I appreciate everyone’s well-informed thoughts.
So any application of academic standards reinforces racist stereotypes?
Of course not. I said that I agreed that many white students don’t “belong” in college (I know from personal experience), some of them also on elite teams, and some of them not about sports at all.
I also said I thought the racial aspect was just one component of this issue, and I didn’t want to hijack the thread with it.
It’s simply that, for some people with a racist bent already, seeing a disproportionate (not all, just disproportionate) number of people who get away with “being in college despite not belonging” for D-1 basketball reasons being Black, happens to reinforce their (misguided) attitudes. AND, some people of color, observing the situation, will (with more justification) be reminded of the “Blacks just there to entertain everyone” trope – one rooted in historical injustices with echoes today.
Like you, and several other posters, it’s the “let’s pretend” part that is most problematic. It’s what led to the pressure on you to fail to uphold academic standards (I applaud your resistance to that pressure). It’s a problem with the system, clearly.
And of course, there’s nothing stopping them from offering free admission and tuition to the players or their families as part of the compensation package. The cost of that pales in comparison to what’s already being spent on NIL. Being able to go back and get a college degree as a full-time student after trying to make basketball work as a career seems much more rational than the current system of pretend student-athletes.
Most people who are good at high-level sports are reasonably intelligent. If you struggle with the basic high school curriculum you probably don’t have the capacity to memorize a 300-page football playbook or decide in real-time what to do about a 6’6” 250 pound center lunging at you as you try to shoot a basketball. They’re not all going to become quantum physics researchers, and many of them have underdeveloped study skills due to academics not being emphasized in their lives to this point, but I think the average NFL or NBA player can handle something like getting a business degree at an average public college if they work at it to the same level as any other full-time student. They just don’t bother with it because it’s a pointless distraction in the current system.
There is also a LOT of downtime on buses and planes in college and professional sports - some players tend to read quite a bit.
Good points, I think. This speaks to your previous post – about how one issue is the overlapping timing of the two activities.
I would suggest that these elite athletes (the ones who don’t go to the NBA after freshman or sophomore year) be expected from the start to take more than four years to graduate, and that they not take any classes during their sport’s season (and a certain time just before that, for practice time). Typically, I think, a semester-long period (including perhaps some “vacation” time before and/or after the semester)? And, each sport’s season would have to be adjusted to fit the academic calendar (usually, that means semesters).
This runs counter to all the pressure we instructors and advisors feel – for the students’ sake, and the school’s --to get all students to graduate “on time.” And, it delays a degree for the students in question – and thus delays their full entry into the job market. But, that would be balanced in some ways by the money they’d make during their “sports semesters.”
But if a sport season does take a full semester, a student couldn’t do this every year – it would take eight years to get a four-year degree! Hmmm…now we’re back to “should such elite athletes be in college at all?” Hard to square this circle.
Rather like the GI Bill – and, fundamentally, for similar reasons (the human body is at peak performance, in some ways, during typical college years – so, with soldiers as with athletes, there will always be a potential delays in college-style intellectual development, for those taking on a time-consuming role that depends on that age range’s physical performance level).
To expound on this:
In Rounds 1 and 2 (this weekend) :
- 32 teams will play on Thursday (3/19); 16 will lose and go home, and the other 16 will stay in that city to play in Round 2 on Saturday
- 32 teams will play on Friday (3/20); 16 will lose and go home, and the other 16 will stay in that city to play in Round 2 on Sunday
- Teams which play in Round 2 will go home after their games on Saturday/Sunday
In Rounds 3 (Sweet 16) and 4 (Elite 8) (next weekend):
- 8 teams will play on Thursday (3/26); 4 will lose and go home, and the remaining 4 will stay in that city to play in Round 4 on Saturday
- 8 teams will play on Friday (3/27); 4 will lose and go home, and the remaining 4 will stay in that city to play in Round 4 on Sunday
- Teams which play in Round 4 will go home after their games on Saturday/Sunday
In the Final 4 (in two weeks):
- 4 teams will play on Saturday (4/4); 2 will lose and go home, and the remaining 2 will stay in Indianapolis to play in the championship on Monday (and then probably travel home on Tuesday)
3/4 of the teams in the tournament are eliminated after the first weekend (rounds 1 and 2), and players on those teams will probably miss two to three weekdays of classes, maximum.
I don’t know if any college sport fits the entire season within a semester but I recall reading that athletes get priority in scheduling classes which would make it easier to have no classes Thursday afternoon or Friday and they generally take the minimum number of credits during the season and load up during the off-season
Football generally does. The season runs from the end of August/beginning of September until mid-November; if the team makes it to the playoffs and/or a bowl game, they may still be playing a game in late December or early January.
That said, most teams will start pre-season training several weeks before the season starts, and will also have a number of off-season practices during the spring (typically in March or April).
Similarly, baseball (college baseball is very big with some schools, nonexistent with others) is pretty much entirely during the spring semester.
It’s mostly the indoor sports (basketball, hockey, etc.) which might start their seasons during the fall semester, and finish during the spring semester.
NCAA baseball and softball extend into mid-June, which causes its own logistical problems as most schools end their spring semester around the first week of May. A few years ago, it led to a team continuing to play baseball after the school it represented ceased to exist.