Our commenter Ben brought up the fact that Maryland Basketball has a 0% graduation rate over the NCAA reporting period. Here is my response:
I'm not pretending it isn't a big deal. It is a big deal because the NCAA is going to artificially take scholarships (read: roster spots) away.
Maryland is a big school. It provides tutors, and I'm sure the athletes have a bank of old exams to study (like every fraternity does). The kids are smart enough to get into the school (which is not an easy feat these days.) If they make the decision to play basketball for four years, with their only compensation being free tuition if they choose to get a degree, that's fine with me.
I understand a player needs so many credits to remain academically eligible to play, but since when can we force a guy to get a degree?
I understand a player needs so many credits to remain academically eligible to play, but since when can we force a guy to get a degree?
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Hi, I'm Miles Brand. If I get sanctimonious about education, everyone will forget how badly I botched Bobby Knight's firing.Once the last buzzer sounds in March (or, April...drool), the basketball factor drops out of the equation. There are pro camps and agent interviews and strength training sessions. Nearly all of our players play professionally somewhere, and for far more than they could have gotten with a BA in Criminal Justice. And if they do blow out a knee? They hopefully have enough money scraped up to return for one last semester of college. If they don't, they're just as eligible for Federal loans as anybody else.
Why is this such a big deal to so many people? No one crucifies the parents when one of their kids doesn't finish college, even when it's totally covered by the parents. Those kids have everything going for them that the athletes do, except they don't have to spend hours and hours practicing and playing basketball each week. Might it be because those kids are white kids from Rockville rather than black kids from Baltimore?
And as for the NCAA's punishment of withholding scholarships, can you imagine if the NBA reduced a team's roster limit because a player did something the league did not like? Not something bad mind you, but something that wasn't really in the best interests of the image of the NBA. The team would cry foul, pointing out that these are adults and the team shouldn't have to babysit them like spoiled C-list TMZ.com celebrities. Isn't that pretty much what the NCAA is doing?
9 Responses:
Thank you! I totally agree. And as I said when I brought this up, I believe transfers count against the schools, too, even if the kid graduates from another school. Does that make any sense at all? Maybe I'm wrong about that...
Besides, in basketball, you don't have nearly as many students as you do in football. So a zero in basketball isn't nearly as alarming as a zero in football.
A zero at a school that doesn't place anyone in pro basketball anywhere in the world would be most alarming.
I think a person who in school on a sports scholarship should make the most of the time while in school. For some, it might of been the only way his family could get him through college, but on the other hand if a pro team waives a fat check in front of me, I'll go for it even if its only for a few years. seize the moment, and enjoy life the privilegdes that sometimes come our way.
Look, I'm really happy for any scholarship athlete who takes advantage of their free education and gets lots out of school. That makes me warm and fuzzy inside. But I think it's insulting for Myles Brand to pretend this graduation rate stuff is not some kind of sham.
To anonymous:
I really think every person should make the most of the opportunities granted them.
It's not our job to make sure they do though. It's funny to me that we get on predominately poor, predominately black kids for "failing to graduate" and instead focusing on six-figure plus jobs playing a sport.
There are probably, literally 1,000,000 kids a year who drop out of college. Most of them have opportunities granted them that most people can never realize. How come those kids are "finding themselves" while Allan Iverson and Carmelo Anthony and Reggie Bush are just "being thugs".
And you know damn well you can replace "thugs" with a word that starts with "N" in many parts of the country.
And by "many parts of the country" I include most of Michigan.
j-red...seems like someone doesn't like Michigan. shame. I can tell you most definitely that people in my area aren't very tolerant to blacks or any other non white citizens of our great state. goes to show, that you have never lived here. Racism is alive and well here and trust me, when your looking at colleges and u of m makes no bones about that they have a ratio of minorities who come entering there school year, lets see where the money lies. Not with white kids with high grade point averages whos parents struggle to hammer out a decent living and manage to come up with the extra money for tuition bills, too. I am NOT a bleeding heart liberal and I want everyone to have their fair share in life regardless if you can throw a ball, run fast, and can shoot a hoop....in a few years most people will forget your name any way unless your a super star.
Here's the best-kept secret in the world: almost nobody pays for college up front, because nobody smart enough to accumulate that much cash on hand would pass up Uncle Sam's offer of a virtually interest-free (interest less than rate of inflation and far less than rate of investment return) loan for four and a half years.
When you hear people complaining about college costs, they're really talking about paying to support their 18-22 year old who makes little or no money and still needs clothes, food, books, etc.
Anonymous, the only part I understood from your last post is that you accused J-Red of thinking that Michigan had no race based issues, even though he had just said people in Michigan use the "N" word.
I'm not following how your mind works.
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