It’s long been my opinion that sports need to be eliminated from school. They are little more than a distraction from the school’s mission- education. At worst, they are a profiteering money grab. Now we have high school students signing multimillion dollar deals to go to certain colleges.
Bryce Underwood, a high school quarterback from Belleville, Michigan, has reportedly received the largest high school NIL offer, with figures suggesting a four-year package worth up to $12 million. A high school kid, making $3 million a year to play football. With all of this money flying around, students and parents have forgotten about education and sportsmanship. It’s all about the money.
It’s no wonder that high school sport recruiting has become a big business. I know of schools that are buying students and their families houses in their district, so the student can attend. That’s right- if your kid is good at one of the big money sports, you get a free house in a rich neighborhood, at least until he graduates.
Students who are good at sports don’t have to worry about such mundane things like following school rules, dress codes, or even school work. Nope, they are going places, and no one will stop them. Back during the time when I was teaching high school, the Principal approached me and asked that I change a previous student’s grade from the year before, because the ‘F’ he had earned in my class was making him ineligible to play football. Student athletes get a pass when breaking rules. We can’t have them getting in trouble and winding up suspended- there is a big game this week, haven’t you heard?
That’s why it comes as no surprise that a Pennsylvania football coach resigned after he and his family received threats from parents for benching two players that had been acting in an unsportsmanlike like manner. They were only suspended for the first half of a game. When those players sat longer than they had initially been told for that game, school administrators sided with parents and suspended the coach as well as his father, who served as the team’s defensive coordinator, for two games.
Our tax dollars are paying for that shit. That’s one of the many reasons why, when I hear people complain that cutting property taxes will hurt schools, that I just don’t get excited. Here is what your tax dollars pay for:
- Buford, GA has a $62 million football stadium for its high school
- McKinley Senior High School in Canton, OH cost $175 million
- In fact, Texas has 8 of the ten most expensive high school football facilities, and to make the top 10, your school district’s taxpayers have to shell out at least $56 million.
In many places, the high school football coach is the highest paid member of the staff, making more than the principal. I just don’t think that sports should be paid for with taxpayer dollars. If you want your kid to play a sport, pay for it yourself. Many parents pay for things like gymnastics, dance, and even weekend soccer. One of my grandkids plays hockey, but his dad is paying for it. Why should I be forced to pay for your kid to play a game, under penalty of losing my home if I refuse?
27 Comments
Miguel GFZ · October 29, 2025 at 6:46 am
” I just don’t think that sports should be paid for with taxpayer dollars.”
Going to throw this here from a post I did about the new Titans’ stadium in Nashville.
One of the great soccer stadiums, a “cathedral of the sport” is Camp Neu in Barcelona. It was built in 1955-97 and the only thing the government gave away was the land. The construction was financed 100 percent by private loans and selling bonds directly to the fans.
It is undergoing the latest upgrade to modernize it and augment capacity to over 100,000 seats (yeah, that many) and once again it will be 100% privately funded.
The current Nissan stadium was built in 1,999 and is already deemed not fit so that was they are building a new one.
Camp Neu: 70 years and still standing v. Old Nissan stadium: 25 years and to be dismissed.
Somebody is making a frigging bundle.
Photo of Camp Neu being upgraded.
https://cdn-acn.watchity.net/acn/images/3d2b6e24-06be-437a-ac9f-b0567e2b4838/06c1f310-8aa7-44f1-adb7-000a0e9b2332.jpg
EN2 SS · October 29, 2025 at 6:46 am
Being a privileged athlete has been in full effect since at least the 60’s, when I went to high school. And I agree, it has gotten totally out of hand. But being as uninformed/uninvolved as the modern populace is, I don’t think there is much chance of stopping the lemmings leap off the cliff.
J J · October 29, 2025 at 6:58 am
From a Texas perspective:
High school football is another glaring example of how misplaced our priorities are as a nation.
As student athletes bring down the educational standards to accommodate the demands of the boosters, parents and fans the entire student body is becoming more and more ignorant.
And the beneficiaries of the football “education” grift are largely one demographic.
