Originally Posted by
tommy
I am fully aware of the financial benefits that football brings, most importantly funding all the non-revenue sports, and I am aware that without football, conference membership becomes problematic to say the least. I would like to see Duke University do one of two things:
1. Go all in on football, strive for excellence as we do in all other university endeavors. No, we will not be Alabama or Ohio State, but if we strive for excellence we have a decent chance to have at least some success on the field and settle in as an up-and-down, moderately successful program, which many on here have said they would be satisfied with. But the effort made, and the resources expended, would be first class.
2. Do the morally courageous thing, and shut down football completely. The mission of the university is to nurture the brains and bodies of its students, not to destroy them. CTE is real, and while it doesn't strike everyone who straps on a helmet, it sure does affect a lot of players as they get older, and the physical, emotional, mental, financial, and social consequences can be, and often are, immense. The longer you play, the more practices you participate in, the more tackles you make, the more head-down blocks you make, the more hits you absorb -- the greater the cumulative effect on the brain. The evidence is already pretty compelling, and it is only getting stronger. If Duke were to do this, and of course I'm not naive enough to think we would, I suspect other institutions of higher learning would follow suit pretty quickly. If it happened like that, the day of the announcement would be the proudest I would ever be of my university.
One or the other. No half-measures.