ThinkProgress: Amid the fog of scandal and shame at some of our biggest institutions, the role academics play in the big business of college athletics has come under more scrutiny. With players taking made up courses in made up schools, and with schools fudging grades to keep players eligible, the NCAA has taken steps in recent years to bolster academic standards. But it continues to ignore the most important fact that is staring top-level college sports in the face: many of the athletes are in school because the model we have created makes going to college the most logical step toward becoming a professional athlete. Many “student-athletes” are students simply because they are athletes, and the education they truly care about is the one that occurs on the field, not the one that happens off of it.
7 comments:
Think article makes some strong points and I think they should be considered. I feel like this is a no brainer and why have universities not been doing this. The courses the article describes I think is a great idea. Doing business courses combines with physical ed. This would give the athletes the knowledge of how to handle contracts and more importantly large sums of money. I have no idea what happens to a person when you come out of a meeting and they say here 5 million dollars to play basketball for the next 3 years. That changes everything in that persons life instantly and having a little knowledge of what you could do with that money could be incredibly valuable. There are soo many courses coming to my mind that could be useful. Ethics, Investment, Physical Ed, Health and Injury class, Strengthening classes, Movement, Yoga, and so many more. I feel a valid and useful major could be put together, so the major could be taken seriously and not just written off.
Also there are a lot of people in this world that graduated with Major A and are doing something not very related to that major.
I think that Adam has a point and that this is a completely valid idea. Many people know that a lot (not all) of college athletes are just there to play sports and try to make into the pros, which lets face it cannot happen for everyone. So then they are stuck out in the real world, with no marketable skills and no job. It would only make sense to try to prepare them for the possibility that they won't be able to play sports for money.
I also think that it is funny that he specifically references the arts. Because who are we to say no to something like this? Since we are doing the exact same thing, and we don't even have to take 2 years of general requirements. We do take classes though that can and do pertain to the world outside of the arts. I think that this should be considered for athletes as well.
I started this article with the full and unfounded assumption that I would completely disagree with everything about it. I knew some student athletes in college, one that had serious chances of going pro, and they complained as much as anyone else about how busy they were and how Activity X (classes) interfered with other Activity Y (sports). However, a lot of them were happy in their majors and were pursuing other interests. I guess I never really thought about it in the same way as majoring in the arts, but after reading this article, it is incredibly similar.
Having an athletics major as an option for those students who want to do it has a lot of merit. However, what I'm wondering is whether athletes who wanted to major in something else would be able to. Would someone NOT majoring in athletics still be able to participate to the same level in Division I sports, or like a conservatory program, would they have to be a part of the major to be on a DI team?
The real kicker about this article is the reference to art conservatory programs (like ours here at CMU). I grew up in an area that loved sports and didn't understand the arts, so I personally have a distaste for single minded sports oriented people. But, personal feelings aside, people should be allowed to have a "sports" major. It really is only fair that both art/theatre and sport majors concentrate so heavily on what we'd like to do (even if the top positions are unfeasible for all of us to achieve). And, the fantastic thing about college and most liberal arts programs is that with an undergraduate degree, a job can be found that isn't in your major. Even though we're all attending a theatre conservatory, it's feasible for us to find jobs in music, event companies, business, marketing, and a number of other fields. A sports major could also find jobs in such a manner. Majoring in something so specific can be a bit of a risk, but we take that risk everyday, and I think that risk is a reasonable one. I can't imagine not doing theatre, and there are plenty of people out there who can't imagine not playing their favorite sport.
There are two disparate points in this article: one, that athletes are not smart enough to accomplish (or do not apply themselves enough to) classes that do not apply to sports, and two, that the sport practice and trainings are not given the academic value that the author believes they should. I absolutely agree on that second point - if we receive credit for the creation of productions (and it counts for a majority of our semester's units), then athletes who are similarly applying themselves to physical training, practice and game time should be extended the same. It's like a scheduled lab experiment session, taking it out of the arts/sports worlds. The first point is where I take issue with this article. If athletes cannot cut it in the general education requirements of the university, fudging their grades or creating classes specifically to boost their GPAs are immoral and not advancing the academic goals of the university at large. I could see a sports major directing the electives they take - business, public speaking, health, etc. as discussed - but each university has an obligation to provide what it considers to be a necessary foundation for all graduates. If the athlete cannot pass Freshman English, BOOT THEM OUT. They are not satisfying the basic limits of the educational environment, and encouraging them by doing these adjustments and specific classes that don't actually exist is just cheating them out of challenging them pedagogically.
Truly, who are we to say that a vocational athletic major would be unreasonable. At first I'm thinking, what will unsuccessful athletes do? Hmm, actors... Then I'm thinking, why don't they just go directly into sports? The pro teams vet the college teams - that's the system that's been created.
Being from Chapel Hill, and knowing a large percentage of the UNC - Chapel Hill student population, I'm familiar with the academic and moral dilemmas that arise from intense division one schools. The basketball players rule the school, the football players have had various scandals with faux grades. How would this vocational degree affect the dynamics of the school. Would the incentives of schools to treat the more talented students with outs of the program go away?
Also there is still the debate of paying student athletes...I'm not sure this program would dispel any of those issues.
All very good points by my colleagues here. I agree with Adam and Brian and Ariel. The trick is that the football program of a major university is a HUGE money maker. That is why great football players with poor grades get an academic pass. Sure they can’t read but they can WIN. And winning brings in the endorsements and booster money. It is good for the bottom line. If Josh Groban was still attending hear and selling a million albums and failing a class, he may get a special exemption from “My favorite Class”. I trust this would not be the case. I feel our school has more integrity than that. I do think that student athletes should be able to major in sport. Just like Adam outlined it BUT I think they should still held to an academic standard that Brian and Arial wrote about. There is very much a similarity between football players and opera singers. I am putting together a quiz on how to tell the difference. Remember, “degree programs aren't necessarily job training programs. “.
Post a Comment