: If you are in college for sports, and nothing but sports, then you are in college for the wrong reasons. You are there to gain knowledge through scholarship. Sports exist at the university level for entertainment and revenue. Don't delude yourself into thinking it's anything more. All of the lessons about teamwork have already been learned. When you get into the workforce, no one will ask you how many games you went to, but they might want to know if you can't stay with a college when a coach leaves, why would you stay with a company if something happens that you don't approve of, that really might or might not have any real bearing on you. Stay with your school, be glad it wasn't you, your friends, your brothers or sisters, or someday your children, getting banged around by a coach with an anger-management issue. Help build the next dynasty.