Interesting new ad campaign from KU

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TheBigChuckbowski
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by TheBigChuckbowski »

mean wrote:Using school affiliation as some form of self-validation is among the saddest things I've ever seen.
Wasting time reading a thread that someone has no interest in and then wasting more time posting about how stupid they think it is in order to criticize and make people feel about themselves is one of the saddest things I've ever seen.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by KC-wildcat »

mean wrote:Using school affiliation as some form of self-validation is among the saddest things I've ever seen.
meh. It is what it is. People are passionate about their Universities and college sports.

People choose from a myriad of forms of self-validation - many much sadder than school affiliation.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by mean »

TheBigChuckbowski wrote:
mean wrote:Using school affiliation as some form of self-validation is among the saddest things I've ever seen.
Wasting time reading a thread that someone has no interest in and then wasting more time posting about how stupid they think it is in order to criticize and make people feel about themselves is one of the saddest things I've ever seen.
What can I say? I enjoy the whole depressing spectacle of watching people place their own self-worth upon whether a college they may or may not have attended is more popular than another.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by AllThingsKC »

HEY EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!

mean doesn't find his self-worth in his school.

Ha ha! What a loser!
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by kcmetro »

mean wrote:
TheBigChuckbowski wrote:
mean wrote:Using school affiliation as some form of self-validation is among the saddest things I've ever seen.
Wasting time reading a thread that someone has no interest in and then wasting more time posting about how stupid they think it is in order to criticize and make people feel about themselves is one of the saddest things I've ever seen.
What can I say? I enjoy the whole depressing spectacle of watching people place their own self-worth upon whether a college they may or may not have attended is more popular than another.
Most on here do the same thing with regards to KC and how it's viewed by outsiders. If people didn't attach their self worth to Kansas City, this forum probably wouldn't exist...or if it did, it would have far fewer members.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by mean »

I dunno, maybe. I definitely don't attach my personal worth to whether other people like Kansas City, but I guess I could see some people doing that.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by KC-wildcat »

Right, and very few people attach their "self-worth" to their University. Sure, people are passionate. People's moods and emotions can be affected by college sports. Some people will attach another person's social status to the school they attended. Yeah, all of this is true.

But, how is this any different than anything else in life? i.e., the car you drive, the partner you choose, the clothes you wear, the city you live in, the social issues you support...?
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by mean »

Are you serious? Come on. People don't spam this forum with thousands upon thousands of worthless posts of retarded shit-talking about any of that other crap. Even the city vs. city smack pales in comparison.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by KC-wildcat »

mean wrote:Are you serious? Come on. People don't spam this forum with thousands upon thousands of worthless posts of retarded shit-talking about any of that other crap. Even the city vs. city smack pales in comparison.
That's because 99% of the people on this forum are Kansas Citians. If this board was combo development board of STL and KC residents, there'd be some heat.

You're not a sports fan. duly noted. or, you're just above the fray. that's cool too. But, don't act surprised that people are extremely passionate about sports. Don't act surprised that ESPN is a multi-billion dollar enterprise or that sports fans fill 100K seat stadiums ever weekend.

Come on. Athletic competition has been a fundamental aspect of society since the dawn of man. it always has been and always will be.

Sports, Religion, and Politics. Right, wrong, or indifferent, people are passionate about these things.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by mean »

I like sports. I like talking about sports. I just don't get why it devolves from "my team is better than your team" type smack to convoluted bickering about ridiculous and irrelevant minutia, and particularly, how it can go on and on for months with people talking past each other, repeatedly expressing the same opinions over and over again, and never getting tired of it.

But hey, I guess that's what the internet is for.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by KC-wildcat »

mean wrote:I like sports. I like talking about sports. I just don't get why it devolves from "my team is better than your team" type smack to convoluted bickering about ridiculous and irrelevant minutia, and particularly, how it can go on and on for months with people talking past each other, repeatedly expressing the same opinions over and over again, and never getting tired of it.

But hey, I guess that's what the internet is for.
I think you just described about half of the Topics on this forum. Light Rail threads, Mark Funkhouser threads, the Smoking Ban thread, the 2012 Election thread. It's human nature. When people are passionate, discussions get heated. They're not always rational. Sometimes redundant. Sure.

But, I certainly wouldn't say it's unique to sports.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by Highlander »

mean wrote:I like sports. I like talking about sports. I just don't get why it devolves from "my team is better than your team" type smack to convoluted bickering about ridiculous and irrelevant minutia, and particularly, how it can go on and on for months with people talking past each other, repeatedly expressing the same opinions over and over again, and never getting tired of it.

