5th Teaching & Education Conference, Amsterdam

COLLEGE BASKETBALL AS A CURRICULUM OF IGNORANCE

DAVID OVERBEY

Abstract:

Literature in response to the FBI's investigation into bribery and corruption in college basketball totally omits any consideration of the impact the game has on higher education. Because the ideas made in defense of college basketball in response to the investigation are dubious and even anti-intellectual, the effect of the game on higher education is toxic and undermines the intellectual mission of the university. Basketball coaches and sports columnists pose as scholarly types who are expert on philosophical and economic issues, while actual experts on these issues are left out of the conversation while fighting a stigma of irrelevance and ignorance about the world beyond the campus. The fact college basketball generates billions of dollars in profit that enrich coaches and athletic directors while the NCAA forbids the players from getting paid according to their market value is not only greatly unjust and contrary to free-market economics, it permeates university culture with ignorance and antagonizes the goals and values of the scholarly community and students' ability to take liberal arts education seriously.

Keywords: College basketball, NCAA, FBI investigation, higher education, liberal arts, philosophy, economics

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