Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Time to Go

Recently I read an article by Frank DeFord at CNN/SI stating that colleges should let underclassmen who choose to enter the professional ranks and don't do so well return to their collegiate careers so that they may mature and grow further before returning to the professional ranks. While I respect Mr. DeFord very much, I have to say that the article misses the mark. It's a bit like a couple trying to decide whether to install a doggie door while the house is on fire.

The house that is big money intercollegiate athletics is on fire and there's no putting it out. From the rape scandal at UC-Boulder (a university that should be known for it's Nobel Prize winning work in physics rather than it's football program felonies) to Auburn being put on probation due to the athletically minded booster who thinks he should run the show to murder and gambling and academic fraud and a host of other issues, collegiate athletics is a huge problem in today's higher education landscape.

I'm a recently athletic person and I do truly understand the value of intercollegiate athletics. There are skills taught on the playing field that are much harder to teach in the classroom. I take a student on a bike ride and make him or her suffer they get a very clear understanding of the work required to excel. I make them suffer on a test and they just get mad. Nevertheless, the costs of such programs must be weighed against the academic benefits of the program. In professional sports the equation used to calculate these things is very different because of the entertainment variable. In colleges and universities the completely overriding consideration is the improvement of the human being and it is my belief that intercollegiate athletics, at least in the big money areas of football and basketball and, to lesser extents, baseball and hockey, has begun to impede and impair that pursuit too often.

I believe that intercollegiate sports should stay amateur but that the big sports should be banned completely. Schools should be recruiting students who might compete in a sport rather than athletes who have to be made to go to class. Big money sports should develop minor league systems like baseball and hockey have. The money's there to do so if the will is there to spend it. However, as long as universities continue to shore up the system, the system will continue and there's lots of incentive for universities to do so. Nevertheless, it's time for the football and basketball to go pro all the way and all the time. Let intercollegiate athletics focus on track and field and swimming and cycling and soccer and all the rest.

Here's one chilling statistic one former college athlete shared with me. Of all Division IA athletes involved in a big four sport, fully 50% will eventually serve time for a felony in a penal institution. More and more often lately, those athletes are choosing to commit those crimes on college campuses where they are students. More and more often, young people who are not interested or involved in collegiate athletics are being effected and damaged (ask the students of Auburn University if being put on accreditation probation effects them). Let's remove the problem before someone decides to file the inevitable class-action lawsuit against the NCAA or the NJCAA.

Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

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