LSU president says budget threat to football is legitimate
Perhaps the best way to get the citizens of Louisiana to realize the severity of the state’s budget crisis is to keep talking about the LSU football program.
LSU president F. King Alexander brought up the team again in his comments to the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday. The Louisiana budget is in such bad shape that LSU and other state universities could be forced to shut their doors. If state universities aren’t able to be open, there’s no way that the school’s athletic programs can function.
“I know a lot of people will say, ‘Well, that’s not going to happen,’” he said referring to the prospect of LSU football being hurt. “Well, that will happen if we don’t have summer school. We’ll only have half of our football team eligible.”
The recent theme of using football to garner attention for worst-case scenarios to higher education has been widely criticized by many legislators who have stated that the rhetoric is either unrealistic or that it minimizes the importance of cuts to academics.
“It’s not us saying that,” Alexander said. “It’s the NCAA telling us that — that student athletes have to be eligible to play. And yes, classes and sports go together. They’re student athletes, you can’t have one without the other.”
We certainly think using the football program is beneficial to the discussion. Hyperbole and partisanship have become quite common in our current decrepit political climate. Opposing sides are getting very good at automatically discrediting or tuning out each other.
Gov. John Bel Edwards mentioned the team in his remarks about the budget situation earlier this month. And now that Alexander, a member of LSU not speaking on behalf of a political party, is talking about the footbal team, perhaps more residents will realize the magnitude of the state’s isses. Football is a nonpartisan issue. And while it doesn’t affect the direct quality of life of a large majority of the state’s residents, it’s an easy way to show people the severity of the problem.
For more LSU news, visit Tigerbait.com.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
