Why is Oregon the enemy of college athletics?

[kmoose]

Oregon has a new Football Performance Center (read: place for pampering football players, to keep them even further detached from the reality of the world around them):

Oregon Football Shows off Amazing New Football Performance Center | Bleacher Report

Treat your athletes like they are above everyone else, and they will think and act like it. Oregon's over the top spending, in an effort to get top football recruits, just adds to the growing cynicism around the country about student-athletes.

 

[stlnd01]

That's fairly impressive, but when did college football become so... comfortable? Leather couches and whatnot. I'd imagine when things aren't going well it can all feel like a very luxurious prison.
Also, why would you put wood floors in a weight room?

For what it's worth I'm not sure Oregon's any worse in this regard than many other big time programs, and not so big-time. Remember the weight room shots from Iowa State in Lazard's thread?

 

[Anchorman]

Yeah, I'm so glad Notre Dame doesn't have a dedicated athletics/football building or anything

Only difference between Oregon's and everyone else's facilities is that Oregon just took the 1-10 scale and scored a 12. It's not like ND doesn't try to impress recruits too. I think it was NDLax that commented that one of the lacrosse program's big sells is the dedicated lax facilities.

 

[kmoose]

Yeah, I'm so glad Notre Dame doesn't have a dedicated athletics/football building or anything

Only difference between Oregon's and everyone else's facilities is that Oregon just took the 1-10 scale and scored a 12. It's not like ND doesn't try to impress recruits too. I think it was NDLax that commented that one of the lacrosse program's big sells is the dedicated lax facilities.

It's not about having facilities that are dedicated to sports. It's the over-the-top treatment of athletes at some of these other schools. ND tries very hard to give their student-athletes a "regular" college experience. In the meantime, other colleges are trying very hard to isolate their kids from the "real world" around them. And then we wonder why Aaron Hernandez thinks he can get away with murdering a guy because the guy was talking to people that he had a beef with?

 

[Redbar]

That facility is insane. I am sure it will attract some recruits but I am not sure that is conducive to being a tough hard nosed football team.

 

[BeauBenken]

You could hire any coach in the country with a facility like that.

"You mean I can take a dip in a hot tub in my own personal locker room and watch TV in the mirror? It'll be hard to actually get any work done."

 

[Irish YJ]

Over the top yes, wrong, not so sure. A "place" does not necessarily create culture. I have issue with a lot of things about O, but this is not one of them. Honestly I like that O is "not like all the rest". As long as they do it honest, and with hard work, I really don't care that they have a million TVs or exotic hardwoods.

 

[Irish YJ]

You could hire any coach in the country with a facility like that.

"You mean I can take a dip in a hot tub in my own personal locker room and watch TV in the mirror? It'll be hard to actually get any work done."

Hey Beau, and what if they tossed in a few O cheerleaders to go with that hot tub. Sign me the F up.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Literally nothing wrong with this. Every single industry in the world would get facilities of this caliber for their employees if it was financially reasonable. For Oregon it is, and the football players are their "employees" in a way.

 

[STLDomer]

Los Angeles and the programs residing there are the enemy of college athletics as far as I'm concerned

 

[GreatGolson]

When you are a school with no tradition in the middle of a rainy, quiet town, you kinda need stuff like this to recruit

 

[dublinirish]

It's not about having facilities that are dedicated to sports. It's the over-the-top treatment of athletes at some of these other schools. ND tries very hard to give their student-athletes a "regular" college experience. In the meantime, other colleges are trying very hard to isolate their kids from the "real world" around them. And then we wonder why Aaron Hernandez thinks he can get away with murdering a guy because the guy was talking to people that he had a beef with?

i remember reading article about Washington's Rose Bowl team under Neuiheisal and the team despite being successful was overrun with dirtbags and criminals like Jeremy Stevens. One of the interesting points of the article and how it relates to Oregon's facilities was that the UW players all took classes and worked out on a seperate campus from "normal students" and this never felt that they should be treated like their non scholarship contemporaries and this massaged their sense of elitism and that they were above authority and eventually, the law.