Would Banning College Football Actually Help Academics?

Last week, Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger offered his arguments for why college football should be eliminated. The article appears in advance of tomorrow night’s Open to Debate formerly known as Intelligence Squared U.S., in which Bissinger and author Malcolm Gladwell will argue in favor of a ban on college football. They will be opposed by former NFL defensive end Tim Green and sportswriter Jason Whitlock. Bissinger’s piece gets at some serious issues with college football and raises some fantastic questions, but it ultimately misses exactly how important the sport is to academic programs at universities across the nation.