Penn State's sickness

[SeattleUte]

Apparently Jerry Sandusky is in a way a very sick man. That's not what this post is about.

NPR has been talking to Penn State students and other residents of State College, PA about the effect of Penn State football's disgrace on them; last night the entirety of This American Life was about this topic. The people interviewed have said things like in the past if you criticized the football program you would be shunned and ostracized (you could say they had a bad game but not criticize the program; does this ethos sound familiar to anyone here?). The whole whole town is in a nightmarish malaise; everywhere you go people are in shock and talking about the same thing. Some compared revelations about alleged child abuse by Jerry Sandusky to 9/11. Several said the tragedy has made everyone realize the world was not what it seemed, etc.

I want to scream at these people. They may be the unintended beneficiaries of this tragedy. What they have needed is to get a real life. There is something more than a little peculiar about people making what happens to strangers, good or bad, such a momentous event in their lives (and I'm talking here about Penn State football not the victims of abuse; the above-mentioned comments have been about how the fall of Penn State football has shattered lives of FANS). Spectator sports and the British royalty have more in common than we'd like to admit. For my part, I'm excited about the Utah-Wasu game today, but any day I'd trade a Ute win for any kind of even very modest professional success; I'd trade a Ute win most of all for something even very modest that makes one of my kids happy and adds to their self-confidence. (There is a published legal opinion about a lawyer who went to watch Georgetown in the Final Four and delibarately failed to show up at a hearing for a client.)

Apparently identity fulfillment is the opiate--maybe more likely cocaine--of the people at least at Penn State. A person close to me who went to Chicago for college and Michigan for grad school said that the pervasive obsession at Michigan with spectator sports, all the people streaming to the massive stadium dressed in their gear on game day, was jarring, and in a way oppressive and incongruous with her real purpose at Michigan.

A professor at Penn State who was interviewed nailed it. She said the school's preoccupation had tilted way too far in the direction of the football team. Too many students cared more about the tail gating, the roster status, following the lives of the players and potential players (in HS), anticipating and experiencing the big game on Saturday, than learning and succeeding at school. She said maybe something good that can come of this is a realignment of priorities. Football matters, she said, but it's not the most important thing. Not even close.

Maybe now some of these lost souls will find some genuine balm for their barren spiritual lives.

[YOhio]

Interesting post, SU. There is much truth to what you say, if not a bit overstated. I do often wonder why I waste so much time and money following sports. Time that could be spent working, with my family, reading or pursuing other hobbies. It's not as if following BYU sports is particularly fulfilling. The lows often feeler lower than the highs are high, though that's not always the case. There is something unexplainable about it. Associating yourself with a team or university from a young age seems to create a loyal attachment that's tough to break. It's why bandwagon fans are so frowned upon.

Being a part of a fanbase is one of the few communal activities we have in America. I'm not a sociologist and haven't even read the reviews for Bowling Alone, but the only other activities that seem to reach the same mass are politics and religion. The OWS and Tea Party rallies come to mind. In the micro it creates friendships, bonds and memories that are lasting. I recall reading a story you wrote to your brother where you shared an experience watching the U at the Final Four. Though the story was great, I thought it was even more interesting that when called upon to share a memory with his world-famous business man brother, a top-notch lawyer shared a sports story. That's the power of being a fan.

But like most things, the danger is in the extremes. Being a fan can be fulfilling, frustrating and all the rest, but obsession can obscure priorities and drain meaning out of existence. I doubt even a majority of Penn State students and alums were at this level. It was likely a vocal minority that overpowered the rest.

[SeattleUte]

Interesting post, SU. There is much truth to what you say, if not a bit overstated. I do often wonder why I waste so much time and money following sports. Time that could be spent working, with my family, reading or pursuing other hobbies. It's not as if following BYU sports is particularly fulfilling. The lows often feeler lower than the highs are high, though that's not always the case. There is something unexplainable about it. Associating yourself with a team or university from a young age seems to create a loyal attachment that's tough to break. It's why bandwagon fans are so frowned upon.

Being a part of a fanbase is one of the few communal activities we have in America. I'm not a sociologist and haven't even read the reviews for Bowling Alone, but the only other activities that seem to reach the same mass are politics and religion. The OWS and Tea Party rallies come to mind. In the micro it creates friendships, bonds and memories that are lasting. I recall reading a story you wrote to your brother where you shared an experience watching the U at the Final Four. Though the story was great, I thought it was even more interesting that when called upon to share a memory with his world-famous business man brother, a top-notch lawyer shared a sports story. That's the power of being a fan.

But like most things, the danger is in the extremes. Being a fan can be fulfilling, frustrating and all the rest, but obsession can obscure priorities and drain meaning out of existence. I doubt even a majority of Penn State students and alums were at this level. It was likely a vocal minority that overpowered the rest.

I have called Utah sports the river that runs through it in my family. Maybe that's not a good thing. Maybe it's sad.

