<p>So when or if you watch NCAA football and March Madness, realize exactly what’s going on. A relative handful of these kids become pros so the rest are, in essence, used and discarded. And discarded by the system that pays coaches in the millions of dollars, so when you heard about a coach being a “molder of young men” realize that some of his kids can’t read and others likely can’t read very well. Used and discarded. </p>
<p>And I have to note the racial aspect: young black kids with athletic ability performing for the enjoyment of mostly white audiences of students and alumni, then tossed aside. </p>
<p>I know many stories of young men from lousy backgrounds who have succeeded in the pros. I’ve met many. And guess what? They are, almost without exception, intelligent men - a few too screwed up to control themselves but still intelligent - because you need intelligence to succeed at the professional level in sports.</p>
<p>Used and discarded and tossed aside? They are given tutoring on top of tutoring. The tools are there if they want them. Why not blame the players? I do.</p>
<p>I was watching an interview with an Auburn University football player who used “ain’t” in a formal interview. If I was an Alabama resident who didn’t get admitted over a football player who said “ain’t” I would be LIVID.</p>
<p>Well in a science field reading isn’t really needed (but its important not saying it isn’t) but if there passing there classes fair and square what does it really matter? Should a math genius be blocked from reaching his glory because he can’t read well? No. Should a dyslexic child be barred from college because he cant read well? No. </p>
<p>All im saying is if there passing there classes theres no harm in them not being able to read.</p>
<p>And no its not the colleges fault they cant read. All they look for is talent.</p>
<p>It is one thing if the schools use the kids and do nothing for them, it is something else if the kids who come from nothing gain something from college…like a genuine college education that improves them and helps them grow intellectually and into better individuals.</p>
<p>Seriously, how can they be admitted to college?</p>
<p>My D attended an inner city high school and albeit the football team doesn’t have many kids who may go pro, but the coach requires all students to take SATs and have a (2.7?) gpa.
( most of the teams have the same requirements as far as I know- of course in the case of at least one current player in the NBA, when he was in high school he was getting credit for at least one class that didn’t exist.)</p>
<p>Just think what is going on in towns where high school football is king!</p>
<p>Those with disabilities can get accommodations.
I don’t have a problem with that. But their education should be meaningful.
Even if they do go pro, they could be like Brandon Roy and have to retire before they are 30!</p>
<p>If kids at Florida public high schools were required to have 2.7 GPAs to play football–few Florida schools would be able to field teams. 2.00 is difficult enough for many of the kids…that’s just the facts.</p>
<p>Ultimablade, the article makes a point that these individuals are not passing their classes fair and square. They’re getting their grades boosted unfairly purely on the basis of their membership on a sports team. </p>
<p>I don’t think anyone would want to deny college admission to someone who is more gifted in one area than another, but not being able to read as well as many elementary school students is a handicap and grounds for exclusion from most colleges. In math and the sciences, college students need to be able to read critically and analyze complex research articles; they also need to have a knowledge of written English that will allow them to prepare reports of their own research. </p>
<p>I don’t think anyone is saying that a student must be equally gifted in all subjects to be admitted to college. However, allowing students who can’t even break 300 on the SAT reading section (or show competency in a comparable, legitimate way) into a challenging college does a disservice to them and to their peers. If we require international students to show that they can read and write English fluently enough to succeed at an advanced institution, why are these athletes not held to the same standard?</p>
<p>@Finn you make a point, I didn’t have time to read the article all the way through. I assumed they were making it through fair and square.</p>
<p>Honestly though, these kids are not there for education, they are there for sports and the chance to become professionals.</p>
<p>What the colleges are doing is not right, but if they want these kids to play ball its there right. Also if these kids cant even read and there not dyslexic thats on them, not the school.</p>
<p>@blue, English wasn’t my best subject in school lol.</p>
<p>Some of the families pushing sports are not doing a whole lot different than what lots of folks here are doing- seeing a talent (whether sports, academics, music,etc.) and going for it. My kids went to a diverse city school. One of my older kid’s basketball teammates (who also played football) is now on an NFL team that is still in the hunt for the Super Bowl. We gave this kid rides. Another kid we gave rides to played basketball for a HBCU and is now a commissioned officer. The kids and parents want the best for their kids and some of them see sports as a way out. Most colleges do want minimum thresholds for qualifying to attend , even for their athletes. The kids that really succeed do seem to have the most going for them-athleticism coupled with intelligence and family support.</p>
<p>My kids attended an elite private pre-k - 12 school. However, the recession hit and the lamebrains decided what would boost enrollment was if they had top notch nationally ranked lacrosse team. In came all these kids, for essentially free. My d came home telling stories about how the kids literally couldn’t read in her 9th grade class, they didn’t behave, and they were treated like celebrities. After much back and forth it was our last year at that school.</p>
<p>Those kids ‘graduated’ were recruited by big name college programs. One didn’t even attend classes senior year, yet was named “all american” If I was a vengeful person a reporter could look into it and have quite a story.</p>
<p>It starts young, and many, many adults are in on it. The parents are as well, there’s no way the parents don’t realize their kids aren’t literate.</p>
<p>Many, many of the boys playing big time college football and bkb don’t have fathers in their lives. For so many of them the coaches are the only father figure they have ever had. If they weren’t in college…many would be on streets hustling. Too, all the kids don’t expect to end up in pros…but most of their mothers do expect them to get a college degree.</p>
<p>Sports for a lot of kids keeps them out of trouble. My son’s basketball coach (who is white and has now coached for over 30 years in the high school- one of his kids was very successful in the NBA) has made a point of trying to find schools for kids he has coached (finding different opportunities based on their athletic ability as well as their academic ability). When my son was playing (the only white kid on the team), I kept seeing a 60ish white couple in the stands bringing cookies, supporting the team. Found out they had never had children and had tutored a young black student years earlier to get him up to snuff to get into UVa and play basketball. He went on to play basketball in Europe and now is helping coach and teach in his old high school (and coached my son). He is a real success story .</p>
<p>I will start listening to this same, tired complaint about college athletes when it is the <em>athletes</em> who start complaining. As if their lives would have been better if they hadn’t been given the opportunity…</p>
<p>Of course every poor black kid, even if on welfare, doesn’t wind up dealing drugs or using drugs. And many of them have fathers who, although they may not live with their moms, are active in their lives, or they have other significant father figures. Let’s not denigrate the poor.</p>
<p>I think that sports can be a wonderful opportunity for poor kids (not poor kids too!). But I also think that colleges that cynically hire them to play on their teams without regard to their academic progress and future goals beyond more of the same sport (and at the same time enhancing the colleges’ diversity statistics) are doing a terrible thing. If they recruit the students athletes, they have an obligation to support them academically as well as athletically and if they don’t (as in the NC story), shame on them.</p>
<p>Bay, if a poor athlete has enough smarts to succeed in college, he can start at a community college where he’ll have academic support if he needs it.</p>
<p>Have you never read about athletes who wash out in college or in early pro years and wind up on the street? I have. I am sure they don’t post on College Confidential though.</p>