The European Difference in Collegiate Athletics

The United States is unique for the niche schools fill in its sports system. I can remember playing a high school football game before 10,000 screaming fans, and whether as spectators or participants, most members of the American public will have encountered similar scenes. College athletics takes this kind of spectacle to yet another level. Crowds of over 100,000 fans typically attend home football games on the UT campus. On any given Saturday, millions of fans attend college games or watch them live on television. To my European colleagues, the amounts of money involved in U.S. secondary school and college athletics programs are hard to fathom. European students do, of course, participate in athletics. The options available to them on campus are all quite modest, though. For high-level competition, they must look elsewhere. ...