A Plug for Regent Undergrad

For many years Regent University was solely a graduate institution. Beginning with an undergraduate degree completion program a few years ago, Regent now has a full four-year undergraduate program with multiple courses of study. Unlike the overwhelming majority of American colleges and universities, Regent does not have an intercollegiate sports program.

On my drive to the campus this morning, I listened to On Point with Tom Ashbrook, a production of public radio station WBUR in Boston (although today Wade Goodwyn was sitting in for Ashbrook). This morning's program was titled "Penn State's Fate." One of the the show's panelists, Jason Lanter, forcefully made a point that that I've advocated (to a few folks, anyway) for years: the unholy alliance between big-time college sports and higher education should be broken. Notwithstanding sports propagandists, there is no natural connection between athletic competition and education. "Sound mind in a sound body" aside, universities need intercollegiate football as much as they intercollegiate cake decorating.

The dependency of Penn State University on its football program to finance other sports programs (which it likewise doesn't need) goes far to explain the "culture of coverup" that characterized its scandal. The facts that universities existed without sports programs from the 12th to the 20th centuries and even today continue to do well without them in the rest of the world demonstrates that there is no necessary connection between the two. So, let's break the "unholy alliance" and let schools educate and clubs, associations, and professional teams operate sports programs. Like Regent undergrad.