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Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports Is Crippled Undergraduate Education
by: Murray Sperber

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.0430973
EAN: 9780805068115
ISBN: 0805068112
Label: Holt Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Holt Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: September 01, 2001
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Sales Rank: 24753
Studio: Holt Paperbacks

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Murray Sperber uses research from students, faculty, and administrators to argue that what universities offer instead of a meaningful education is a meager and dangerous substitute: the party scene that Sperber calls beer and circus, which keeps students happy while tuition dollars keep rolling in.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Thought provoking, but flawed
As a faculty member at a school (the University of South Alabama) that recently decided to field a Division I football team, I read Beer & Circus with some interest.

The best two things that one can say about this book are a) it is an entertaining book that you want to read & b) it is thought provoking. I would recommend Beer & Circus to anyone interested in the role of athletics at the contemporary university.

However, I have two criticisms:

1) Perhaps the most pointed criticism I would make is that Sperber does not provide sufficient evidence to back his basic argument - that college sports ruin undergraduate education. Yes, there clearly is a link between partying & sports. But how do we know that sports are responsible for all of the other problems that Sperber cites in undergraduate education? Where is the link? His argument is unconvincing on this crucial ... Read More

Rating:

- imperfect, but important
For all its faults, this book honestly changed the course of my life. I read it shortly before applying to college. I was, and remain, a serious college sports fan, and prior to reading Sperber's book I looked at teams that did well in football and figured, well, I'll go to one of those universities. Then I read Sperber's book.

Sperber argues that sports-and-party-based frat-boy culture is being capitalized on by colleges, who market their party atmosphere and great sports teams to draw in an ever larger pool of applicants. They then take the tuition money and spend it on their prestigious grad programs, not to mention millions for the advertising, er, athletic department, which draws in ever more applicants. Meanwhile, the universities don't spend any significant money on their undergrad programs. They hire great faculty but then treat their undergrads to 750-person lecture halls taught by assistants, ... Read More

Rating:

- A tale of two reviews
Sperber does a lot wrong in this book. His title is misleading. He does spend a good amount of time discussing college sports and their effect on the university, but he also takes long extended detours into topics such as honors programs, college rankings, professors' teaching habits, and the shocking lack of homework and studying done by students. Really, he's taking aim at the university as a larger entity. He commits just about every logical fallacy in the book (case studies used to prove large sweeping theories, post hoc logic, ecological fallacy), although really there isn't any way to experimentally study the variables he's considering. Sperber also comes off sounding like the nerdy kid from college who hated the dumb jocks in high school and college and now that he's got a job and they're probably all on skid row (or so the fantasy goes), he will now have his revenge. If this describes you, you will love ... Read More

Rating:

- Undergraduate Education Comes Up Way Short Next to Sports
There is not much doubt that undergraduate education for the typical student at large universities is most unsatisfactory: one is, with few exceptions, a nonentity with no opportunity to shape the educational experience. The only option is to follow the rules; then it is swim or sink. Furthermore, there is no doubt that forming farm teams for professional leagues with substandard students has no place in a university.

The author shows through his survey data that major sports teams in Division 1-A of the NCAA give a focal point to the incessant partying that occurs at most major, large universities. It is the essential point of the book that college administrators are more than willing to give undergraduates "beer and the circus" of big-time sports in lieu of drastically overhauling undergraduate programs. The need for tuition dollars leads large colleges to pack freshman courses, virtually precluding a chance ... Read More

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