another UNC article.....

[18in32]

You didn't ask me, but I'd say the following criteria are a start:

1. Graduation rate equivalent to that of the student body.

2. Players majors reflect overall student enrollment; player's post-school non-football success similar to those of non-athletes

3. School does not market players images, no shirts with players names, images, numbers are sold. School refuses to allow EA to use player images.

4. High rate of alumni donations from former players.

5. Discipline of athletes handled the same as regular students.

6. Discipline of coaches handled the same as other university employees.

7. Practice and games do not interfere with academic pursuits.

8. Players allowed to transfer freely, just as regular students, without limitations on athletic participation.

9. Scholarships honored for all 4 years.

10. No oversigning.

This is ridiculous. You are essentially denying the validity of competitive athletics beyond the intra-mural level. Competitive athletics takes a lot of time and energy... time and energy that cannot be spent on extra research for that term paper.

The only way you'll ever get athletes to have be as good as non-athletes at academics is if the athletes contribute as little time to athletics as the non-athletes do. Same goes for student govts or theater or charity work or anything else. If you do it seriously, it takes up a lot of time.

But that's OK, because it turns out that having the highest grades are the not the only mark of college educating you and preparing you for life as an adult.

 

[TechSBP]

I think perhaps you misunderstood the question. I read it as how do they succeed at football, not how do they succeed at having academic integrity. Your prescription might accomplish the former if it were applied to every school, but applying that to any 1 school in isolation seems like it would guarantee failure on the field in FBS.

And thus my point. It is virtually impossible to have academic integrity and succeed at FBS football.

 

[TechSBP]

This is ridiculous. You are essentially denying the validity of competitive athletics beyond the intra-mural level. Competitive athletics takes a lot of time and energy... time and energy that cannot be spent on extra research for that term paper.

The only way you'll ever get athletes to have be as good as non-athletes at academics is if the athletes contribute as little time to athletics as the non-athletes do. Same goes for student govts or theater or charity work or anything else. If you do it seriously, it takes up a lot of time.

But that's OK, because it turns out that having the highest grades are the not the only mark of college educating you and preparing you for life as an adult.

You might note that I said nothing about grades. So you've spent all your time arguing about something I didn't say. AT ALL.

I wouldn't expect football players to routinely have higher GPA's than average. I expect them to GRADUATE at the same rate as the other students.

Obviously, the lower GPA is offset by whatever life experience gained as a result of hte experience.

But you cannot seriously dispute any of my list as being necessary for academic integrity.

And I don't think GT, Notre Dame, Stanford, Michigan, Cal, Texas, Virginia, Southern Cal, UCLA, or any of the other serious schools out there can win doing those things.

As to not interfering with "academic pursuits" that means scheduling. Not other time. I.e., no Thursday night games.

 

[lonestarjacket]

I think the only way you can really get to the first eight is to eliminate athletic scholarships.

Even without scholarships athletes still would cluster in certain majors, as they do at Division 3 schools.

Not sure about graduation rates. In theory they could be better than the student body at large if given tutoring assistance and oversight to help with the additional load of practice.

Yeah, that list was very pie-in-the-sky and arguably some of the items would hurt deserving athletes without helping anyone inl using other students.

 

[bball1979]

Tax the revenue sports into oblivion!

Seriously, I do think there is much that can be done to curtail the money making machine that corrupts the academics of the schools. Hosting professional sports teams should not be part of their mission and our lawmakers should should act on this.

Setting up a competitive environment so that all schools that wish to compete have an equal opportunity is a different task altogether. Whether or not that is even possible, I don't know. But right now, solving the first problem should be the priority.

 

[Allen Koholic]

And thus my point. It is virtually impossible to have academic integrity and succeed at FBS football.

That, in my roundabout way of asking, was my point. Sport and academics are so wholly separated at this point that the notion of paying players is not only discussed but championed by some people. People who aren't immediately dismissed.

There are so many athletes out there and there are only a few major programs. If the school systems in the poorer districts do a better job of getting kids academically prepped (While there are a few kids who are just dumb, most are just products of a horrible system), we could pull those kids.

Then, we stay in a second rate conference like the ACC. In the last 5 years, have you gone into any game feeling like we have no shot?

What we need is a year where all the stars align, all the games we lost in the 4th to not turn, a couple stud athletes and a role players, and a helluva title game. As long as the ACC stays second rate, we have a shot.

But to give up who we are is a pathetic feeling of defeatism. When I read these post you guys write, it makes me wonder if you ever graduated from Tech. Were you not a freshman who got back their first exam only to realize you failed something for the first time in your life after you studied for the first time in your life? I was. I had no idea how I got through, and now I have a degree on my wall that trumps any other degree from any other school in Georgia, and in my opinion, the south. If I can overcome in academics, surely we can overcome in a game. We have money, we have brains, and we offer a very real thing for the kids who come through our program, not a piece of paper that says, "Housing Management".

I will always believe we can have the best of both worlds. If you want to be patsy, go ahead, but I do not accept this.

Derp? The types of players that UGA recruit aren't going to school for that piece of paper either. They're going because A) they're getting paid by rich old white men, B)there's hot college pussy, and C) they're using their three years there as an NFL audition tape.