This is Lew Margolis.

Recently, ESPN published a heartwarming and extraordinary story about Paul Quinn College. The tiny school, with an enrollment of about 220, serves primarily African-American and Hispanic students in Dallas, Texas. About 5 years ago, the college’s president, Michael Sorrell, encouraged the creation of an organic farm on campus. He was motivated by two factors. The college is located in a 95% minority, low income neighborhood, officially designated a “food desert” because there is no convenient access to fresh fruits and vegetables and other nutritious foods. Second, he had personally experienced the consequences of working in a food desert by gaining a lot of weight from eating at the fast food restaurants and convenience stores that were accessible to the college.

Since March 2010, the farm has distributed more than 30,000 pounds of produce. There are work-study jobs for students and the opportunity to learn about healthy nutrition and agriculture. Ten percent of the produce goes back to the local community, and the farm sells the rest directly to local restaurants, grocery stores, and farmer’s markets. The farm does have one rather famous customer, the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

Where, one might ask, did this small college find the space to develop this productive commercial and educational activity? Seven years ago, President Sorrell looked at the costs and benefits of fielding a football team and decided that it was simply not a good decision to continue the team. Two years later, he realized that he could put the vacant, untended football field to productive use.

The article quotes President Sorrell: “You know the Apple commercial ‘Here’s to the crazy ones?'” Well, that’s us. We’re proud to be the crazy ones. We weren’t supposed to make it. No one thought this would work. But here we are. And I’m telling you, we think – no, we know – this is only the beginning. We are going to change the world with this farm.”

I am not suggesting that UNC turn Kenan Stadium into an organic farm, although it is an intriguing idea. I am encouraging all of those enmeshed in the quagmire of Big Time college sports to take a step back, put all of the assumptions on the table and test each one. Why do we assume that Big Time sports are inevitable and unchangeable? Why do we assume that revenue sports and academics can successfully exist in the same institution? Why do we assume that the powerful economic forces that have transformed college sports can be controlled if we just manage them better with more rules and regulations and better administrators? Maybe we can learn something about ourselves from Paul Quinn College, if we start to dig to the roots of these assumptions.