Plan B Forum

Ralph Nader calls for ending college athletic scholarships. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader is calling for the elimination of college athletic scholarships, saying the move is necessary to "de-professionalize" college athletes. Nader proposes that the scholarships be replaced with need-based financial aid. He said he would try to gain support for his proposal from university presidents, Capitol Hill and the Education Department. Eliminating college scholarships would also work to end the "win at all costs" mentality in high schools, allowing a more proper and productive focus on high school academics.

Nader said that colleges should either integrate athletics into the educational mission by eliminating college scholarships, or, "openly acknowledge the professionalism in big-time college sports, remove the tax-exempt status currently given to athletic departments, and make universities operate them as unrelated businesses."

The irony of the whole current situation is this: Athletic scholarships will NEVER be eliminated because the ABPP (Association of Black Poverty Pimps) will portray it as a racist initiative. Ironic because, in the big picture, more African Americans would benefit from financial need-based scholarships than are currently helped by thousands of unqualified Black "student-athletes" spending four years on scholarship, with only a tiny fraction of them ever earning a living in sports, or even obtaining a degree having any economic value.

Would alumni still send money to schools that had sports teams comprised of student-athletes? Would the big TV networks televise the NCAA tournament if the teams were made up of real students? If you are a college student sitting in the stands watching a competitive basketball game, would it matter to you that none of the players could dunk?

Would any sports entrepreneurs pick up the slack (and the talented athletes who don't go to college) and create football and basketball "minor leagues," like they have in baseball?

Sounds good to me; other than getting into the NFL and NBA, not all that many benefit from the "education" the scholarship is supposed to provide at many division 1 schools (some having graduation rates well below 50% for scholarship athletes). When one travels weekly to far off games, followed by playoffs, how could they? Some schools do much better, but most are not very good, and invent majors like "general studies" to allow these athletes to meet NCAA requirements to play and (possibly) graduate. Pay them as the professionals they are and stop the charade (this would also give them a disability profession if they are hurt; I was at a college football game last year where a player was hurt and is now paralyzed from the neck down--there will be no NFL for him and I sincerely wonder how he will support himself in the future).

and i say this as someone who enjoys following college football; I just think it has little to do with anything but football, and most who lay it are athletes first and students as an afterthought.

...and stop schools of any kind from charging admission to the games. If schools want to play sports, let 'em get to it.

In the UK and Aus we have no such system, our students and sporting people seem to get by.

Has anyone here read the book "Blind Side", which is about Michael Oher, who is now a professional football player for the Baltimore Ravens.

If you saw the movie, I doubt that it went into this detail - but there was absolutely no way he could have passed his college courses with a grade high enough to qualify him to be a college player if it hadn't been for the people who were banking on him and found internet courses that he could barely pass (with probably a lot of help) and the use of technicalities that allowed back-dating high school grades and more - so he could eventually be considered for professional football.

The truth is that any person who is discovered to have a great talent for football or another sport - whether he/she is discovered in high school or anywhere else, will succeed because "Big Money" [Professional football etc.] will find a way to qualify them to meet the educational requirements - whether that person is dumber than a rock or slightly more intelligent than one.

I guess Nader's point is, why bastardize the education system to accommodate an athlete who has no business in a college classroom.

You hafta think that if the colleges stopped providing a free minor league system for the NBA and the NFL, somebody would create something for 18-22 year-old kids who are not quite ready for prime time yet.

And pay them to play, by the way.

One of my longest-held pet peeves is how semi-pro college sports pervert the universities they are a part of. Sports in college should mostly be for the students who play them, intramural sports, because the benefits of sport go to the people getting the exercise.


I will always respect the head of USF, Rev. John LoSchiavo, for closing down their highly successful division 1 basketball program for 4 years when they had a series of corruption scandals, because it was the right moral message and it showed an appropriate sense of perspective.


yrs,
rubato

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Franci ... Basketball

"...
Controversies

The Dons' prominence in the 1970s came at a price, however. The NCAA slapped the Dons with probation two times in the late 1970s. An in-house inquiry after the second resulted in the firing of head coach Dan Belluomini. It was also well-known that basketball players got special treatment; many of them were marginal students at best, and at least one instance where a player threatened another student was swept under the rug by school officials.[1] It was also common for "tutors" to take tests and write papers for players.[2]

