You can’t make somebody graduate. No matter what rules the NCAA puts in place, it is up to the individual to take care of all requirements in order to graduate. Now, the NCAA has set an amazing precedence forcing players to graduate, or else.
The NCAA got it wrong. It's beginning to sound like a broken record. Recently, the NCAA announced the schools that will be punished for not having its players graduate. Scholarship reductions are the main penalty for this Academic Progress Rate (APR) rule.
Only two major college football programs suffered penalties; Kansas and Washington State. As for the other Division I programs that suffered sanctions, they shouldn't be in Division I-A anyway maybe other than Hawaii. (the rest should know who they are) San Jose State lost 18 scholarships. Now instead of being bad, they will be really bad.
Not only are college football coaches now tasked with babysitting over 100 athletes 365 days a year, now they must figure out a way to make them graduate in order to have enough scholarships to replace them down the road.
It’s not fair. Football coaches have enough on their plate already. Not only has the NCAA regulated the amount of assistant coaches they have been able to employ over the past few decades, now they are taking their anal retentive ways to new levels.
Football coaches are tasked to be the father figure for these athletes, yet there is only so much they can do. The NCAA expects them to be Superman, Batman, and Iron Man while at the same time trying to figure out a way to win at all costs, now graduate their players even though some aren’t going to college to go to college, keep them out of trouble with the law with less assistants to help watch the players, and oh by the way, did I mention win at all costs?
Coaches have been fired for less. Mark Mangino was rumored to be on the hotseat entering last season before his Jayhawks turned the corner and went to a BCS bowl. Now instead of building on the momentum heading into the 2008 campaign, the NCAA has squashed it by limiting its scholarships from 85 to 83.
And for those who think the loss of two scholarships is a slap on the wrist, just ask schools that have been under probation. Two scholarships are a big deal. Not only do you lose depth, you have a sudden stigma attached to your program that wasn’t there just a month ago. So now matter how hard it may have been for Mangino to attract Big XII caliber athletes to his football program, it just became harder.
One basketball scholarship is a huge deal. USC losing two rides? That is a very huge deal. Good luck going to the NCAA Tournament with only 11 scholarship players on your roster. This rule not only is killing programs, but it hurts the athletes. How? Say USC had an incoming freshman not yet ready for the big-time. They want to redshirt this player in order to gain some seasoning. Not anymore. Forcing him into the fire could hamper his entire career.
Graduation rates are not always the fault of the coach. Most if not all coaches will hold an athlete’s hand all the way to class if they are struggling. But after the final whistle of their career, why is it down now to the coaches to still babysit their athletes when they might not want to go to class anymore? Most coaches still care about the athletes after the final whistle, they aren’t worth a salt if they don’t. But what is stopping a fifth-year senior two credits short of graduation from saying, “Coach, I have heard about going to class for five years. I’m not going to listen to it anymore.” The player moves home and the Coach is now out a scholarship potentially.
No matter what the NCAA does, kids are still going to go to college to play football or basketball. They can try anything they want, but that will never change. I don’t necessarily agree with it. My thought is if you are gifted enough for the school to use you for football, you may as well use them for a free college degree no matter what division you participate in. Not everybody has the same opinion.
The NCAA has made it harder to get into these colleges by raising its requirements. Proposition 48 is a term of the past. It used to be designed to give kids a second chance. But the NCAA has all but gotten rid of it.
Maybe former Oklahoma linebacker got it right in 1987 when he wore the “National Communists Against Athletes” shirt on the sidelines of the Orange Bowl. They have no problem cashing the large sum of money into their bank accounts, yet they want to twist everybody’s arms at the same time. Is their way or the highway. How many coaches will be fired due to this rule?
It’s ridiculous. I have always felt that one day, big-time schools would have enough and break away to form their own division. It might be a long ways off, but at the end of the day it’s the schools and athletes that make the product. Not the NCAA. If the BCS Conferences were to break away from the NCAA, or at least threaten to break away, what would the NCAA do?
Threaten them with the copyright for the term BCS and Final Four? They are just terms, and the NCAA had to buy the rights to use Final Four from the state of Indiana anyway. What leverage do they honestly have? Do all schools have a contract with the NCAA?
Yes, America. I’m suggesting a college athletic coup attempt. Schools could change the rules back to the way it used to be. 110 football scholarships. No rule on how many basketball players you can bring in for one particular recruiting class. If you lose eight players, replace them. Bring back Prop 48 to give less-fortunate athletes a second chance.
And, you guess it. Playoffs. Playoffs? They could have a 16-team football playoff every single year. A huge national championship game on the first Saturday of January and make a ton of money. No more bowl games. A 32-team basketball tournament every March. Call it March Mayhem.
Copyright that.
It took a cunning coup attempt to overthrow one Communist government in the former Soviet Union. This coup will be less violent and is not as important, but it is without question a necessity.
