mspurlin's Blog

Not me, that for sure!  If you ever met me, I would probably be the biggest college football fan you would ever meet in your life, specifically the Longhorns.  And I don’t care if ANY of the Longhorn players ever get a college degree.  I watch football to see my team win, not because I think the people are academically successful.

Now the NCAA just came out with its Academic Progress Rate which is its current arbitrary way of determining who is a good school.  Now I have to give the NCAA credit for at least reforming this method.  The old method that they used to publish simply calculated how many players graduated from the institution over a 6 year period.

So if a player came to college and left early to go the NFL, it counted against the school’s “graduation rate”.  Or if a player transferred and went to another school it would count against the school, even if that player graduated somewhere else.  Or if a player died, it counts against the school.  That is why the University of Texas was penalized for the death of player Cole Pittman. 

So good for them for reforming them.  But let’s not hand out too many pats on the back for the NCAA.  This is only the latest form of ridiculous hypocrisy from the largest group of hypocrites in the entire nation.

I just don’t think it is the school’s responsibility to make sure people graduate. Should the school provide resources to help a student in trouble? Yes. Should a school be monitored to make sure they aren’t hindering the athlete’s ability to graduate, by forcing him to take certain classes that allow him to practice more.  Absolutely.

But should a school be punished if a kid goes to college and decides he just does not want to graduate?  Heck no.  These people are adults. If they don’t want to do the work to graduate, isn’t that their fault and not the school’s?

And why do we want to look at student athletes different than regular students?  My sister entered the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2002.  At the time, she was part of the largest freshman class in the history of UT.  My parents went to a parent orientation session where an admissions counselor told all the parents not worry, because that will be much smaller by the time these students were seniors.  At the time, UT had a 75% graduation rate.  

The university was actually encouraging kids to drop out so that the class size was more manageable.  So student athletes have to overcome institutional roadblocks and are expected to graduate no matter what.  Why is that?

It is not that hard to get a college degree if you do a minimal amount of work.  You can find an easy major and C your way to graduation no problem.  So some people just don’t want to take advantage of that.   Shouldn’t that be their choice?

And what is the problem if they leave early and go to a professional league?  More power to them, they may never need a college degree. 

I am not against getting a college degree.  I have two of them, one of which is a master’s. I think having a college degree offers you a great advantage.  However, I am not an elitist and I do not believe it is the only way to achieve happiness or success.

Bill Gates does not have a college degree.  Does anybody think he is not living up to his potential?  Neither do tons of other billionaires. 

I just think that some people should be taking responsibility for their own life.  If somebody remains academically eligible for a few years, but decides to leave college without a degree, that should be his choice.  I think it is a waste to lose an opportunity to get a free degree, but shouldn’t that be his choice?

 It certainly doesn’t matter to me on Saturday. As long as they are playing by the rules while in school, who really cares if they get a piece of paper with their name on it?  Not me, it is their decision to whatever they want with their life. 

See, the NCAA is trying to come down hard on some schools, especially smaller schools and take away their scholarships from schools like UT-Arlington, just so they can pretend college athletics are about education.  The NCAA does not get tens of BILLIONS, with a B, dollars from tv networks because these players are students.

Nope, they want to come down hard on these athletes because they want to keep up the farce that these people are amateur athletes.  They don’t want to have to pay them for the BILLIONS that people make off them. 

(and save your comments bloggers, I think that these athletes should make some money for their athletic performance.  When they make video game characters based on these athletes, I think some sort of small royalty or stipend is not that much to ask, especially since these kids cannot hold jobs while in school most of the time.  Nothing anybody says will change my mind on this)

So good job NCAA , stand on your soapbox and talk about education, as if your organization has anything to do with education and not athletics and money.  But just know, I have no interest whatsoever in whether any athletes graduate.  As long as they are academically eligible, I am fine.  If they don’t want their diploma, then let them get the heck out of there when they are done.