A) One Saturday, you meet some friends for breakfast. The conversation turns to college football. Most of your friends at the table are serious college football fans, in particular, fans of the University of Illinois. Not being a fan of college sports, you note that college sports fans are duped by the beer-and-circuses. Marcus, a friend and sometimes frenemy, is aghast over your lack of college sport fanhood. He demands an explanation. In concise terms that Marcus would understand, state the basic idea of bread and circuses in relation to college sports and your analysis of who wins and loses in college sports (e.g., schools, NCAA, athletes, students). After Marcus recoils from the knowledge you dropped, how could you help him sociologically understand the social, economic, and demographic factors influence colleges and universities pursuit of sports programs?
B) You are called to the front of a class to explain to all the hungry minds in the room who really benefits from college football bowl games and "March Madness." What main points would you raise? Some one from the back row, a psychology major no less, suggests that regardless what you say everyone knows that college tournament games and the perks given to coaches/players is a sham, but we all still love the games. How would you explain this apparent contradiction to your fellow student?
C) One fine Saturday, you awake to find yourself at the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus. You join your friends at the local non-corporate coffee shop. After two large skim, vanilla, cinnamon spice lattes, the conversation turns to life at UofM. Your friend mocks you for attending Roosevelt University suggesting that Michigan is a top school with a great sports program. His point is that he is getting a much better education than you. Angry and defensive, and after taking a bit of your orange spice scone, you fire back a nuanced argument concerning the connection between research-based universities, college athletics, and the common approach of undergraduate teaching at big universities. Then you start listing off the myths that higher education administrators circulate. What main points would you raise?