wifeisafurd;842715758 said:

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Sports strengthens the relationship between a university and its local community. This is the way to get corporate sponsors and importantly research grants. Those that have been on the travel planes to football game know what I mean. Big bucks to the schools.

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Come off it, WIAF. Precisely none of the above paragraph is true.

I love Cal sports. But our athletics program has hardly strengthened Cal's ties to the local community. The most prominent exception to this basic fact would be the local lawyers who have made boatloads of money either suing the university or defending Cal against the city of Berkeley and the Panoramic Hill Association.

Corporate sponsors don't give major research grants to Cal because we have a so-so football team. They do so because we have the faculty, graduate students, and research infrastructure they need. MIT does very well in securing major academic research grants w/o sports.

We don't need to rely on fabrications to defend our love of football. Sports aren't absolutely necessary. They are indeed very expensive. They are but a small part of what has made Cal great over the years.

But guess what? They are fun as hell! I like to watch a teenager in a Cal helmet smash another teenager in a stanfurd helmet. It gives me pleasure. That is why I support Cal athletics -- not because it strengthens ties between Cal and the local community.