<p>Where I live, there are parents who spend gobs of money buying one-on-one tutors for their child to do well on the SAT. The kids come from good schools with all the preparation and help they could possibly need. </p>
<p>I’m just not prepared to criticize a school for giving tutoring help to some poor kid who had little or no help from their schools or from their parents, so the kid can actually get an education and a start in life they would not otherwise have.</p>
<p>Dogwood, a baseball signee for my college, USF, opted instead for the bonus money of $2 million. Tough call: college or the money? $2 million right now in your hands is a lot to turn down! I’m sure the Vandy signee took out a big Lloyds of London insurance policy on his pitching arm just in case.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.tampabay.com/hometeam/blog/former-alonso-ace-jose-fernandez-and-marlins-agree-to-terms-just-before-draft-signing-deadline/10300/[/url]”>http://www.tampabay.com/hometeam/blog/former-alonso-ace-jose-fernandez-and-marlins-agree-to-terms-just-before-draft-signing-deadline/10300/</a></p>
<p>To me, the heart of the issue is that the big money in top-level college sports creates powerful incentives to cut corners to recruit and keep eligible players who can play at a high level. This can involve all kinds of cheating, and also unsavory (to me) measures that are short of cheating, such as creating a set of easy courses and majors in which to ghettoize players who can’t keep up with regular students at a college. Certainly not all colleges do this, and there are bound to be players at most colleges who don’t require any academic coddling, but the vast amounts of money involved almost ensure that violations will be plentiful.</p>
<p>Serious violations are not that plentiful and often center around out of bounds boosters doing things that the coaches may never know about.</p>
<p>Another favorite player: Just a great young man</p>
<p>[Communication</a> skills make UW safety Henry a leader - JSOnline](<a href=“http://www.jsonline.com/sports/badgers/126811653.html]Communication”>Communication skills make UW safety Henry a leader)</p>
<p>Barrons, serious violations that are discovered may not be that plentiful, but the incentives are just too huge.</p>
<p>Imperious Hunt. Hail Ceasar! Or should I say ‘Siskel & Ebert’ Hunt?</p>
<p>As are the disincentives. Want to be in Donna Shalala’s shoes today? She spent much time and effort rebuilding the academic reputation of UM. All that might be turning to dust due to a major crook being involved with the football team.</p>
<p>I don’t know how I feel about a young man turning down millions to go to college. College can wait but $2.5m may never come around again in an injury prone position. If the money were managed properly by a mature young man, I might advise to delay college.</p>
<p>Right–imagine if Stephen Strasburg had finished college.</p>
<p>Yes, I think $15m falls into the “no brainer” category.</p>
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<p>The thing is that $2million is in addition (I believe) to his college education. MLB has a scholarship program set up for their players so when they are finished playing baseball they can get a college degree…</p>
<p>"Way to eliminate 80% of athletes. Heck, if I can pick and choose which numbers to use I could win the argument too! "</p>
<p>It is perfectly relevant, because the kind of situation we are talking about is relevant only to 20% of college athletes in big time programs. ESPN radio had a program the other day about this,and they pointed out that the kind of big time programs we are talking about is basically 60 or 70 schools out of the many hundreds or thousands with sports programs. What is idiotic is claiming that the kids in these top programs are the same as the rest of college athletics, which is basically a total lie, and most discussions about college sports is about these top schools. Want an idea of what passes for a big scandal with regular college sports? Couple of years ago, they found out that in the Ivy league, athletes with A- averages were getting in, whereas most students getting in had an A average…what that leaves out is those athletes admitted had to go to class, got no special favors, and most of them graduate with a real degree that is worth something…</p>
<p>The problem is that what works at the rest of the schools won’t work here, because the stakes are too damn high in division 1 college sports to make NCAA rules designed for students who happen to be athletes ridiculously stupid and naive. The problem is pretending that division 1 college sports at the BCS level is anything but what it is, a business (same with basketball, lot less with baseball since baseball has its own minor leagues) or pretending that the prime focus of the players is on getting an education, that is ludicrous. Big time college sports demands the kind of attention that basically makes getting a real education pretty damn difficult, and when you are talking often about kids who had a bad academic background to start with, really hard (take a look sometime at the academically excellent student/athletes who have done Rhodes Scholarships and such, people like Chad Pennington and so forth, they tend to come from situations where they had a decent start in school and so forth). I have a problem, like with the idiotic way the olympics used to work, of trying to pretend that players on Alabama’s or Auburn’s football team or Duke’s Basketball team are the same kind of student athletes that they are on Columbia’s football team, and that for the most part isn’t true, with some exceptions. </p>