Sign me up. Where's the petition. This is gonna save the whales, right?
The first thing that came to my mind while reading your post is how much more sophisticated the cheating will become. The conspiracy chain will involve the players, professors, TAs, student councils, fraternaties, and chancellors. I can't wait.
What is the percentage of regular students graduating in four-five years? How does that compare to athletic scholarship players?
Scottstradamus - Great blog. I cannot agree with you on everything though. You say that the coaches are supposed to be Superman, making sure athletes go to class and do the work necessary to remain eligible. That is part of why they make the money that they do. Along with the multitude of head coaches making over one million dollars a year, you now have assistants making almost a million dollars a year. You have new academic centers just for athletes being built at universities across the country. You have tutors available to all of these athletes. All of this is coming out of our tax dollars and the money we are charged for tickets every year to see our team play. We are owed something in return. I agree that the "student-athlete" bears a great deal of responsibility, but part of the job of being a head coach is to ensure that your athletes are doing what they are supposed to be doing.
If they really want to ensure that universities graduate a higher percentage of their athletes there is one simple way to do it. Require all athletes who accept a scholarship to attend school for four years. Instead of letting football players leave after three years, baseball players leave after two years and basketball players leave after one year, require them to stay in school. If they choose to leave school early, they should be ineligible to play professional sports until they have fully repaid the university for the costs of their scholarship.
here's a solution to the problem....raise the mandatory age for professional players to 21. The reason the elite players are leaving early to play pro is because the pros encourage it with a one-year after exiting high school and 19 year old age requirement. It's really simple. The Pro leagues are encouraging student-athletes to leave. And then these immature adults are on police blotters every week and the the Commishes wonder why. I was going to write about the problem....it's simple to fix, but no one will agree to do it.
So the school will be punished if it has kids leave early for the NFL? That makes no sense. I thought the idea of going to college was to get a good job after college. That is what the kids that play football are doing. BY going to the NFL they will have a better job than they could ever have if the stayed and got a degree. I think the NCAA is horrible for college sports. I would love to see them dump the NCAA, but I don't see it happening in my lifetime, and I'm still young.
Nice post Scott. It's hard enough for a student (let alone a student-athlete) to graduate in 4 years. At Tennessee, required courses for a major were often scheduled at the same time...thus, making you take it next semster and prolonging your stay in college. We called it "The Big Orange S.C.R.E.W" (I have the T-shirt). Moreover, this is going to push student-athletes into even more b.s. majors like "basketweaving" and "sports studies", denying them the chance to learn something REAL.
Wrong wrong wrong.It's a simple fix for the coaches,recruit players that are intelligent enough to be in college.This is what makes college ball different than some kind of minor league program.Maybe if coaches recruited kids that actually belong in college we won't have so many thugs running around selling drugs or robbing people in the offseason.
Playoffs are a mistake also,if you want playoffs watch the NFL.CFB is about rivalries and bowl games,period.Nothing wrong with a +1 or something like that but peeps need to relax.If you pull that spots off a leopard and throw some stripes on it,guess what,it's not a leopard anymore.
Football teams are part of the school not the other way around.
Break away from the NCAA..that is a compelling thought. What value does the NCAA provide? Their annual paper championship in football is enough to think about a change. It seems that the NCAA is trying to corale everyone into the student athlete mode, and away from the farm system for the NFL and NBA
Again Lisa only has some of the facts right. While the NBA allows a kid to buy one year removed for school to join the NBA that's not the case for the NFL. You have to be out of high school for three years before you can get drafted. Does she ever get the information right? The Left love to leave not information when it makes them sound better.
First, I would agree that holding the coaches (or programs) directly responsible for player graduation is ludicrous. The coaches have no direct control over a players decision to continue school or leave. None. That said, the further transition of college sports into the NFL or NBA farm system turns my stomach. Only the elite few actually go on to play professionally. The rest of the players are either chumps who are playing semi-pro ball(At a very low rate of pay) to line the pockets of the coaches and the university or they are student athletes who get a valued degree. If the primary purpose of college sports is to provide a farm club for the pros then I say divorce it from the academic community altogether. Eliminate the requirement for these players to even go to school and make them employees just like the coach. Pay them a decent amount of money to play at that level and eliminate the charade. In no time college football and basketball will have completed the transition to the same high level of player integrity and character that we see in professional sports.
WOW! Megabuck actually had a thought that made sense in the beginning of his post. Let the colleges and universities recruit kids that actually belong in college. That is, the ones who can handle the course load and pass their courses with at least a "C" average and still play sports on the side. College football and basketball would certainly be a different game than what you see today.
tigerfan, you are missing the point here. College football is bigger and more important that the universities that it used to represent. Many players aren't there to go to school at all. They are exercising their constitutional rights to exhibit their talents to the pro scouts and get laid by good looking college coeds. We have no right to expect them to go to classes, get grades, or (heaven forbid) graduate. One creative way to incorporate both student athletes and others would be to include the state prison systems in the NCAA conferences. This would allow the legally challenged to participate while not burdening the colleges with unqualified, disinterested, and potentially dangerous students. I doubt getting laid would be quite as interesting for them though.
