NCAA Athletics and Academics=liberal policies at their worst

They say the road to hell is paved with....

from JoeUser Forums
To finish that sub-title, the old quote goes something like this:

The road to hell is paved with good intentions...

And so it seems with the latest in liberal policies by the NCAA, the bastion of academics in what is essentially the lower minor leagues for professional athletics in the form of the NFL, NBA, MLB and more.

The NCAA makes Billion$, that is BILLIONS with a B, off the backs of the athletes their member schools recruit and provide scholarships to. They offer the school boys and girls that they recruit scholarships of various types and sizes in exchange for services rendered on the courts, fields, in the pools, etc. In exchange for that, those athletes forfeit their right to be paid for their services during their time in the school and on the teams for the schools, but the athletes also perhaps build up some intangible marquee name value for themselves towards future earnings in one of the professional leagues.

The NCAA claims to be concerned with the academics of their athletes and have over the years instituted policies that require certain grade point averages and other minimum academic standards be met in order for an athlete to remain a student athlete and member of the school teams. Failure to meet the academic requirements results in dismissal from the team, etc.

In anycase, check out some of the latest lunacy from the NCAA in the form of the article found at the link here:

NCAA hits 99 teams with academic penalties

After reading that article, please come back and explain to me why it's not just plain stupid to be taking the scholarships away from these teams. Sure, it makes sense on the one hand to try to force the schools to do a better job with the academics, but what about the old saying you can lead a horse to water.... If these athletes can't or won't perform in the academic area, why should the school not be given the opportunity to use the scholarship on someone else? Why take away scholarships in future years and penalize some other possibly deserving and needy individual?

Oh, yeah, because it's a liberal idea, it's designed to make things better, and there would never be unintended consequences, right???
politics
2,327 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
"If these athletes can't or won't perform in the academic area, why should the school not be given the opportunity to use the scholarship on someone else? Why take away scholarships in future years and penalize some other possibly deserving and needy individual?"


You mean convert the sports scholarships to academic ones? Otherwise, they'll just keep right on doing what they are doing. I think sports scholarships are junk, and I think that college sports are a sham.

I spent afternoons and evenings for years tutoring basketball players that had been 'sent down' to our private school from UT to get their grades professionally fluffed. I turned down, literally, thousands of dollars from players that wanted me to cheat for them.

The problem is when you give athletic scholarships out, you reinforce the idea that sports are what is getting them through life. In real life if you coast through your jobs at a 'c' level, you don't do well, no matter how well you play basketball at the park.

Schools are for education. The reason we have adopted sports is simply greed at the expense of the students themselves. Millions of dollars goes into the sports programs at schools that pretend they don't have the money for research and better facilities.

Screw them, frankly. If they want a minor league for these sports, let them go get paid. They shouldn't be lowering the curve for the rest of us. The few scholar-athletes would probably be doing both well, anyway, even if they weren't in the same facility.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
The Steelers winning the Super Bowl was also a Liberal Plot...I mean, the steel unions love democrats, right? Sasha Cohen winning the silver was also a liberal plot to punish those jews who didn't vote democrat in the last election.

You're an admirable paranoid. Keep it up, you amusing fellow.
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Myrr remains on ignore for the most part, so I really won't comment on his response..

Baker, on other hand, raises several interesting points, many of which I also agree with, but....

I have no problem at all, and in fact, actually go beyond seriously encouraging requirements that athletes in lower levels (K-12 schools) be required to meet minimum academic standards in order to be eligible to play. I don't even have a problem in continuing that same general theme into the College years. The issue becomes one where athletes are being used by the colleges and universities, and no attempt by the likes of Miles Brand will change that.

The athletes are used by the colleges, but they also use the colleges and universities. They get valuable time and space in those institutions, and they could be taking up space and money that might be better used for those academic scholarships Baker and I might prefer. I understand that, and wish that were the case, but I'm also a realist and know that as an example if the Basketball program at a place like University of Maryland at College Park is successful, it is able to generate revenues that helps provide for many other sports, and much more beyond the sporting world. If a university or college has a successful Football and Basketball program, then it generates large sums of money for that institution, and that money is used in countless ways within that system.

Getting back to my original point, much like many liberal ideas, ones where someone spots an obvious problem, and tries to institute a solution to the problem through regulation and reform, the solution that is being tried here seems wrong to me. If the scholarships were converted to academic ones, that would be great in my book, but in reality the scholarships are going to be gone completely, with the institutions crying that they can't service the deserving targets that the money was designated for. They'll say that the money was donated by individuals that specified that the funds go only to athletic programs, or use similar excuses and continue to ignore the needs of students.

I know a lot of cheating goes on in the student athletic world. Cheating by the institutions, by the students/athletes, and more. Mostly because of the pile of money that is involved. It's sad and disgusting, but it's what happens when there is a profit motive for the institutions.

Circling back around, I just don't see the proposed solution that the NCAA is headed towards really fixing the problem. Instead, I think it will just make things worse all around, as eventually it lowers the quality of the athletics, which will draw down support of those programs, which sucks money away from the schools, etc. The law of unintended consequences will eventually catch up here and show these proposed solutions as the frauds they are.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
You mean convert the sports scholarships to academic ones? Otherwise, they'll just keep right on doing what they are doing. I think sports scholarships are junk, and I think that college sports are a sham.
I agree and also believe that there will be more academic scholarships as a result. Colleges should not be farm teams for professional sports.
Btw, what has "liberal" got to do with this?
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top

I agree and also believe that there will be more academic scholarships as a result. Colleges should not be farm teams for professional sports.

I agree with Steven.  But more than farm teams, they are Alumni magnets.  Alumni's donate money, and want to see winning teams.  So while they are a farm team for the pros, they are also big money makers (outside of the gates) for the Schools.