Meanwhile, serious charter schools without big sports programs are filled with smart kids of Asian and Middle Eastern descent who are meeting and exceeding high academic standards.
Of course, some “charter” schools are nothing more than taxpayer funded programs of last resort for those whose self discipline and control is nonexistent and can’t even be mixed in with the students of the low standards schools.
I happened to catch a post game interview of a black backup NFL quarterback who played this week. The guy literally couldn’t string together a series of coherent words to make a sentence that made sense.
Himself · October 29, 2025 at 7:41 am
Texas is way over the top in sportsball. My daughter was in marching band, so we’d be at most of the games. Some of the stadiums are amazing. There are people with no kids attending the games. It’s nuts.
Back in the Obama days, the Governor at the time, Rick Perry, told the school districts not to count obamamoney in their budgets. They did anyhow. Two years later at budget time they were howling about ‘cuts’ to money that was long gone, not coming back.
So the school districts started whining about poverty. What did they cut back on? Fine arts.
Something all my kids were into. BTW – there are more kids in orchestra, band, and art than football.
Cut back sportsball. Bring back shop and vo-tech.
McChuck · October 29, 2025 at 9:00 am
To be fair, it’s not like most high schools actually teach anything worthwhile these days.
Divemedic · October 29, 2025 at 11:35 am
and this is one of the reasons why.
pchappel · October 29, 2025 at 9:22 am
Gets even worse when you do reach the University level… I’m the CIO of a D2 University and watched the entire football team get replaced this year. 100 “student athletes” after the entire team last year exited via the “portal”. The fiction that this is anything but semi professional athletics is gone. In some ways I suppose it is better, but I went to school for Engineering and CS/IT, so what would I know about these things…
Don Curton · October 29, 2025 at 9:26 am
Totally agree.
Sports in high school should be the PE coach splitting the class in half, that’s Team A, that’s Team B, shirts and skins, here’s a football, you got 45 minutes to run around outside. Then showers, then back to your other classrooms.
But we gotta have bread and circuses, don’t we.
My oldest was on the swim team. Outside of the actual pool, plus the coach’s meager salary, everything else was paid for by parents. Even the buses to take the team to swim meets in other towns were paid for by the parents (via the booster club). Football should be no different.
Rick T · October 29, 2025 at 9:59 am
What’s the old saw? A university needs to provide 3 things to be successful: Parking for the faculty, Booze for the students, and football for the alumni. The sad truth is the big money sports are what make all the women’s teams possible at most schools.
Divemedic · October 29, 2025 at 11:37 am
College sports, I don’t care about. Those don’t take thousands of my money each year in property taxes.
dragonslayer · October 29, 2025 at 11:49 am
They do here in Idaho!
lynn · October 29, 2025 at 6:19 pm
The university sports programs take millions from the State of Texas too.
Slow Joe Crow · October 29, 2025 at 10:56 am
This tracks with college sports since in most states the most highly paid state employees are coaches at the state university. Truly amateur sports like clubs or NCAA Division III might still have value but a pro farm team is detrimental
dragonslayer · October 29, 2025 at 11:04 am
I live in a small town and I’m astounded at the local high school and sportsball fields. Untold millions of dollars for school, football stadium, and other sportsball fields. This area is growing exponentially, and yet they’re constantly crying poor mouth and saying they’re overcrowded and need more money. Tough @#$%^. Turn that football stadium into more classrooms. Every house that goes up is giving them more money in taxes but they never mention that! I have never and will never vote for any tax. And I say that as a retired firefighter who voted against levies for my own department. I saw the waste first hand, still see it, and will always vote “NO!” for all the good it does. And on the same subject, they shouldn’t get to put failed levies back on the ballot every six months. Sorry for the ramble. Done for now.
arizoni · October 29, 2025 at 11:35 am
Do you have any idea what the incentives are here? Are the admins getting kickbacks? Money from ticket sales? Do they just like the idea of having a good football team and have too much money? The scale of this especially on highschool level is news to me and the whole idea of handling it like this, it completely alien…I’m all for highschool sports, and would argue that done right they are educational, but not like this.