Here is the gray area. While the kid is playing football and in all truth trying out for the NFL they get a free ride. So to say they are not being paid they DO have to go to class. They do have the right to leave early and should not be held against a coach or team but everyone has the right to expect them to attend class and do their own work! Cough cough (FSU).
Hookem, sarcasm aside I agree. Holding the university and the coach responsible for a player not graduating is a joke. Holding the university and the coach responsible for players attending class, doing their own work, getting passing grades, and following team rules is reasonable to the extent that they take appropriate action when players don't meet these standards. The players know what they are signing up for when they accept a scholarship and should meet their commitments. If not, the university should hold them accountable up to and including throwing them off the team. With the exception of prima donna coaches, prima donna players, and politicians that is how the real world works. The fact that sports at every level is willing to give a pass to a talented but egocentric athlete creates the sorry situation we are in now.
Hook 'em...duh...I knew that. What's your problem anyway? It's three years from high school exit for NFL and one from high school and 19 yrs old for NBA.
Dang....did u just castrated from some woman and are taking it out on a girl? You're probably the same kind of guy who thinks Danica Patrick was at fault for running over a crewman in the pit.
Sheffield is old er. Mags is not a kid. Detroit will have many DHs before Cabrera goes there as a old man. He will have to play the field. 8 spots, pick one and shut up! Btw, I saw Detroit's profile on ' R i c h M a t c h M a k i n g . c o m'- a niche dating site for celebrities, millionaires and their adorers, open for all 18+ singles. Someone there told me he is dating for sexual relationship. I am astonish
No I love women. There is a danger in racing and everything moves so fast that I fault nobody. I problem I have are when people leave parts out. You can't just say pro teams should make them wait longer then a year. It's to general. I have read some of your stuff and agree with some.
The NCAA only cares whether or not a kid graduates due to the fact it makes their school look better by having a higher graduation rate. Thus their product is more appealing and they generate more revenue in return. That's the sole reason. I know it and you know it. It's not about caring about student athletes. It's about putting out the image they care to the general public.
The problem according to %'s is not the amount of players who leave early for the pro's but the number of dumb #### who are recruited to scholarships who aren't bright enough to come in out of the rain. You guys are missing the whole point. College sports should be held responsible to their guys finishing school if they don't go to the pro's and if they recruit dumb #### constantly like they do then they should be held responsible.
I go to college and it's so expensive it will take me six years maybe 7 to pay for all the courses to get a BA degree and these dumbos get a free ride and they can't even graduate? Screw em.
nique....do you find it interesting that the majority of anti-college comments are from those who never went? Good for you for continuing your higher education.
This is a bunch of garbage!!! The taxpayers and/or alumni are paying thousands for these kids to go to college for an education. The extortion on alumni to keep their season tickets is a whole separate issue. These so-called “student-athletes are getting a free ride worth tens of thousands of dollars for the most part because of their physical skills, and are taking up valuable education resources. Other kids that really want an education are being turned away, or like my youngest son, working at a real job to bridge the financial gap between his academic scholarships and the cost of his college expenses.
Maybe you want to go back to the "Meat on the Hoof" system that the coaching clan once had in place. If you really want to know how a coach should handle situations of athletes who were not doing their part on the academic end, read chapter 9,"By Degrees," in Woody Hayes: A Reflection, by Paul Hornung. Bo Schembechler wrote the foreword. It describes what Woody did to help inspire players, ex-players and even those who never played a down for him to get their degrees. And by getting their degrees these former athletes became productive contributors to society rather than a burden and disappointment to their families and community.
People like Tom Osborne and Urban Meyer have gone the extra mile to see that their players meet the academic responsibilities. On the other end of the spectrum we saw the Arkansas basketball program go at least two years without a single graduate. Is that what you really want?
I have absolutely no use for coaches that slack off o
Last edited by Mountainman2 on May 12th at 1:34 AM.
I'm tired of hearing about those kids who aren't in college to go to class. You know, there was a time when college was a privilege. Unfortunately, today, the only people that still understand this are those who have actually graduated from college. College sports will still survive without the best athletes playing. And, you know what? Nobody will ever know if the game has declined in value because there will no longer be this benchmark. To all coaches... Do not recruit student-athletes that are not mentally up to the challenge of academics or do not know right-from-wrong. High school is required until the age of 18, but college is for those wanting to better their overall well-being. As a sports fanatic that graduated with multiple degrees... I do not want my degree water-downed by underachievers enhancing my sports programs.
