Perennial college-football powerhouses usually find ways to bend the rules to keep “student-athletes” who can hardly read and write eligible to play. They pay lip service to academic excellence but would rather let players coast through without learning anything than risk losing games.

One university where the “Football Uber Alles” regime is especially strong is Auburn, the subject of my Martin Center article today.


The pressure exerted from top university officials to preserve its “athlete-friendly” curriculum in the face of faculty criticism is quite astounding, especially the efforts at silencing one of the leading critics, economics professor Michael Stern. He’s in the Auburn administration’s basket of deplorables.