As you may recall, I recently vented over our national fascination with sporting events even as we generally ignore or deny issues of real import. I remain shocked at the extensive discussions of the most trivial matters concerning weekly football matches, both professional and collegiate. Of course, major college programs now field semi-pro players, so the old distinction is irrelevant. Nevertheless, we approach life as if all that matters is the outcome of the most recent sporting events involving our favorite teams.

A few institutions of higher learning have seen the light in the past. The University of Chicago abandoned inter collegiate athletics many decades ago, preferring to focus on what matters … research and education. My undergraduate alma mater, Clark University, was founded as the second graduate school in the U.S. (after John’s Hopkins). Jonas Clark, the founder, stipulated that the school would never have a football team. He was a prescient man.

When Donna Shalala took over as Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin around 1990, she took a different path. The athletic department was in the crapper. She immediately saw that the way to open up the wallets of the alumni was to field winning teams, especially in football. She hired a new athletic director (Pat Richter) and a new football coach (Barry Alverez). Athletic success soon followed along with more generous donations to the school’s endowment.

Most potential contributors cannot fathom the complexities of research and development at this level, but they damn well know how their favorite teams are doing. It is hard to argue with Donna’s logic, who went on to serve as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and then as Congresswoman. She was a smart cookie.

While I lament the loss of the amateur character of major collegiate sports, I get the pressures to go along and chase the dollars. Flashy success on the sporting fields helps secure support for what really counts in labs hidden from public purview. However, I weep that so much energy goes into activities that, at the end of the day, are just not that important. These games, at best, are the bread and circuses that detract most of us from attending to what really counts. That is what concerns me the most.

So many of us eagerly check out whether our team has risen or fallen in the latest rankings even though it is very early in the season. Really, the rankings are virtually useless at this point, though that does little to diminish the passionate debate bordering on the pathological that follows each new posting. 🙄

Would that such intensity follow other news that gets far less attention. In 2023, we have had 23 different weather related climactic disasters in the U.S. with damages exceeding $1 billion each. This breaks the previous record set in 2020 and we have three months to go. Why aren’t we following this unfolding tragedy with the same laser focus as we do the fortunes of the SEC football teams?

Our national debt now exceeds $32 trillion. As the old saying goes, a trillion here and a trillion there and pretty soon you are talking about real money. In a few years, we will be spending $1.4 trillion annually just to service our debt. I can remember when we struggled to keep the federal budget under a billion dollars.

To the extent that we do debate such matters, the logic employed is laughable. How many Republicans have argued that we should use the same discipline with our national finances as we do with our household budgets. Yeah, right! Total personal credit card debt now exceeds $1 trillion while overall household debt now exceeds $17 trillion.

Or we get the twilight zone debate where Republicans focus on cuts in domestic spending (excluding defense) to solve our budget issues. Anyone with a ounce of sense must realize that a serious debate must include both spending cuts AND revenue increases, especially when those at the top of the pyramid often pay disproportionally less in taxes than struggling school teachers. The share of the income and wealth pies going to the top 1 percent did not happen because God willed it. It happened because egregiously greedy individuals manipulated the system in their favor. Let’s get passionate about that debate.

Or why do we look aside when it is pointed out that over 16 percent of children under 6 live in poverty. We can easily soothe our collective consciousness by rationalizing this tragedy by assuming it is their fault or nothing can be done, at least not without adverse consequences. But then we would have to explain away the reality that our peer nations have child poverty rates that are a fraction of ours. Poverty is not beyond the reach of public policy if there is a will to address it.

One last kick at this cat. As of a few days ago, we had over 500 mass shootings in the U.S. We are on the way to another record year of human carnage. Is this not worthy of our attention and our passion? Here we are talking about lives lost, bodies maimed, and families shattered. Surely, this should count as much as any freaking football game.

Listen, I have followed collegiate sports teams (go Badgers). I can enjoy a good contest (though not as much as I used to do). But I have never forgotten what is important and what, at the end of the day, is not. Sports is entertainment. It is not life and death!