Beer and Circus
Subtitle: How Big-Time College Sports Has Crippled Undergraduate Education
Edition: 1st edition
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Published: September 20, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9780805038644
Subjects: United States; Moral and ethical aspects; General; Education / Teaching; Sports; Higher; Sports & Recreation / Football; College sports; Economic aspects; History
Description: "Murray Sperber takes us beyond the headlines and the public controversies to explore the profound and tragic impact of big-time intercollegiate athletics on undergraduate education. Sperber explodes cherished myths about college sports, particularly at "Big-time U's," the large public research universities with high-profile men's football and basketball teams playing at the top level of the NCAA."

"Using research culled from students, faculty, and administrators around the country, Sperber proves that many schools, because of their emphasis on research and graduate programs, no longer give the majority of their undergraduates a meaningful education. What they offer instead is a meager and dangerous substitute: the party scene surrounding college sports that Sperber calls "beer and circus" and which serves to keep the students happy while tuition dollars keep rolling in."

"Sperber explains how this beer-and-circus scene has evolved over many generations. He details the pernicious roles of the media and corporations looking to tap into the lucrative student market, raising the particular concern of the current epidemic of student binge drinking, which in many ways results from these complex factors."--Jacket.