I just listened to a chunck of the part of This American Life that I missed las night. They intercut the current program with a program from 2009 that they made about Penn State football after the Princeton Review ranked the school no. 1 party school in the nation. PR's poll is not scientific, but illuminating. They ask college students questions like how often do you binge drink? Does drinking affect your studying? Etc., and get many thousands of responses.

In 2009 TAL talked about seeing tailgating as far as the eye could see, alumni parents getting drunk with their underage student children. Students peeing in yards of nearby houses, many of them professors' houses, ripping out street signs that they drug around at 1:30 in the morning, drop kicking garbage cans, etc., shocking statistics about the percent of PSU students who binge drink, impact on studies, etc., sad stories about drinking related deaths of kids.

However, this does seem to be a loud minority. In 2009 TAL interviewed president Spaniel. He denied that football was important to fund raising or the school's image. He did a pretty good job of making his case (though by now we know that he made a habit of treating Paterno like the Pope).

Then they interviewed a Philadelphia Enquirer reporter who had written about Penn State football's fiscal issues. He marveled that Penn Stat football had $72 million revenues and $19 million costs, thus $53 million profits. Then the interviewers asked what the school's entire budget was. The entire budget, said the reporter is $4 billion. The reporter then got tongue tied trying to explain why football wasn't really of miniscule importance, or, as I have said, the flea on the hounds back.

53/4,000= 1.3%. I think my math is right.

[il Padrino Ute]

Terrific posts by both SU and YO.

The only thing I will post here is that I think sports are fun and an escape from the real life doldrums that I experience, but in the big picture, they're insignificant. Like SU, I'd trade a Utah win for any one of my kids to find success in their endeavors.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Terrific posts by both SU and YO.
.

Yes.

[eldiente]

It appears to me that Bronco Mendenhall's "football is fifth" becomes more and more appropriate.

[Solon]

Too many students cared more about the tail gating, the roster status, following the lives of the players and potential players (in HS), anticipating and experiencing the big game on Saturday, than learning and succeeding at school..

I think SU nails it with his comments on identity. There's so much of a PSU student's identity wrapped up in the football ritual that it detracts from everything else. From the "need" to buy that week's t-shirt to skipping class to sleep in Paternoville, and everything in between, it was an unhealthily large part of student life.

It only got worse when Penn State was winning. The #1 Party-School tag came on the heels of the 2009 season, which was a Big-10 championship year (and a loss in the Rose Bowl). And let's not kid ourselves: the school's drinking culture is pervasive. Spanier's response to the problem was to support lowering the legal drinking age to 18.

Another of Penn State's big problems, both at the city-level and the football program, is unbelievable insularity. This isn't so much a problem in the academic departments, where nearly everyone is a transplant to State College, but all of the staff, maintenance, etc. are locals. Often, they were both resentful of the affluence of the school (the neighboring communities were the staff could afford to live are really, really poor rust-belt towns) and intensely loyal to the football program. These people have a huge chip on their shoulder with regards to the opportunities of a large university, both loathing the money it bestows on the needle-necked wankers, and depending on it for their low-paying jobs. The football team was an important part of bridging this town-and-gown divide.

We see the same insularity with the football team. The football program seemed to hire a lot of ex-PSU players as coaches, and to hold onto its assistant coaches for inordinate amounts of time. I think it's important to bring in fresh points-of-view in order to shake up the culture. Instead, you got entrenchment of the status quo. The football program has its own dorms, cafeteria, weight room, gym, class rooms, and library hours. Ordinary folks can't get within several yards of their buildings without authorization. This is the culture of veneration, secrecy, and non-accountability that we've come to understand ruled the place. With awful and disgraceful results.

[myboynoah]

I think SU nails it with his comments on identity. There's so much of a PSU student's identity wrapped up in the football ritual that it detracts from everything else. From the "need" to buy that week's t-shirt to skipping class to sleep in Paternoville, and everything in between, it was an unhealthily large part of student life.

It only got worse when Penn State was winning. The #1 Party-School tag came on the heels of the 2009 season, which was a Big-10 championship year (and a loss in the Rose Bowl). And let's not kid ourselves: the school's drinking culture is pervasive. Spanier's response to the problem was to support lowering the legal drinking age to 18.

Another of Penn State's big problems, both at the city-level and the football program, is unbelievable insularity. This isn't so much a problem in the academic departments, where nearly everyone is a transplant to State College, but all of the staff, maintenance, etc. are locals. Often, they were both resentful of the affluence of the school (the neighboring communities were the staff could afford to live are really, really poor rust-belt towns) and intensely loyal to the football program. These people have a huge chip on their shoulder with regards to the opportunities of a large university, both loathing the money it bestows on the needle-necked wankers, and depending on it for their low-paying jobs. The football team was an important part of bridging this town-and-gown divide.

