Murray Sperber Beer And Circus Summary

1109 Words3 Pages

Brooke Martin
Economics Book Review
Sperber, Murray A. Beer and Circus: How Big-time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education. New York: H. Holt, 2000. Print. The book “Beer and Circus” was written by Murray Sperber who is an English and American studies professor at Indiana University. He has published six other books on college sports which have won awards, including “Beer and Circus” which was placed on the list of Sports Illustrated “100 Best Sports Books of All-time.” Sperber is also a former chairman of Drake Group, where activists are intending to remove academic dishonesty due to college sports. Known for his criticism on college athletics and college lifestyle, Sperber does not have any outstanding background …show more content…

Although it is a problem, and Sperber does have a good statistic proving that at schools where there is more leisure opportunities, there is less academic interest, it is not a colleges fault that alcohol companies began to advertise to college students with professional athletes. This was a very smart marketing strategy, and it is unfortunate that it has effecting college students negatively. However, college sports are not to blame for this.
Sperber makes up for this flaw by moving on to "admission office scams" in the 80's and 90's when acceptance rates are colleges were extremely high. "In hunt for applicants, Universities with Division I teams had an advantage including free tickets.... Social life was abundant. Education was ignored."(56) These shows the reader how colleges are enabling students, and are fully aware of what students want instead of focusing on what students need and what their money should go towards.
“The applications for admission to Boston College rose 25 percent in the year following Doug Flutie’s exploits as quarterback.” –Mary Burgan (60). The first part of “Beer and Circus” is concluded by explaining the “Flutie Factor,” where admission rates would go up just because a sports team had a great

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