Jock Test at UGA

[ivylass]

This (http://www.ajc.com/uga/content/sports/uga/0304/03test.html) was an actual test provided at a class at the University of Georgia.

Complete article can be found here. (http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/uga/0304/05harrick.html)

[Ike Witt]

Those Harricks sure do run a clean program.

[Cheesesteak]

What's really twisted is that, by the course name, this is actually something that these kids could use for their future. Learning about coaching and strategy would be great for someone who might be interested in being a highschool or assistant coach somewhere. Instead of getting valuable info from a big time college assistant coach, they get a joke class, and some of them needed help passing it anyway, since they never showed at all!

[monstro]

I bet those Jackets are having a field day with this!

[Amok]

The really bizarre thing about this is that I assume he made the test laughably easy to ensure the basketball players would do well. But according to reports:


UGA's investigation determined that the [three] players [in the class] never attended class after the first day, and none took the mandatory final exam.


So, since they never took the test, and Harrick just gave them As anyways (which is the actual NCAA violation here, that they recieved preferential treatment) there really wasn't any point to having the test be a joke. I don't know, maybe he just didn't want to spend any time creating a real test when obviously his interest in teaching the class wasn't because he wanted to educate.

[The Scrivener]

How long will it be before all those [URL=http://www.rivalfanatics.com/jokes.htm]OSU jokes[/b] are transformed into UGA jokes?

[The Scrivener]

Arrgh. :smack: OSU jokes (URL=http://www.rivalfanatics.com).

[Evil Captor]

Anybody remember the Jan Kemp contretemps? The more things change, the more things stay the same at UGA.

[Typo Negative]

I love it. "How many halves in a game? How many quarters?"

[Frostillicus]

I don't know what the answers to the final 2 questions are, but they certainly are not "Jim Harrick, Jr."

[jackelope]

I'm so fucking proud of my alma mater right now. Yee-haw. Go 'Dawgs.

[Hosayf]

And this is where I plan on being next year... :rolleyes:

[ivylass]

As long as you're not in the basketball program, you should be okay. ;)

[Bill Door]

Here's what bothers me about the whole fucking thing. This is the career path taken by many secondary school administrators:

1. Go to a college or university and play football, basketball, or some other sport.

2. Fail to make the cut to the pros, and be forced to fall back on that "coaching degree" you graduated with. Your degree has been dressed up with course names like "Kinesthesiology", but let's face it, you majored in jumping jacks.

3. Take a job as a gym teacher/coach at a high school. You're certainly not an educator, and you kind of resent the kids anyway, so as quickly as you can become an administrator. The pinheads on the board of education are so moist and quivery over your brush with greatness in college that you rapidly progress to a position where you can do some real damage by virtue of your ignorance in every field that doesn't have a goal at the end.

4. Spend the rest of your career fucking up the education of those students in your charge.

[LurkMeister]

What I know about basketball (or sports in general, for that matter) could be stuffed into a flea's navel with room to spare. Just for laughs, I took the test. I got fourteen of the multiple choice questions right; five of those were educated guesses (i.e., Georgia in in the Southeastern US, and I assumed SEC stood for South Eastern Conference). Of the ones I got wrong, I would assume that anyone who attends UoG or follows college basketball at all would know things like what color the uniforms are and how long a game lasts.

It's stories like this that provide more ammunition for those who think college athletes are pampered and college sports programs are overfunded.

[MsRobyn]

Here's what bothers me about the whole fucking thing. This is the career path taken by many secondary school administrators:

1. Go to a college or university and play football, basketball, or some other sport.

2. Fail to make the cut to the pros, and be forced to fall back on that "coaching degree" you graduated with. Your degree has been dressed up with course names like "Kinesthesiology", but let's face it, you majored in jumping jacks.

3. Take a job as a gym teacher/coach at a high school. You're certainly not an educator, and you kind of resent the kids anyway, so as quickly as you can become an administrator. The pinheads on the board of education are so moist and quivery over your brush with greatness in college that you rapidly progress to a position where you can do some real damage by virtue of your ignorance in every field that doesn't have a goal at the end.

4. Spend the rest of your career fucking up the education of those students in your charge.

And this would explain why I never passed high school algebra and had pinhead fundies teaching health.

*sigh*

Robin

[GoHeels]

As you can tell by my handle, I'm a huge fan of a certain university's (not UGA) basketball team - and by extension, a huge fan of college basketball itself. As I write this, my team is about 8 1/2 hrs. away from taking on its biggest rival, and I'm already working myself into a (admittedly juvenile) tizzy about the game.

However, after reading stories like this, or about kids who go to school for four years yet don't know how to read, or how hookers are used to lure recruits, or how tutors write papers for student-athletes (please don't smirk at THAT term), or gambling scandals, etc., the more I realize that to be a fan of college basketball (or football), you really have to approach the sport like a moviegoer approaches a film:

You have to suspend your disbelief.

