College sports had their fair share of scandal in 2009. Two of the best-known involved University of Oregon (UO) and University of Southern California (USC). UO's football team had problems with a handful of players, the most famous of whom probably being LeGarrette Blount who was reinstated after a suspension for cold cocking an opposing player who had taunted him during one postgame. USC, on the other hand, has been under investigation by the NCAA for years. The NCAA had received reports that USC coaches or their intermediaries may have enticed star players Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo with benefits worth thousands of dollars.
Commenting on the situation at UO, Lonnie White wrote, "A head coach's desire to win is usually heard a lot louder than his willingness to recruit responsible student athletes." Many people quickly condemn such decisions. But the reality of the pressures facing coaches is astounding. Running a top-tier NCAA program is an activity abounding in complexity with millions of dollars at stake.
Philosophy is a subject that is unbearably frustrating at times and frequently disconnected from reality. Bertrand Russell once wrote, "The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it." But one good thing about philosophy is it forces you to think in great depth, often about things you would hardly have considered otherwise; and one of the most valuable of those things is to consider your own outlook on subjects that seem straightforward at first glance.
The term "coaching philosophies" gets thrown around a lot, but there are two that every college coach has to choose between: the belief that anything is worth winning and the belief that developing student athletes into mature, responsible adults is first priority. It's easy to knock the first school and tout the second, but the first is probably the most widely practiced and is often responsible for getting us the super-powered teams that we love to watch.
Education faces a similar dilemma. In front of the new Farmer School of Business, two mantras are engraved fittingly opposite each other. The first reads, "Knowledge is power" and the second, "Leadership requires vision, integrity, and courage." The real keyword in that second one is "integrity." While the first espouses a value-neutral philosophy of education — we're here for our own personal gain, to obtain the skills necessary to get influential and well-paying jobs, with which we can do good but are not necessarily expected to do so — the second implies a communal approach, in which we become leaders possessing character and responsibility.
Unlike the football example, these two beliefs are not necessarily exclusive. The second, in fact, almost incorporates the first. The emphasis is still on producing "visionaries" of great ability. But the tones starkly contrast, and they reflect a differing of opinion on education's true purpose, a difference of opinion that silently splits both students and faculty.
So how far did I get here? Not very. I have my own beliefs about both education and college sports, but they aren't necessarily the "right" ones. But, as my teachers keep telling me, sometimes pinpointing the question is more valuable than actually answering it.
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