As you have a passion for higher education, you no doubt follow March Madness with great interest and/or concern.  So join me in swinging by Culture Making to wrestle with the 5 Culture Making Questions applied to March Madness:

1. What does March Madness assume about the way the world is?
2. What does March Madness assume about the way the world should be?
3. What does March Madness make possible?
4. What does March Madness make impossible (or at least a lot more difficult)?
5. What new culture is created in response?

But before you go, what do you think about the promise by Courtney Paris, an all-American center at the University of Oklahoma, to repay the cost of her scholarship if she does not bring the national championship back to her campus? —  Putting a Price on a Title Run Stirs a Debate, by Jere’ Longman, NY Times, 3/23/09.

Is that what investment in athletic scholarships are understood to mean?  Is it too romantic to consider college athletic scholarships as an opportunity to enter and receive the long term value of higher education?  

With regard to financial investment and visibility, star athletes seem to be in a unique situation.  I don’t think a similar promise to produce results or repay (publish or perish, win the Nobel Prize, etc) could be given by those who receive a full ride academic scholarship, grant money, or a named academic chair.