<p>
</p>
<p>It’s probably a bit of hyperbole. I’m sure there are exceptions. </p>
<p>However, the NFL Network has been interviewing draft prospects on a daily basis since the end of the NFL season, including dozens at the NFL scouting combine. Not one of them has been enrolled in classes since their eligibility ran out at the end of football season. They all talk about full-time participation in draft-preparation training – many having moved to Los Angeles or the other locations around the country where athletic “Performance Institutes” are located.</p>
<p>When it comes to big-time college athletics, for players who are good enough to move to the pros, most of what the NCAA presents as academic participation is nothing but window dressing.</p>
<p>Even at a school like Rice that really isn’t a pro sports breeding ground, more that half of the scholarship athletes and more than 60% of the football team majors in a single department, “Kinesiology”. It would be interesting to see the “majors” at a real football powerhouse like the U of Miami, where the average SAT of the football team is 808, or about 300 points lower still than the Rice football team.</p>
<p>I don’t have any problem with this. These kids are “in school” for one purpose: to play football in preparation for a career in the pros. Why should they waste their time on academics? I do object to the hypocrisy of pretending otherwise. The universities should just give them their paychecks and let them do what they were hired to do: play football.</p>