http://www.memphisflyer.com/blogs/CityBeatBlog/ Comments On: City Beat Blog en-us Copyright 2009 Memphis Flyer. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Memphis Flyer readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Memphis Flyer. wil@desert.net (Memphis Flyer Webmaster) Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0600 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:15:00 -0600 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
I've mentioned it before, but I'll say it again. Look at soccer. Sure, there are college soccer programs and there are college soccer players who go on to play pro. But there aren't any rules in pro soccer that force players to attend one year of college. The youngest player playing pro soccer right now is, I believe, 14. I think he plays for a Mexican team. There are other very young players. The pro teams in Europe (and probably elsewhere) have training programs for gifting young atheletes, and they invest a lot of money bringing up kids through the program, teaching them the skills they need to play soccer.

No one is Europe is arguing that these kids need to go to college and get their degrees. What we do here with our college-to-pro track is utterly hypocritical. Those kids need to go to college, not to get their degrees, but to give the college the opportunity to earn big bucks on the backs of uncompensated players. Don't tell me they're compensated by being given a free education. If their education was what it was all about, the NBA and the NFL wouldn't allow them to enter the draft until they completed their college degrees. The one year requirement would be a joke, if it didn't stink so badly of indentured servitude. College should be for learning, and any sports associated with college should be truly amateur.

And one day, everybody will get a pony.
Posted by Jeff]]> Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:55:29 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by BruceVanWyngarden]]> Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:59:00 -0600 Memphis Flyer
What needs to change is not the game of football but the mega-business of exploiting football players.

Make Sports a degree program just like music, let those students study and perform and compete in track, fencing, or football just like they do in voice piano, or french horn.

Give those that pass the coursework a diploma, and let the small percent who can, make their careers after graduation.
Posted by Powergamz]]> Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:40:40 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by Chris Herrington]]> Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:43:50 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by Mptyler]]> Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:19:38 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by 38103]]> Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:38:00 -0600 Memphis Flyer
But it's never gonna happen. To make something like that happen, you'd have to clean the administrative house first, get rid of all the ticks and fleas who feast so sumptuously on the student body.
Posted by Jeff]]> Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:04:10 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by Jackson Baker]]> Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:06:12 -0600 Memphis Flyer
I truly and fully agree with your points--save one. There are already dozens of professors of Mandarin & Farsi.

They work in the Math Department.

Couldn't we just juggle their schedules a bit?
Posted by Mavis1955]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:50:54 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by mayfield]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:56:02 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by 38103]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:47:17 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by Chris Herrington]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:36:21 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by tomguleff]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:15:15 -0600 Memphis Flyer
I would suggest that, in the midst of SEC country, Memphis will continue to struggle, even if the school gets into a BCS conf. like the Big East. And, if you agree with me that Memphis football will struggle to win/make money even in something like the Big East (or anywhere less than the SEC or Big 12), then why don't we fold up the football shop? Why enter the college-athletics arms race with the SEC and instead put that money somewhere else?

I love love love football and consider myself a U of M fan. Take the $XX million budgeted annually for football and divert it toward being a top 20 or 30 research school. Why couldn't we be one? Then that kind of thing pays dividends for the whole community, not just the one-tenth of the population that actually likes the football team.

Memphis could be on the leading edge of a positive trend. We could be a exemplar for the whole higher-education industry. Or we can have an average of 5 or 6 wins a year (or 7 in a good year) for the rest of our lives. Seems stupid.
Posted by Greg Akers]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:10:53 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by Phlo]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:59:42 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by 38103]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:57:20 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by saispas]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:40:13 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by tjpositive]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:36:19 -0600 Memphis Flyer
If professional linguistics or professional physics had the paydays and the media hype lavished on the super stars of professional sports, the priorities at universities would follow suit.
Posted by Powergamz]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:27:38 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by llp]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:53:06 -0600 Memphis Flyer
..."With the help of the former Cassius Clay, Miller began trying to revitalize the neighborhood in 1979 by opening a movie theater, the Mohammed Ali Cinema. By 1982, the city of Memphis leased the Beale Street Historic District to the development company for $10 million in federal grants.

The development company signed a 52-year sublease on all of the Beale Street property from 2nd to 4th Streets (with the exception of BSDC office space and the Old Daisy building) with the Elkington & Keltner company to maintain the common areas (sidewalks, street, parking lots), hold and promote special events in street, and act as the landlord for buildings and business in the district.

Beale 1983Beale Street as it looked to John Elkington in 1983.
When manager John Elkington came to Beale, his first impressions were of a war zone. The former Vanderbilt University linebacker still has a picture of the fenced-in street covered in sand, surrounded by boarded-up buildings.

Seven years later, Elkington wrote a letter to a city official which appeared in the Memphis Commercial Appeal that said the city-owned Beale Street district should be sold to private owners upon renovation to help recoup the $13 million in public money invested in the project..."
Posted by C3]]> Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:58:03 -0600 Memphis Flyer http://www.southerner.net/v1n4_99/socultur…
Posted by C3]]> Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:55:13 -0600 Memphis Flyer Posted by mayfield]]> Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:41:34 -0600 Memphis Flyer
My parting shot in my first post was in fun. I do agree that no matter how many safeguards are in place there will always be the smart ass that breaks the rules. A lot like the message boards here!!! ;)
Posted by mad_merc]]> Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:17:58 -0600 Memphis Flyer

There is potential disaster lurking everywhere. That lunchbox may be full of fritos or full of pot. All useful tools are just as useful to our malefactors. I'm not taking a stand one way or the other. I don't know the service so I just can't say. I do know that our culture shows no signs of becoming less computerized. An that there haven't been quills and inkwells in the classroom for some time
Posted by Chris Davis]]> Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:30:50 -0600 Memphis Flyer