The abuse that goes on with college sports is amazeing. Big time college sports is not the warm fuzzy wholesome activity that we envision. The way that college sports are run takes away from the academic integrity of universities, fosters a negative campus aptmosphere (especially for women) and uses resources that would be better spent on serious academics.
Sports scholarships are a huge injustice. They arn't about scholarship at all. According to a US New Online article, such scholarships typically run out after the draft.
*“Many universities tacitly allow athletes–especially in football and basketball–to spend those four years on campus while barely cracking a book.” states the aricle, “In these sports, universities keep the considerable revenue that the athlete’s talents have generated, while too often the player ends up with no meaningful education.” *
Graduation rates for football players are low. At one time University of Tennesse boasted an 11% graduation rate amoung their football players. Why should we provide not only admission, but full scholarships to admittedly marginal students with very low prospects for academic sucess? I could never understand why people get worked up about affirmative action admissions (the majority of which suceed in school) but not about paying for athletes who take up space in classrooms that could be used by any number of promising young students who would be dedicated to their classes.
College athletics do not exist in a vacuum. Politics, media and various other forces collide to create an amazeing level of corruption. James J. Duderstadt,President Emeritus and University Professor of Science and Engineering at The University of Michigan, says
*" Big time college football and basketball have put inappropriate pressure on university governance, with boosters, politicians, and the media attempting to influence on governing boards and university leadership. (In fact, our Michigan governor recently attempted to talk Bo Schembechler for running for a place on our governing board!). The impact on university culture and values has been damaging, with inappropriate behavior of both athletes and coaches, all too frequently tolerated and excused." *
According to a Colleges.com article, “Between 1991 and 1996, representatives of the institution’s (Texas Tech) athletics interests provided free bail bonding and legal services to student-athletes.”
Commercialization is a major factor. The Knight commission found that “Within the last decade, big-time athletics programs have taken on all of the trappings of a major entertainment enterprise. In the search for television revenues, traditional rivalries have been tossed aside in conference realignments, games have been rescheduled to satisfy broadcast preferences, the number of games has been multiplied, student-athletes have been put on the field at all hours of the day and night, and university administrators have fallen to quarreling among themselves over the division of revenues from broadcasting contracts.”
Violence is a common occurance amongst college athletes, and many go unpunished by their universities and sometimes by the law
- “Intercollegiate athletics is a good old boys’ network if there ever was one, and football reigns at Nebraska. We went through a period where we had six to eight athletes involved in sexual assault, shooting, physical assault, a whole variety of criminal activities, and no matter what they did, the coach defended them and claimed that Nebraska was under the microscope because of being a top program.” *
Other incidences include a woman that was beaten to the point of hospitalization by a Nebraska football player, and she recieved death threats and had to leave the state. Murrey Spurber, an Indiana University proffesor who spoke out against coach Bobby Knight’s abuses, was recieved repeated and chilling death threats.
Perhaps most alarming is that “student”-athletes get cottled throught their classes (which few they take). This is an insult to those of us that work hard in out classes and destroys the academic and itellectual integrety of the school. One example of this abuse was reported in the Cincinatti Enquierer.
“Jan Gangelhoff, a former office manager in Minnesota’s academic counseling unit, claims to have performed approximately 400 pieces of coursework on behalf of 20 Minnesota basketball players between 1993 and 1998, including several members of this year’s squad. Her claim is supported by computer files, graded papers and the admissions of four former players. Gangelhoff says one paper she wrote on Martin Luther King was submitted by three players to three different professors.”
University of Tennesee was investigated last year on academic fraud charges. An transcipt of an ESPN show about the subject states the evidence.
*“A faculty committee report released on Monday shows that on average, male and female athletes get twice as many grade changes as other students…The nine players most at risk of losing their eligibility were five times more likely to receive a grade change as all athletes and 10 times more likely to receive a grade change than non-athletes…One starter on last year’s team failed 40 percent of his classes, including jogging, and received six grade changes during his career. Another starter got 10 grades of incomplete. According to school policy, grades of I are supposed to be given only under extraordinary circumstances, but they’re valuable because they give the student up to a year to finish the class work and don’t count against his GPA…At Tennessee, faculty are given a letter each semester identifying athletes taking their course and explaining the athlete will miss class for legitimate reasons…This issue is complicated by the athletic department practice of inviting selected faculty on all-expense-paid trips to football road games.” *
According to a report made about the scandal, nine of of thirty ‘urban studies’ majors were starters, a suspicious amount considering the size of the university. Furthermore, those nine were admitted into the major without completeing the prerequisites.
The problem is widespread. A former University of Minnesota player says *“In the two years I was there, I never did anything…The coaches knew. Everybody knew. We used to make jokes about it. … I would go over there some nights and get, like, four papers done. The coaches would be laughing about it.” *
Beyond outright fraud is the fact that these academicly inept and often uninterested ‘students’ get the very best in tutoring and advising. Other students, who are concerned with their education and show promise, have to go throught the usual routes, which often involve long waits, fees, and underqualified help. The tutoring resources given to athletes would be better spent on the student populace as a whole.
A common excuse for the state of college sports is that they are a revenue produceing ‘golden goose’. This is not true. An Illinois newspaper states that “Despite large crowds and widespread publicity, few athletics programs are self-supporting because rising expenses continually jump ahead of revenues”.
I could go on for pages, includeing recruiting violations, gambeling and scoreing scandles. Instead I will leave you to think…Isn’t the vast resources being spent on people that are only marginally interested in education better used to help those that honestly care about getting the most from their classes? It is truely insulting that I work hard in my classes and gain a genuine eduacation for my degree while there are others who simply take up space and could care less one way or the other, yet get full scholarships, special resourses and occasionall fraudualant ‘help’.
I propose that there be non-university affiliated sporting clubs, that would operate their own teams and work with the schedules of local colleges. The players would have the option of still attending school, but would have to do so on their academic merit alone. Members of these clubs would of course still be elligable for the same merit and need based financial aid that the rest of us are. For those athletes that are not interested in class, they would not have to sit through classes they do not want and they would not have to resort to freud to keep eligable to play. Colleges of course could continue their athletic programs on a basis that would serve the whole school, not just a handfull of players. Lower division legues would continue to exist and they would be considered just another extra-currocular, like joining a school play, not the basis for one’s being in school. In the end, everyone wins.