Skyler the Weird · October 29, 2025 at 12:39 pm
There are about 1400 jobs available in the NFL. Only a few open up each year. What are these kids going to do for a living?
Texas Dan · October 29, 2025 at 12:56 pm
I live in a town of 300, the K-12 school oddly has 350 students. They also have a $20 million dollar football stadium with astroturf pass for by a recent bond issue, “for the children”. Total bullshit. I have come to agree that all extra-curricular activities should be outside funded and outside school time.
Simeon · October 29, 2025 at 2:45 pm
When I was in graduate school I taught lab sections for sciences classes. As a TA my tuition was paid for and I got a small stipend. I had to pinch pennies to scrap by term by term. Luckily I got out with little debt. Not so for my fellow TAs, one of whom is absolutely brilliant. She’s getting a PhD in geology and has about 100k in debt. She struggled hard through grad school, and at one point was getting by on canned corn and ramen noodles. Both of us have had college football players in our labs. The football players bragged about their thick bank accounts and multiple cars. I will always hate what sports entertainment has done to education. These guys were multi-millionaires by the time they graduated and could hardly read or write. And the TA’s get a ton of pressure from the administration to pass these guys because they were so financially valuable to the university.
Lemmy · October 29, 2025 at 2:52 pm
I live three miles from one of those stadiums in Texas. They did the right thing, and put the bond on the ballet for just the stadium. It failed. They waited a few months, and bundled it in with a robotics center, a STEM center, and some other educational stuff. Since the Asian population in my area never say no to anything that has “Katy ISD” (independent school district,) it passed. Ridiculous, considering that every single high school in the district already has a football field with bleachers, concessions, etc.
Dirtperson Steve · October 29, 2025 at 3:11 pm
Like you, I taught for a short time and bailed out. Kids didn’t chase me it was the lying administration. In this county, a minimum of 40% of kids at every school qualify for free lunch. Barely 50% graduate at level for English, 33% for Math.
But, every school has a turf football complex.
Danny · October 29, 2025 at 4:23 pm
RIGHT ON! I have held that opinion my entire life.
Tsgt Joe · October 29, 2025 at 7:21 pm
In the ancient past, before cable tv, high school sports was an important part of rural/ small town life. I grew up in Detroit and when I got stationed out in the boonies was surprised that adults, who didnt even have kids in school would go to high school games.
anymouse · October 30, 2025 at 11:58 am
I heartily agree.
The largest buildings in town show what the population values.
It used to be that the largest building in town was the church. This was true throughout America and in Europe, as well. That was what we valued.
Today it is sport stadiums (with financial high-rises a close second).
That is what ‘we’ value today.
Jester · October 30, 2025 at 7:27 pm
I’m genuinely torn as I grew up playing football, however the coach did not put up for any BS. (He was a math teacher as well) but how some of these schools run football is beyond absurd. I think though that sports for Jr High, High School should be funded by boosters, donations, etc. Should not be tax dollars paying for sports when it is supposed to be about education.
Divemedic · October 31, 2025 at 4:53 am
I would bet that you didn’t get a free house to live in at taxpayer expense because you were good at football, though.
Bear in Indy · November 1, 2025 at 11:36 pm
My wife wonders why I have such disdain for team sports, especially professional football (leaving the NBA, out for now). Sports had, always been important for several reasons: healthy competition, learning the true meaning of cooperation to achieve a mutual goal, and a healthy outlet for male aggression.
Now, in today’s world: none of that is relevant. Only money: and now “they” have managed to corrupt college athletes.
Indianapolis, Indiana has Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Colts, guess who did not pay for the Colts stadium, the Colts owner. The people of Central Indiana pays for this stadium, not the owners of the Colts.
And the sheer hatred the NFL has for the fans is amazing, and yet they get away with it, no backlash. Enjoy the Superbowl half time show, it will be in Spanish.
Bear in Indy
Seamrog · October 31, 2025 at 12:41 pm
Buford High Schools stadium was $76 million last I heard. It is likely more than that now.
They import players from all over the country.
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