Performance determines success and success entails a reward, which in turn motivates performance. That much is true in the business world, and in class we have seen examples of how the right rewards can light a fire in any employee.
Here at UBC, however, the board in charge of distributing athletic funding is doing it wrong. Their supposed “tiered” system of Elite Varsity teams that are poised for excellence, Varsity and then lower down, Club funding levels make sense in theory; reward the teams that will and do win with cash to help them keep doing what they do best. Except their system for determining the teams that are “Elite” is broken and hence the system of motivation does not work.
A perfect example of the aforementioned flaws is the funding difference between the UBC Men’s Rowing Team and the UBC Men’s Football Team.
This year, the football team lost their first three games, including the Homecoming game by an embarrassing margin. The UBC rowing crew has won every fall regatta (race) this year, including Western Canadian University Rowing Championships and Canadian University Rowing Championships, bringing back the Men’s Points Banner to UBC.
Yet the football team is classified as “most likely to succeed” whilst the rowing crew, the fastest in a country that wins internationally, is lower on the funding list. It begs the question:
Does this drive success in either sport?
Adding to the 2013 blog post http://blogs.theprovince.com/2014/01/21/ubc-brass-announces-16-survivors-leaves-13-other-varsity-programs-awaiting-future-fate/#__federated=1