The NCAA should be scrapped!! The rulebook is probably thicker than the U.S. Tax Code, and why? Because you have a bunch of people sitting around the NCAA offices, trying to justify their salaries by constantly coming up with new ways to regulate. I mean, the NCAA now mandates political correctness! Just enforcing the rules isn't enough for them, it's like they have a quota of 10 new rules per month so they can show they're really doing something. Enough is enough!
Thank you thank you for all of you with a brain. College sports is all about kids who are in school to further their education and to get a degree; with that degree they are able to in most cases get a higher paying job they most likely would not get without that piece of paper. If the ONLY intent of the player is to get to the next level and not get the degree that the college is there to offer, then they have no business taking a spot or more importantly a scholarship from somebody who cannot graduate without it. Nobody has a right to play football or basketball in the pros, they have to earn it, let the NFL and NBA make a developmental league so those who have no intention of furthering their minds and advancing themselves can still get a chance to play ball but without taking a spot on the team that should be reserved for the true student athlete. And you bet the university should be held responsible for recruiting a one and done type athlete who was given a scholarship to play without living up to the intent of the offer, that being graduation. If they insist on offering scholarships to kids who dont want a degree, then the penalty should be to lose the scholarship for the years remaining; turn pro after your freshman year and the scholarship cannot be handed out again for 3 years, turn pro after sophomore season and scholie is tied up for 2 years etc. THAT would make coaches and universities think twice about wasting a scholarship on some kid who has absolutely no intention of graduating. Leave college athletics to college students.
Scottsradamus
I'm inclined to believe that to use the words student athlete is now an oxymoron. It no longer serves the purpose suggested. The graduation rates aren't rising and infact they're actually falling. Not just amongst the so called student athletes but students as a whole. So that tells us something we all need to be glaringly worried about.
But at the end of the day what the hell does the NCAA really care as long as the money continues to roll into its coffers from the various sources ?
Awesome post, Scott. Can't remember the guy here who suggested a super conference to fix the BCS mess. It would have all the big time schools like USC, LSU, and Ohio St. Then the rest of the schools could keep their bowl games. Give your idea legs on sports radio ... keep it up ... I'm on board.
Brian Bosworth po'd a lot of people when he wore that shirt. He was removed from the team for using steroids and didn't play in their bowl game that year. I'm not so sure the NCAA acted on the steroids thing with him because of the steroids...or because he was a high profile athlete and the PR machine decided to make an example of him. I know it didn't sit well with his coach, Barry Switzer. Neither did wearing the shirt.
okay someone on here said something along the lines that the coach has no direct involvement in whether or not a student graduates. I totally disagree. The coach has a direct involvement in getting the student into school and you hear every coach say "he is like a son" and im sorry but my dad would have beat my #### if i dropped out. I feel it is the responsibility of the coach and the staff to look out for the KIDS (they aren't adults and can't really be expected to make the best choice about their future). Also, how many times do we hear about the guy who left college and went pro and then blew out his knee and well thanks for playing. Your talent will only take you so far but what you know will take you everywhere.
Look at Bobby Knight, that man had a winning program everywhere he went and had the highest graduation rate in any sport. So how is it that Bobby Knight can keep his kids in school and stress the importantce of an education but no one else can?
The reason these student athletes don't graduate is because of the money.
Coaches get paid alot of money, not to babysit, or even to graduate their players. They get paid alot of money to win. Period. That being the case, they recruit players who might have "character issues" if he can throw the ball 80 yrds in the air, or run a 4.2 in full pads. That's the way it is.
This is what pisses me off about the argument that college football players should get paid. So should we pay college rugby players? What about girls softball? Your payment is a relatively free higher education. Stop whining.
I watched these "student" athletes get treated like royalty on campus from EVERYONE, including the faculty. They have a huge "student" center filled with test banks, (that's answers from old tests) tutors (people who give the answers to tests) and other support materials. Most college football players aren't even in challenging majors anyway, so why SHOULDN'T they graduate given all of the perks they're afforded? It pisses me off because I actually had to work and pay for my education, while one is basically wasted and given away to this "student" athlete. And the worst part? MY tuition and "fees" get raised to cover the cost of the construction and staffing of this "student" center that I can't even use because I'm not a "student" athlete!!
Some of you need to read what the kid signs when he gets a scholarship. Very few live up to their end of the bargain. Raise the minimum age to 21 to turn pro and require the newly rich kid to repay his scholarship if he hasn't graduated. If a kid has no intention of graduating, then he shouldn't get a scholarship. Scholarships aren't just given to play a sport. They are given to get an education as well.
Penalizing schools for fools is not the way to go.
You may not be able to "make" athletes graduate but you can require them to stay in school or give up athletics. If they choose not to go to class and get a degree they can be excluded from playing and in my estimation that should be the rule. College athletics is about College first. Not the other way around.
