Today my son and the Colorado College Men’s basketball team played its last game of the season. Colorado College is an elite class of high academic liberal arts colleges with an admission rate of only 17%. The sports facilities rival most Division 1 schools. Coming out of high school, Aaron had other options but chose Colorado for the people and the challenging academic environment. It was the right choice for him and he says he can’t imagine being anywhere else. Every athlete wants to play Division 1 sports, but D3 is loaded with many of the highest academic colleges in the country including MIT, University of Chicago, Pomona College, Amherst, Johns Hopkins, NYU and many others. The sports are very competitive. Every year, a handful of D3 schools knock off D1 programs in the non-conference season. My point is if your kid is a college-caliber athlete, there are some amazing opportunities at the D3 level. BTW — Aaron finished his freshman season ranked first in the SCAC conference in three point shooting and first among freshmen in overall scoring. Go Tigers!
I once read that sports are a universal language. Regardless of ethnicity or what language you speak, almost everyone speaks sports. No place has that been more evident than the Olympics, where every four years, we are moved by images of athletic rivals from around the world shaking hands and embracing each other in moving displays of sportsmanship.
The NFL markets its brand as well as any enterprise in the world. I heard a comedian once say that the NFL is so popular, it has its own day. NFL football is huge. Each NFL franchise brings in approximately $400M a year in revenue; almost double the annual revenue of NBA teams and 2 ½ times as much as MLB clubs.