We see the same insularity with the football team. The football program seemed to hire a lot of ex-PSU players as coaches, and to hold onto its assistant coaches for inordinate amounts of time. I think it's important to bring in fresh points-of-view in order to shake up the culture. Instead, you got entrenchment of the status quo. The football program has its own dorms, cafeteria, weight room, gym, class rooms, and library hours. Ordinary folks can't get within several yards of their buildings without authorization. This is the culture of veneration, secrecy, and non-accountability that we've come to understand ruled the place. With awful and disgraceful results.

Interesting comments. I wonder how many other schools separate their football programs like this.

[woot]

I think SU nails it with his comments on identity. There's so much of a PSU student's identity wrapped up in the football ritual that it detracts from everything else. From the "need" to buy that week's t-shirt to skipping class to sleep in Paternoville, and everything in between, it was an unhealthily large part of student life.

It only got worse when Penn State was winning. The #1 Party-School tag came on the heels of the 2009 season, which was a Big-10 championship year (and a loss in the Rose Bowl). And let's not kid ourselves: the school's drinking culture is pervasive. Spanier's response to the problem was to support lowering the legal drinking age to 18.

Another of Penn State's big problems, both at the city-level and the football program, is unbelievable insularity. This isn't so much a problem in the academic departments, where nearly everyone is a transplant to State College, but all of the staff, maintenance, etc. are locals. Often, they were both resentful of the affluence of the school (the neighboring communities were the staff could afford to live are really, really poor rust-belt towns) and intensely loyal to the football program. These people have a huge chip on their shoulder with regards to the opportunities of a large university, both loathing the money it bestows on the needle-necked wankers, and depending on it for their low-paying jobs. The football team was an important part of bridging this town-and-gown divide.

We see the same insularity with the football team. The football program seemed to hire a lot of ex-PSU players as coaches, and to hold onto its assistant coaches for inordinate amounts of time. I think it's important to bring in fresh points-of-view in order to shake up the culture. Instead, you got entrenchment of the status quo. The football program has its own dorms, cafeteria, weight room, gym, class rooms, and library hours. Ordinary folks can't get within several yards of their buildings without authorization. This is the culture of veneration, secrecy, and non-accountability that we've come to understand ruled the place. With awful and disgraceful results.

Very interesting. I suppose a lot of schools are like this, but I've seen a couple dozen different football players walking around campus (and was nerdy enough to recognize them), in addition to having a couple in my classes (including a starting LB right now). They do have their own building and whatnot, but they don't seem to be in it all the time. Does PSU seem especially insular compared to other schools you've been to?

[Solon]

Very interesting. I suppose a lot of schools are like this, but I've seen a couple dozen different football players walking around campus (and was nerdy enough to recognize them), in addition to having a couple in my classes (including a starting LB right now). They do have their own building and whatnot, but they don't seem to be in it all the time. Does PSU seem especially insular compared to other schools you've been to?

Yeah, they seem more insular than the few schools I've been around to, but that's not a huge sample-size. I remember riding the shuttle-bus with Steve Smith a few times at the U. At PSU, football players get their own parking lot (in an ideal location), practices are closed (not unheard of elsewhere), and my impression was that the players stuck together and didn't hang out in the main student places (like the Union).

I always thought the athletic facilities were locked down for security reasons, since everybody wants to shake hands with JoePa. But evidently it goes beyond that.

I've had football players in class before and they were, generally, decent students who got good grades (C or above) and went out of their way to make sure that they made arrangements for away-game absences (I had a student e-mail me from the hospital on a Sunday night, saying he wouldn't make it to class on Monday; I had seen him blow out his knee on TV the day before). JoePa did that one right.

By "their own classrooms", I meant the tutoring center for football players only.

[woot]

Yeah, they seem more insular than the few schools I've been around to, but that's not a huge sample-size. I remember riding the shuttle-bus with Steve Smith a few times at the U. At PSU, football players get their own parking lot (in an ideal location), practices are closed (not unheard of elsewhere), and my impression was that the players stuck together and didn't hang out in the main student places (like the Union).

I always thought the athletic facilities were locked down for security reasons, since everybody wants to shake hands with JoePa. But evidently it goes beyond that.

I've had football players in class before and they were, generally, decent students who got good grades (C or above) and went out of their way to make sure that they made arrangements for away-game absences (I had a student e-mail me from the hospital on a Sunday night, saying he wouldn't make it to class on Monday; I had seen him blow out his knee on TV the day before). JoePa did that one right.

By "their own classrooms", I meant the tutoring center for football players only.

Cool. It probably isn't too dissimilar here. I've only once seen a player not walking with at least one other. I haven't had a student miss class yet either, which has been nice. In my experience with 2 football players and a half a dozen women's soccer players, the football team is much, much smarter than the women's soccer team. I even had one of latter tell me she didn't need to discuss with me why she did so poorly on her test because she has a tutor for that. She bombed the next one too.