And jackelope, I understand your dismay, but trust me, this kind of shit goes on in SO MANY OTHER PLACES than just UGA. UGA just got caught. Yes, some schools/programs are worse than others, but if you want purity with your college sports, watch the Patriot League, or watch Division II.

[Purple Scottie]

The preferential treatment athletes get at some schools disgusts me. I'm so glad I went to a division III school. I had to give up having the college experience of big football and basketball games, but I got to meet some real student-athletes who managed to keep up with a busy schedule and rigorous academics. None of them may have gone onto the pros but with many ending up in PhD programs, law school, or med school I say that they didn't do too badly.

Plus UGA sucks in general.

[FilmGeek]

I read the test before I read the article. It doesn't surprise me in the least that there are NCAA violations as I went to KU for four years.

That said, I thought the test was funny. My trigonometry teacher in high school had a deal with his class. If everyone got over a certain grade (A- I think) we would have a fake final. We all studied hard and helped the slower ones (ironically the basketball players) and got that grade.

We had questions like: Write your name in all caps.
What is my name?
What is our mascot?
In what state do we live?

It was fun and a nice payoff for all of our hard work. Could this have been the situation or is it pretty much definite that he passed his students just to pass them?

[rsa]

Plus UGA sucks in general.

No it doesn't and I have a cite.

Says right here on my UGA button...

IF YOU AIN'T A BULLDOG, YOU AIN'T SHIT!

:cool:

[jsgoddess]

As a former chem tutor at a rather sport-mad university, I can't be surprised by anything schools do for (or rather to) student athletes. The kids look like they're getting away with something, but in reality they're just being screwed by the school. The schools make a heap of money on the backs of these kids, and if the kids don't make pro they get what? Mostly nothing.

Julie

[dalej42]

What makes me angry is how is hurts the degrees of all the people who went to the University of Georgia. A large school graduates thousands of people every year. I hate the fact that a small group of athletes will hurt the credibility of many students who went to school for 4 years, worked hard, and earned their degrees.

My degrees are from Florida State University. I'm a football fan, but I hate how my degree has been cheapened by the football team.

[Sublight]

This is when I feel good about my alma mater's basketball team winning only 5 games in the four years I was there. At least then everyone knows it wasn't worth doing anything unethical to recruit those guys.

[Typo Negative]

I hate the fact that a small group of athletes will hurt the credibility of many students who went to school for 4 years, worked hard, and earned their degrees.

.How is this the fault of the athletes? I think you set your sights higher up the chain.

[Mac Guffin]

No it doesn't and I have a cite.

Says right here on my UGA button...

IF YOU AIN'T A BULLDOG, YOU AIN'T SHIT!

:cool:


So logicaly extrapolating, this means that if you are a "Bulldog", then you are shit?

Who wants to be shit?

[Wabbit]

How is this the fault of the athletes? I think you set your sights higher up the chain.
True that--I've worked at UGA for about a decade now and I can honestly say that President Adams (or King Mike as we call him) is personally responsible for every single freakin controversy we've had here--and we've been averaging about 1 every six months or so--since the Regents were moronic enough to put him in charge. Everyone hates the guy except the Regents so, unfortunately, he's in no danger of being fired. Anyway, Adams personally hired Harrick and should bear the brunt of this travesty, not the rest of UGA. Hell, we'd have a great school here if we could just can a few key administrators.

[ivylass]

I want there to be a Cult of the Scholar.

I want college recruiters to descend on high schools, and instead of going to the gym to watch the jocks, I want them to go to the guidance office and pore over the grades of the kids taking AP classes.

I want the pimply faced girl who didn't go to the prom but aced her chem final and won the state English competition to be wined, dined, and fawned over. I want the universities to fight over who can give her the best scholarship.

I want the universities to not only acknowledge that the football team won the Sugar Bowl, but to tout the fact that the biology majors found a cure for cancer.

I want the nerds and geeks to get the same accolades as the Heisman trophy winners.

Be nice to nerds...you may end up working for one ;)

[Neurotik]

Take a job as a gym teacher/coach at a high school. You're certainly not an educator, and you kind of resent the kids anyway, so as quickly as you can become an administrator. The pinheads on the board of education are so moist and quivery over your brush with greatness in college that you rapidly progress to a position where you can do some real damage by virtue of your ignorance in every field that doesn't have a goal at the end.
Uh-huh. So your state doesn't have a master's level credentialing program required for administrative positions like most states? Sucks for you.

On an unrelated note, this is one my favorite parts from the article:
"These are students with perfect 1,600 SAT scores who will go to Harvard, Princeton or Yale if they don't come to [UGA], and this weekend we're being held up to the rest of the world as a laughingstock by yet another sports scandal," Fink said.
So, you've got a bunch of students who are fielding offers from Ivy League academic powerhouses, but UGA was their first choice and now it's not? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

[Futile Gesture]

I wish all the exams I sat had questions that started with "In your opinion...". Very hard to get that one wrong. Unless you didn't have an opinion, or had forgotten what it was or something. :rolleyes:

[rsa]

So logicaly extrapolating, this means that if you are a "Bulldog", then you are shit?