But hey, I guess that's what the internet is for.
Well, I know I'd be embarrassed if someone hung my sports-related posts back to back....please don't.

What I find bizarre, just truly bizarre, is that people give millions of dollars to their college sports programs. I like sports, I like my teams to win, but it's not like it makes me a better person or improves my life in even the smallest way when they do...well, for an hour or so I am elated, but it then it wears off. I can think of sooo many other ways to spend that money.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by TheBigChuckbowski »

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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by KC-wildcat »

Highlander wrote:
What I find bizarre, just truly bizarre, is that people give millions of dollars to their college sports programs. I like sports, I like my teams to win, but it's not like it makes me a better person or improves my life in even the smallest way when they do...well, for an hour or so I am elated, but it then it wears off. I can think of sooo many other ways to spend that money.
What about the millions of $$$ donated to the Kauffman PAC? Does it make those donors "better people"?

The idea is that people are passionate about different things. Right, wrong, or indifferent. music, art, science, athletics. None of these are more important or more valid interests than the others. They're different.

If I guy wants to donate a million $$$ to an athletic facility (which, by the way, paves the way for the education of thousands of underprivileged kids), how is that any different than a guy who donates a million $$$ to expand the Bloch School of Business???
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by mean »

Science is not a more important or more valid thing to spend lots of money on than people throwing balls around a field?

Um, ok.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by bobbyhawks »

mean wrote:Science is not a more important or more valid thing to spend lots of money on than people throwing balls around a field?

Um, ok.
I think one point that should be made is that some dollars spent on donations to Athletic Departments have a much larger return on investment... not in sports, but in areas like science, etc. Good years in the two most popular sports will increase applications, increase money collected from tuition the next year, and allow the school to select better students. So when $1 million dollars may directly fund a few science and engineering scholarships, $1 million to Athletics can (sometimes) bring in a sense of identity and opportunity, as well as result in multiple millions in returns from advertising the school nationally in a way that a $1 million ad campaign or donation to a specific scholastic program could never succeed.
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by KC-wildcat »

Highlander wrote:
The difference is that a university has a fairly specific remit; education. Sports are secondary if that and even very few Division I schools (less than 20) have athletic departments that do not need to be subsidized by the university. USA Today has had an interesting series on the cost of college athletics and they estimate it cost the average college student 4-5 grand over a 4 year degree to subsidize. I think we'd be far more economical just giving the average football or basketball player an academic scholarship and having those T. Boone Pickens type donations going towards engineering facilities rather than sports facilities. We spend far more on the "education" of student athletes than we do on students. Sadly, the university is not going to be interested in giving schollies to Pullen, Chalmers or Bowers unless they b-ball or football. In any event, given that b-ball and football comprise only a portion of the total of schollies, I suspect the majority of kids getting athletic schollies have parents that could actually pay their own way. And while it's inmaterial, I doubt if the average booster has the education of the student-athlete in mind when he/she donates...it's a braggin rights thing.
what?


I'm still confused as to why it's "bizarre" and "braggin rights" when a guy donates $$$ to athletics - but not when donated to the arts or the sciences?
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Re: Interesting new ad campaign from KU

Post by bobbyhawks »

The big programs would absolutely love it if they could categorize sports scholarships as regular academic scholarships. That would mean they could give academic scholarships to people of questionable scholastic achievement, which would in turn mean that they could give scholarships to walk-ons. The way things are now, sports scholarships are capped so that this very thing cannot happen. More scrutiny can be given to walk-ons with academic scholarships now, and this prevents big sports programs from taking advantage of a loophole.

The way things are now, talented students who work very hard for their school are given an opportunity to overcome many economic and social hurdles. And the USA Today study was also a study by the USA Today, a paper that my statistics professor used nearly every class to show how not make a chart or cite/display statistics. Does anyone question advertising dollars? How valuable do you think it is to the University of Kansas to have 20 or so nationally televised basketball games, sometimes highlighting the best student on the team, sometimes interviewing the chancellor, showing famous grads in the crowd. To KC-wildcat's point, why is donating to sports different than donating to bring in Yo-Yo Ma or Ma-Ma-Mia? Those concerts aren't returning anything to the school other than culture, and there sure as heck isn't any built-in publicity on the scale of a national tv audience.
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