Don'tcha all feel silly

[GreenBat]

Last week’s column certainly did provoke a lot of interest. The folks at GoMeanGreen.com were a little agitated at a perceived slight in my response to an ESPN: The Magazine article about UNT running backs Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas. Despite the fact that I was defending Mean Green football, some fans were demanding an apology or my job.

Sorry guys, but I don’t apologize for my opinions in a humor column.

The most interesting letter I received came from a woman who didn’t attack me but the University of North Texas for spending too much money on athletics and not enough Mean Green on academics.

What the reader failed to realize is that the money spent on athletics more than pays for itself. The publicity UNT, the school, received by having UNT, the football program, prominently featured in a national magazine cannot be equaled by millions spent on the school’s academic programs.

I went to Emory University in Atlanta — a school that is regularly ranked in the Top 25 academically by most national publications. Funny story, when I applied to Emory, I thought it was in Boston. (Yeah, I know, who’s the idiot now?)

Most Americans haven’t even heard of Emory. Why? Emory plays Division III sports, and most Americans haven’t heard of fine academic schools that don’t play Division I sports and aren’t in the Ivy League.

Athletics puts academic institutions on the map.