Nader: deprofessionalize college athletics, get rid of scholarships

[tarheelhockey]

They aren't going to make those decisions when in college trying desperately to become pro hockey players while they ruin their grades so they have no chance of possibly getting into grad school or getting a good job with a decent GPA.

Your post was excellent and this is the only part I take issue with. After college, nobody cares about your GPA unless you're applying for grad school. Simply having the degree is what counts, so that semi-literate meathead in your history class likely has as much cred with employers as you do -- at least, until the first day of work.

 

[JacketsFanWest]

Ok so since they were 11 or 12 they wanted to do nothing by try to become a pro athlete well why should they get special treatment over some one who since the age of 11 or 12 wants to become CEO of a major company. Why are the dreams of someone wanting to be an athlete any more special and important than any other kids goals?

The only way a college hockey program is going to be successful recruiting players is if they are seen as an avenue to the pros, not as a path to higher education.

It's the same for football, basketball and baseball.

It's a sad truth that there are lots of kids out there that deserve to get a full ride to college that won't, and some lughead athlete player is going to get the scholarship and do nothing with it.

The sports program is far, far, far more important at most schools than academics. Recruiting star athletes no matter their grades is always going to be the way things go.

I'm pretty sure if Ohio State announced that they were going to get serious about academics instead of having successful football and basketball teams, riots would erupt. People's whole lives would be over.

The money generated from sports like football and basketball (and hockey at some schools) is used to fund the schools. If there's no longer the star athletes, since they can't qualify, then how do they replace the income that's generated by the lucrative tv contracts?

Since that's not going to change, what's the best way to help student athletes that have earned serious money for the universities.

This doesn't apply to all student athletes, but if you're looking at the potential of playing pro sports (NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB) and providing athletes with the ability to make it to that level (but most will fail), then universities need to support the athletes' professional sports aspirations.

I don't think schools need to take it easy on athletes or let them have a free pass. I think that atmosphere is worse.

But the idea that they provide a support system for athletes post-pro-career would be a better service than to force them to study (or get professors to pass them when they didn't deserve it) and end up getting a worthless degree in communications where they learned nothing.


Edited to add: The Columbus Dispatch just reported that RJ Umberger (who left Ohio State as a junior) will not be playing for the US in the Worlds because he's returning to OSU to take the three remaining classes he needs for his marketing degree. He did the same thing last spring/summer.

Umberger earns millions of dollars, he doesn't need to be going back to college and he doesn't need a scholarship to do so, but I think it's commendable that he's doing this. And last summer, he said it was nice to get a break from hockey.

As long as athletes get their degrees, then it's commendable, even if it's 6 years late.

 

[sh724]

The only way a college hockey program is going to be successful recruiting players is if they are seen as an avenue to the pros, not as a path to higher education.

It's the same for football, basketball and baseball.

It's a sad truth that there are lots of kids out there that deserve to get a full ride to college that won't, and some lughead athlete player is going to get the scholarship and do nothing with it.

The sports program is far, far, far more important at most schools than academics. Recruiting star athletes no matter their grades is always going to be the way things go.

I'm pretty sure if Ohio State announced that they were going to get serious about academics instead of having successful football and basketball teams, riots would erupt. People's whole lives would be over.

The money generated from sports like football and basketball (and hockey at some schools) is used to fund the schools. If there's no longer the star athletes, since they can't qualify, then how do they replace the income that's generated by the lucrative tv contracts?

Since that's not going to change, what's the best way to help student athletes that have earned serious money for the universities.

This doesn't apply to all student athletes, but if you're looking at the potential of playing pro sports (NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB) and providing athletes with the ability to make it to that level (but most will fail), then universities need to support the athletes' professional sports aspirations.

I don't think schools need to take it easy on athletes or let them have a free pass. I think that atmosphere is worse.

But the idea that they provide a support system for athletes post-pro-career would be a better service than to force them to study (or get professors to pass them when they didn't deserve it) and end up getting a worthless degree in communications where they learned nothing.

The fundamental base for your entire argument is wrong college athletics is not profitable, in 2006 the average D1 school lost over $7 million dollars in athletics. The average money lost for schools with football programs is greater than that of schools without football. The money made on football , basketball, and hockey is used to fund the rest of the athletic program the University outside of the athletic program gets no benefit from athletic revenue. If schools were able to add $7 million to their budget every year the overall impact would be far greater than the impact of athletics.

If you want to argue athletic programs are good for schools then do it without talking about money because anyone who defends NCAA with money does not know the facts.

 

[eliostar]

So these schools already make millions of dollars off these kids backs and they want to take away the one thing that helps these kids go there?

Honestly, this reeks of racism to me. Most of the kids losing scholarships will be young black kids from the inner city who are going to be playing basketball and football at major uni's. It's not gonna affect little Chip Smith that's going to go play hockey at one of the smaller schools like North Dakota or many of the other schools that have hockey programs, because those schools are cheaper to go to.

But do you think some kid from Detroit, or New Orleans is going to be able to afford his own ride to a school like Florida or Duke? Especially when he HAS to play college ball for a year before he goes pro?

These kids bring more money into their schools than anyone else, period. They fill football stadiums with 60,000 people, they fill basketball arena's with 35,000. They deserve some sort of compensation for what they are doing.

If they want to help inner city kids they should provide scholarships to those who want to become doctors or God forbid, lawyers.
Not for someone who attends one year and has little interest in education .
Let the big leagues provide a minor league system for those kids.