The New York Times: Selling Grades to Athletes

[Augielio]

The recent article in the New York Times concerning a "diploma mill" in Miami that sells grades to athletes is just one in the ever-growing list of scandals which

occur when sports become big--really big--business.

I was a high school football coach for ten years, a high school teacher for 40.

I have been an avid sports fan--especially college football--since I was old enough to see or listen to a game. This is what I have decided:

DIVISION I COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS MORE CORRUPT THAN WRESTLING, THE VARIOUS BOXING FEDERATIONS OR ROLLER DERBY. The dealings are just as dishonest, but are made worse by the fact that college football wraps itself in a cloak of self-righteousness. Saturday telecasts are filled with commercials extolling the "student athlete," when, in fact, many of these "student athletes"

haven't been in a classroom in days, weeks, or longer.

AND THE TRUTH IS: NO ONE REALLY CARES. I know fans on these message boards are the right kinds of fans, but 95% of the fans of Tennessee, Alabama,

Auburn, USC--pick your football school, it doesn't matter--95% don't care anything about the guy who just nabbed that pass and danced through the opposition for a 75 yard touchdown except that fact--that he can catch the pass and score the touchdown. The fans don't care:

* if he ever goes to class

* if he ever passes a test

* if he ever gets a degree

* where he is 5 years later

* if he has an arrest record that keeps growing.

 

ALL THESE 95% CARE ABOUT IS THAT HE CAN HELP "US" WIN SO WE CAN BRAG ON MONDAY MORNING ABOUT WHAT "WE" DID. Football fans have the darndest time admitting that this is their attitude, but all will concede that it's the attitude of many fans, but not their own attitude. It's all a bit like the grandmother-grandson thing. Every grandparent knows he/she has the greatest grandchildren in the world, but--darned--somebody's grandkids sure are committing a lot of crimes around the nation.

Many college football players are excellent students--but that is often in spite of the system they are in, not because of it. All you have to do is look at the graduation rates of university athletes to bring the picture into focus: "Come to our school, take enough courses to keep eligible, you probably won't graduate,

thanks for your efforts and --if you don't make a pro--good luck to you at finding at job without any knowledge or skills--and, one other thing--don't talk to any reporters about what we gave you to come be a student athlete."

Something should also be said about the contrast between men and women college athletes. Male athletes get grades below those of the average student in their university; female athletes get grades significantly higher than the student body.

I helped coach a fine football player who attended a Southeastern Conference University in the 1970's. He was All-SEC, and did a stint in the Canadian League.. When he came home in summers, he told me about the courses he had taken. They included bass fishing and bowling. He told me that he had never written a paper yet. I saw him last month at the Union Mission, getting a free meal. He was unemployed and had no teeth left.

I am withholding his name because he does have some pride left and I would not wish to embarass him. Any objective evaluation would conclude that he had no more business in a university than than a hog has in a skating rink. Had he not been one heck of an athlete, no university in the land would have shown any interest in him, but several offered to give him the "opportunity" to play.

Maybe, its time we dropped the hypocrisy of "student athlete" and just call them "athletes," pay them, and go on bragging about their exploits as if they were some kind of blood kin and not young men playing a game that old men have made into big business to satisfy their own needs.