<p>And the system in big time football is totally corrupt from everything I am reading. Even if a coach is a straight arrow type or an athletic director, and tried to prevent abuses, they would probably lose their job pretty fast because of all the pressure to win, influential alumni and boosters who though a coach’s integrity was going to cause their program to lose would get them removed toot de suite, so coaches either actively lie (like the guy who just got canned at Ohio State with the Terrel Pryor situation for lying) or turn a blind eye and pretend it doesn’t exist, let’s someone else do the dirty work.</p>
<p>And think about this one, you think that a billion dollars in tv revenue that conferences are now getting isn’t going to be a corrupting influence? Think tv networks would pay a billion dollars to broadcast ivy league football? And think the SEC schools would seriously enforce NCAA standards or suspend players and such that could take the level of play down when they can get that kind of money?</p>
<p>And no, these aren’t isolated incidents as some claim, what is isolated is them actually getting pursued and prosecuted. The NCAA is kind of like the SEC enforcing security laws, they are subject to the whims of politicians of all stripes; there are times when the SEC is basically told to 'look the other way, unless someone is pulling something big time", and the NCAA faces the same type of pressures, plus like the SEC, they don’t have the budgets or staff to do any kind of real policing, most of the time, when teams are caught it is because someone inside blows the whistle. The guy who gave all that money of U of Miami players blew the whistle because he was ****ed off none of the players he once gave stuff to were willing to help him, and this is how most of it comes to light. </p>
<p>So why do I care? I care because I think it is hurting the players most of all. Most big time college athletes are not getting a particularly good education IMO so if something happens to them, they rip up their knee or otherwise don’t make it, they are tossed aside like a worn out car tire, and while I have not read any big time studies, the ones that have been done following up what happens to big time college athletes who fall by the wayside isn’t pretty’; many of the poor, often minority, players who don’t make it end up falling back into the same socioeconomic class they came from, with a college education that often seems to be a joke, with little to fall back on. Take a look at sanctions, and see who really gets hurt. Yeah, USC got hit, SMU is a famous case where a school took a major blow, but mostly it is the players. Terrel Pryor sold some stuff, and not only got booted from Ohio State, but also now is suspended for 5 games in the pros. Meanwhile, for example, Pete Carrol, who was running USC’s program for a number of years, built it into a powerhouse, walked away to become a pro coach with Seattle, and so far hasn’t faced even the hint of sanctions. Often a coach who is fired from one program ends up at another, and so forth…so who gets screwed? The players.</p>
<p>The only way to make big time college football truly collegiate sports would probably ruin it, it would mean reigning in tv contracts, or making them done by the NCAA and spread among the member schools evenly (kind of like what the NFL does), rather then allowing power conferences like the SEC set their own deals worth a billion dollars, it would mean limiting how much programs could spend, how much money it could take in donations and so forth and have real enforcement power at the NCAA level, but that will never happen.</p>
<p>In light of that, we have to stop pretending that the U of Alabama or Penn St or U of Miami or wherever is the same as the Ivy league or division III and treat these programs for what they are, major businesses, and have rules that reflect that. If an athlete wants to take classes, that can be part of their compensation package so to speak, but if they don’t, then the athletes should be paid some amount, maybe get signing bonuses and such, and have things above board. Having an agent? No problem, since this is professional sports and at least the kids would be sharing in some of the wealth they bring in, and can focus on football if they have no intent on getting an education (note: for kids who want to play football and get an education, there are division 1 teams not in the big time who will give them scholarships and focus on athletics, or non division 1 teams will recruit them to play football, give them financial aid to be able to attend, and the kid probably will stand a better chance of actually getting an education without the hoo hah of the big time programs). I also suspect the schools would do better financially, since they could charge the sports program a fee for using the school’s name on the team, and that money unlike current revenue, might actually go towards academic scholarship, aid, labs and so forth. Given that the big time sports programs basically benefit themselves and the pro teams they feed, this solution probably would end up enhancing the overall school a lot more then the current system does.</p>
