I have a lot of opinions on college athletics. They’re mostly that high-revenue producing college sports are bad for, you know, colleges. You don’t see university administrators rigging up fake classes for history majors that work at Applebees on the weekends. You don’t see the anthropology department organizing strippers to recruit the best and brightest future social scientists. The dean of the college of business and economics isn’t sending envelopes of cash via dodgy courier to the brightest Junior Achievement candidates from California or whatever.

Somehow college sports went from a way to celebrate your school’s student body and school pride to a profit center that some schools give carte blanche as long as it enhances their national prestige. If you’re relying on the sports program to attract students to come to learn at your school, the enormous majority of whom won’t be playing varsity sports there, then maybe it’s time to re-examine just what a university is supposed to be. How about just be the best school you can be, rather than focus so much time, energy, money, lobbying, PR, and marketing attention on your football or basketball team? And don’t even get me started on the concept of amateurism (super dead) and paying players (absolutely, yes).

What happened at Louisville yesterday sucks, and yet is understandable. The NCAA is a farce, of course, but it’s one that the big universities in this country willingly participate in because of TV money. You can’t blame the NCAA for punishing UofL or Memphis or SMU or UK. Those institutions all signed on and promised to follow some rules, then didn’t follow those rules. How the NCAA chooses to interpret and enforce those rules is…problematic, but you already knew that. It’s always been that way.

Anyway, on to the soccer:

• Oklahoma City Energy FC built a futsal court in inner OKC and debuted it yesterday. I’m dying for several of these to start popping up in Louisville (HINT HINT, LOUISVILLE CITY AND METRO PARKS).
• Charleston Battery signed a trailist from Colombia
• After self-relegating to the USL PDL in 2017, the Wilmington Hammerheads have now relegated themselves into non-existence. RIP.
• Also, ICYMI, Louisville City moved their team store to Fourth Street Live.