[ARETE] Sport and Society - Crises

[richard crepeau]

Sport and Society for Arete
December 11, 2024

The last two weeks have seen a number of crises in college sport and one massive money drop in baseball.
First, the money drop. Juan Soto signed a reported 15-year contract with the New York Mets for $765M. Some may consider this excessive. The annual value is $51M and there is no deferred money involved. Soto wanted a long contract, the biggest contract in baseball, and to sign with a team that is willing to go to the extremes to win a World Championship. With the Mets he found all of these.
As to the notion that this contract is excessive, some perspective is needed. Comparing Soto’s contract to that of Shohei Ohtani is one option, but that may be an apples and oranges comparison. Perhaps a better one is to compare the $765M that will be paid to Soto over 15 years to the $2B in revenue from ticket sales in 21 months from the recently concluded Taylor Swift Eras Tour, keeping in mind that this is ticket revenue only. In this case, Soto’s contract might seem to be nothing more than “Chump Change.”
Just over a week ago a crisis hit college football, or so it seemed. A fight broke out on the field at the end of the Ohio State/Michigan football game. The cause was an attempt by a Michigan player to plant the Michigan flag on the Ohio State logo in the middle of the OSU field. Buckeye players would not allow such an “outrage.” This took place while Michigan fans were “storming” the field.
Almost immediately, the shock was registered across football America that such a thing could take place. Michigan fans were identified as the problem and much was written about this event as a sign of the decline and fall of Football Civilization. Not much was said about the fact that on the same day several other major football games ended with the field being stormed by spectators.
On further reflection much hand wring followed. The question is, why was anyone surprised or shocked by any of this. This is not a new development. Fans having been storming the field for decades, and the basketball equivalent, storming the court, goes back almost to the days of James Naismith. There were 22 reported field storming’s at high profile football games during the 2021 season. There was no geographic pattern or any other pattern to these events.
In basketball “court storming” shows no particular pattern, although some would say bad behavior seems to have increased with the heavy marketing of “March Madness.” However, it should be remembered that the term “cager” has been applied to basketball players since the early 20th century. This is a reference to the fact that in the early years of basketball, the court was enclosed by a wire cage. This was done for several reasons, including to prevent players from being pelted by fans with all sorts of projectiles and to keep fans off the court.
Has there been a decline in fan or participant behavior? Has there been an increase in fan violence at sports events? Or surrounding sports? Some of the best research in this area comes from Allen Guttmann who goes back to the ancient world in his work and finds considerable evidence of bad behavior and violence, including arson associated with sports fans and participants. As he moves across the centuries Guttmann finds fan violence at many stops along the way. Looking at the modern fans on campus the trail of violence goes back across the decades. So clearly this is nothing new.
All of which is to say that the lament over the post-game activities at Ohio State two weekends ago is not a sign of the decline of anything. I have heard on at least one occasion Guttmann declare that crowd behavior at sports events is better now than it has ever been.
Of more interest to me is the fact that a player died from head injuries in a college football game in late October. His death occurred about a month later, about the time of the “shocking” events in Columbus. While commentators were busy lamenting the storming of football fields, very little was written or said about this death. Not entirely certain what this means, but it is at least worth some discussion in the public forum.
The other crisis in college football involves the new College Football Playoff system. The playoff, or the determination of who is number one, has been a subject over-discussed for several decades, probably since intercollegiate football became national in scope. For several decades rankings were the province of the national press services, AP and UPI. On a weekly basis during the season, they produced a top 20 or top 25 list with great fanfare each week. These, of course, produced arguments and complaints across the land.
Following multiple controversies and the rise and fall of several attempts to create a “fair” system, the College Playoff System was invented. It was neither “fair” nor “equitable” as it  picked the best four teams for a playoff. What it did produce was a lot of complaining and criticism as the major conferences controlled the process and selected their own for the playoff.
In an attempt to quiet the complaining, the system has now been expanded to a 12-team playoff. The one thing we know so far is that the new system has not ended the complaining from those just below the cutoff point. But the air of crisis seems less widespread, and that might be an improvement. It has also created more grasping at their “fair share” of the larger pool of television money.
The sense of crisis may have been diminished but it is not ever likely to end. The overblown significance of college football makes it likely that the high-pitched complaining will return especially as the revenues increase.
On Sport and Society this is Dick Crepeau reminding you that you don’t have to be a good sport to be a bad loser.

Copyright 2024 by Richard C. Crepeau



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