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<p>You may want to remember that the BCS only exists in ONE sport. </p>
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<p>He didn’t get booted. He decided he didn’t want to sit 5 games for violating the rules.</p>
<p>^^is he the player that the NFL said WILL sit out 5 games if he is signed professionally? Going pro will not let him avoid the punishment.</p>
<p>^^^
Yep… probably should have stayed put. His NFL suspension is going to cost him A LOT of money…</p>
<p>I thought Pryor left the Ohio State program because Troessel was booted?</p>
<p>But don’t mind me - I’m all confused. The PAC-10 used to have ten teams. It now has 12, and so is called the PAC-12. However, the Big Ten, which for years had eleven members, now has twelve members, but it is still the Big Ten. And while the PAC-10, which is now the PAC 12, uses numbers, the Big Ten is never the Big 10. It is always “the Big Ten”.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the Big 12 is the Big 12, never the “Big Twelve”. And it has 10 members. So the Big Ten has twelve members, but the Big 12 has ten members. </p>
<p>And Cincinnati is part of the East.</p>
<p>So is Ft Worth now.</p>
<p>The B10 believes that the name has brand value by itself and will never change it.</p>
<p>*I do think they should receive a decent monthly allowance of spending money, however. *</p>
<p>I agree…many come from low-income homes that can’t provide any spending money…and these kids can’t work jobs. They should get at least $25-50 per week. </p>
<p>They need some pocket cash for laundry, pizza with friends, small gifts, gas/public trans costs, etc…even trips home for holidays.</p>
<p>I don’t think the NCAA allows student-athlete only dorms today.</p>
<p>Right…there are no “athlete only” dorms anymore…that’s been a rule for awhile. </p>
<p>*Sure, it’s not “fair” if an academically talented student (non-athelete) is denied admission because a talented athlete who cannot read is admitted and tutored through basic classes. *</p>
<p>Do we know if this is even true? Or is this just an imagined possibility? I’ve never heard of student/athletes not being able to read. I’ve heard of ones who’ve had to take sub 100 math/english classes, but hey, half of the students in Calif public colleges have to take a sub 100 class in math or English (The LA Times reports that every friggin’ year.). </p>
<p>And, I don’t care if athletes are given tutors. I know at Alabama ALL STUDENTS have access to FREE tutors…all of them…the tutors are paid by the university. I’m sure other schools offer this benefit as well.</p>
<p>*The whole concept of a “stipend” is ridiculous if they already have full ride scholarships. Isn’t that enough? *</p>
<p>They don’t get “full ride” in the sense of COA. They don’t get any money for transportation or personal expenses. As you know, that can be about $3k-5k per year. Many come from dirt-poor families…where’s the money supposed to come from? They can’t work jobs.</p>
<p>And if you want to get all down on Alabama football, why don’t you learn about their quarterback last year? He was a Fullbright finalist. I</p>
<p>He was a Rhodes Scholar finalist…I don’t know if he was a Fulbright.</p>
<p>the NCAA released the graduation success rates for college sports including football and it included a bit of good news – the number for [Alabama] football players is up three points over last year to 69%. The overall graduation success rate for student athletes is now at 73%.</p>
<p>The graduation success rate measures for the four-class average - the cumulative tally of students entering college between the fall of one year and the fall four years later. This year’s figures count players who arrived on campus from 2000-2003 – giving them six years to earn degrees.</p>
<p>The overall GSR score for Alabama student athletes was 81%. Four of the school’s athletic teams – softball, and women’s golf, soccer and women’s tennis – led the SEC with perfect 100 graduation rate scores. For Alabama football, the rate held steady at 67% but falling just short of the national average but well above the SEC’s average rate of just less than 65%. Only Georgia (68%) and Vanderbilt (93%) had higher football graduation rates in this year’s report.</p>
<p><a href=“Alabama & SEC Graduation Rates - Roll 'Bama Roll”>Alabama & SEC Graduation Rates - Roll 'Bama Roll;
<p>Coach Saban is responsible for this upward trend since he took over in 2007. The graduation rate has increased dramatically for the Tide.</p>