Who wants to be shit?
"Logicaly" is spelled "logically".

Now, let me explain this to you slowly as I am sure that you can not read very fast.

If you are not a University of Georgia alumnus, you are not even a pile of feces. If you are a UGA alumnus, you are "the shit" (i.e. [latin for id est meaning "that is"] the best or greatest).

:)

[monstro]

So, you've got a bunch of students who are fielding offers from Ivy League academic powerhouses, but UGA was their first choice and now it's not? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Far be it from me to defend UGA--the nemesis of my alma mater--but I don't think UGA automatically loses to an Ivy in a toss-up. Kids down in Georgia can go to the state schools for FREE if they maintain a B average. If I had a choice between going to a pretty good state school for free (while still staying close to home) and an uppercrust Ivy that--even with a scholarship--still costs a grip, then I'd probably go with the free state school. Then again, I'm not a school snob.

I doubt that this thing has ruined UGA's reputation. I don't know why this should tarnish the other departments. So UGA has some dumb jocks and even dumber atheletic coaches. This is earth-shattering news? Gimme a break.

[monstro]

If you are a UGA alumnus, you are "the shit" (i.e. [latin for id est meaning "that is"] the best or greatest).

It wouldn't be nice to tell you the truth. I don't want to damage your fragile self-esteem. ;)

[Wabbit]

I doubt that this thing has ruined UGA's reputation. I don't know why this should tarnish the other departments. So UGA has some dumb jocks and even dumber atheletic coaches. This is earth-shattering news? Gimme a break.

Well, it's just the latest in a string of problems that our idiotic 'leader' (i.e. Pres. Adams) has caused so I do think UGA's rep is taking a series of hits. The guy needs to go--the sooner the better.

[cmosdes]

As a former chem tutor at a rather sport-mad university, I can't be surprised by anything schools do for (or rather to) student athletes. The kids look like they're getting away with something, but in reality they're just being screwed by the school. The schools make a heap of money on the backs of these kids, and if the kids don't make pro they get what? Mostly nothing.

Julie

This is where I tend to disagree. They *can* trade their athleticism for something very meaningful. Most of us are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for what these people are getting for fee.

Look at it this way. The schools *really* want that athlete to play for them so the school can make lots of money. That can be used to a great deal of leverage by the athlete. The fact that the athletes aren't taking advantage of that position of power is their own fault, not the schools.

[LurkMeister]

This is where I tend to disagree. They *can* trade their athleticism for something very meaningful. Most of us are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for what these people are getting for fee.
The college I attended had a number of soccer players from (IIRC) Mexico. I was talking with one of them once (after getting past the "nerd/jock" stereotype we had each bought into) and found out that he had absolutely no interest in playing soccer professionally, but was just using his skill at it to get a decent education. I can't remember what he planned on doing after college, but he was quite serious about his classwork and was doing rather well academically.

[Evil Captor]

True that--I've worked at UGA for about a decade now and I can honestly say that President Adams (or King Mike as we call him) is personally responsible for every single freakin controversy we've had here--and we've been averaging about 1 every six months or so--since the Regents were moronic enough to put him in charge. Everyone hates the guy except the Regents so, unfortunately, he's in no danger of being fired. Anyway, Adams personally hired Harrick and should bear the brunt of this travesty, not the rest of UGA. Hell, we'd have a great school here if we could just can a few key administrators.

As a former UGA alumnus I must say: no, you don't. The culture of football worship at UGA runs deep. Just canning a few admins won't do it, you need a complete wipe of the athletic dept., can King Mike, get a new Board of Regents and change the leadership of the Alumni Assn. then you might get somewhere. But that is not going to happen.

I like King Kaufman's idea: acknowledge that student athletes are moneymakers for the university, pay them big salaries, let them hire their own whores, etc.

[jsgoddess]

This is where I tend to disagree. They *can* trade their athleticism for something very meaningful. Most of us are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for what these people are getting for fee.

Look at it this way. The schools *really* want that athlete to play for them so the school can make lots of money. That can be used to a great deal of leverage by the athlete. The fact that the athletes aren't taking advantage of that position of power is their own fault, not the schools.

Where I tutored, these athletes missed class all the time because of their sports' schedules. Take a class that only meets twice a week, and then miss one class a week. How successful is that student likely to be? And if that student isn't super-qualified to be in that class (or that school) in the first place, how successful are they going to be?

I tutored some smart kids, and some very determined kids. But I also tutored some kids who were way way over their heads--not necessarily because they lacked brains, but because they lacked pretty much any student skills. This was a private school, and a highly selective one. The reason these athletes were in the school had nothing to do with their ability to compete as intellectuals. They didn't already have the tools they needed to succeed as students, and the school knew it. (Non-athletes didn't have the same opportunities to receive tutoring.)

Julie