Today's Topic: Is UW's football program better than Oregon's (or Alabama's)?

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Disclaimer: Reading the referenced article will help in following along with today’s post.

Holden: So, the Wall Street Journal recently published this about our Husky football team and it’s been making the rounds in my particular social networks.

Nathan: Too civilized? Are you kidding me? Have you been to a Husky Game?

Holden: A few, yeah. And civilized isn’t how I’d describe the kid in the Napoleon Kaufman jersey who just so happened to be puking in the student section. The article’s message, though, is irritating and narrow.

Nathan: The article itself doesn’t even support the headline’s claim!

Holden: Poor argument aside. There is, at least, a message in this piece — and one that people I know have been backing: that there is distinguishable and notable differences between the UW, Oregon and Alabama football systems.

Nathan: Well Alabama and the SEC are known for their strength. And Oregon is blindingly fast. So what?

Holden: This article suggests differences far from the field, that cultural and systemic characteristics separate these teams. It hints that, because of alumni attendance and meaningless pro-academia rhetoric, the team we root for is above the fray that is college football. It’s not situated in a small town with boosters named “Bubba” and it’s home to more than just its football team, like a world class medical school and top-tier scientific research; therefore, they assert, the Huskies are different.

Nathan: The cultures of the schools are different sure… still don’t see what that has to do with football.

Holden: Exactly! When boiled down, the Huskies are the exact same. They are an unjust and unjustifiable athletic money-pit, a pseudo-amateur team. They charge students for tickets, cable companies for television rights, sell their best players’ jerseys for hundreds of dollars and pay their coach —the highest paid public figure in the state of WA— seven figures. And the laborers in this whole equation get squat. It just irks me that this article identifies superficial and irrelevant details to differentiate these teams all while ignoring overarching contextual issues.

Nathan: Yeah, but we’re 16th in the nation right now! GO DAWGS!

Holden: Oy.


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