<p>yuiop,</p>
<p>You fall into the category of people who don’t understand why athletic “excellence” is important to a society and how sports fills that niche today.</p>
<p>You said
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<p>I’ll agree that there is no degree in football. Many recruited (the people being complained about here) athletes get degrees related to their athletic interest (anything from physical therapy, to psychology (it is a major part of athletics), to coaching). This educational experience allows them to better themselves in their sport, much like any other degree will help the student in their specialization in life.</p>
<p>And while YOU may view football as an extracurricular, it is every bit as valid in developing necessary skills (I’ll get to necessary skills later) as the debate team (proving grounds for many lawyers). And while you may not get academic credit for either, they are both essential to the development of these students in their field of endeavor.</p>
<p>And of course, you ASSUME that football players are at college to play football, I will just take it as your prejudice about the thought patterns of a certain set of students, not based on fact. I’ve never seen a study showing this to be true. While some young kids see college ball as a ticket to playing on Sundays, the vast majority realize that they won’t even be asked to come to camp to tryout in the NFL. They are there to develop that skill and other skills of interest to them that will make them productive members of society.</p>
<p>Some other problems with your argument…</p>
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<p>I’ll pick on military science. It is often the major of those who intend a career in the armed forces (although not exclusivley). Military Science is about far more than just physical fighting skills which are often the skill/interest of people who enlist in the service and seek a degree to further this career. We have ROTC scholarships for those who bring the physical traits necessary to defend our country and offer them degrees of interest like Military Science, but don’t offer a degree in marksmanship or hand-to-hand combat.</p>
<p>And yes, there are non-academic (i.e. physical) requirements if you want to enlist in a ROTC program. Heaven forbid that they make some academics pass them.</p>
<p>And these skills are unfortunately necessary in the world we live in for our society to prepetuate itself.</p>
<p>We as a tribe celebrate physical athletic prowess, as it satisfies a need for physical security in a world perceived to be dangerous. And while athletics is not exactly defending the society, it is recognized that the physical and psychological skill sets developed in sports do contribute to the sense of physical ability to defend that is that necessary component of society.</p>
<p>Just be glad that you live in an age where physical prowess is not as needed as it use to be and that there isn’t an athletic measurement required for admittance to college.</p>
<p>Oh, and BTW the NCAA does NOT allow for a LOWER academic standard for admission for athletes. DUH! If there is a GPA or Standardized Test requirement for a school, all athletes must pass it. In addition, the NCAA’s GPA/Test Score scale for D1 athletes is tougher than many universities admissions requirements.</p>
<p>And if you think schools outside of the US are better because they don’t “lower” the standards for athletes (which they don’t), please feel free to enroll there. There seems to be too many applicants in this country for the slots open anyway.</p>