The situation finally came to a head in December 1981, when All-American guard Quintin Dailey assaulted a female student. During the subsequent investigation, Dailey admitted taking a no-show job at a business owned by a prominent non-sports USF donor. The donor had also paid Dailey $5,000 since 1980. Combined with other revelations, school president Rev. John LoSchiavo announced on July 26 that he was shutting down the basketball program--the first time a school had shut down a major sport under such circumstances. The move was widely appluaded by several members of the coaching fraternity [1], as the Dailey matter revealed a program that was, in the words of San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter Glenn Dickey, "totally out of control."[2]

LoSchiavo resurrected the program in 1985 under former star Jim Brovelli, who quickly returned the program to respectability. He was not able to reach postseason play, however, and resigned in 1995. The program has only reached the postseason twice since its revival--an NCAA berth in 1998 under Phil Mathews and a 2005 NIT berth under former coach Jessie Evans.
... "

Ralph Nader is a sincere but fuddled person. He did a very good thing in driving the improvement of car safety and he deserves credit for it. He did a selfish and stupid thing in running for president and helping elect the screamingly horrible BushCo but there I blame the jackasses who voted for him more than I blame him.

yrs,
rubato

And, of course, the US supreme court who made him president by decree. But FWIW, Nader wouldn't have gotten most of the votes he did if Gore ran a better campaign.

if Gore ran a better campaign.

As I never tire of pointing out, if Prime Time had managed to carry his own home state....

Which no Presidential candidate since George McGovern had failed to do....

(Even the hapless Walter Mondale, who lost 49 to zip managed to carry Minnesota along with the District of Columbia.... )

He'd have won the election....

Ok, fine, but Tennessee had been solidly Republican for decades. I don't care which native son had been running, that wasn't going to change. It's like believing that a Republican presidential candidate from DC had a chance in hell of winning there.

Clinton and Gore won Tennessee in 1992 and 1996. While it is generally a solid R state, Gore could have won the state if he had run a decent campaign.

I stand corrected (serves me right for referring to a site that persists in coloring Dem states red and Rep states blue).

In that case, yeah, it was pretty lame that he wasn't able to win his own state.

What happened in the 2000 election, is that we had an election where the margin of victory was less than the margin of error....

But the fact of the matter is that Gore, as the chosen successor of a successful President, should have won by a margin similar to the one that George H.W. Bush enjoyed succeeding Mr. Reagan....

He should never have been in the position of losing because a few thousand ignoramuses in one county in Florida couldn't figure out how to read a ballot....

He has no one to blame for that but himself.

It should never have been that close.

In any event, going back to the OP....

My, my, what a bunch of elitists....

Lord knows I hate to be the skunk at the picnic, but I'm going to rise in favor of athletic scholarships...

Athletic scholarships, particularly in football and basketball, do not in anyway reduce funds from a University;

Quite the opposite; they are "profit centers".....

They generate funds that go well beyond the costs of maintaining the teams...

State Universities award athletic scholarships, but they do not use public funds to pay for them; they are financed by well heeled alumuni who choose to fund those scholarships....

It seems a little unrealistic to me to think that the folks funding those scholarships are going to suddenly want to put the same amount of money into "need based financial aid"....

Jim--

Lord knows I hate to be the skunk at the picnic, but I'm going to rise in favor of athletic scholarships...

Athletic scholarships, particularly in football and basketball, do not in anyway reduce funds from a University;

Quite the opposite; they are "profit centers".....

They generate funds that go well beyond the costs of maintaining the teams...

State Universities award athletic scholarships, but they do not use public funds to pay for them; they are financed by well heeled alumuni who choose to fund those scholarships....

It seems a little unrealistic to me to think that the folks funding those scholarships are going to suddenly want to put the same amount of money into "need based financial aid"....

I recall reading a while back that less than half of the top Division 1 football programs generate a profit; most are a liability on the university and suck up finds from other sports and the general budget. State universities, in particular, are big losers as the state often pays for the multimillion/billion dollar stadiums that seat more than most NFL stadiums do, and also for the palatial practice suites.

But the point is not whether the sports generated a profit (indeed,if they did it would be more of a reason to pay the employees of the business enterprise), but whether they are part of the educational experience. Looking at graduation rates and realizing that with practices and travel most will miss a lot of classes, why continue the charade and not pay them to play? I'd bet the money not used for scholarships (from those wellheeled alumni)would be a good start at the minor league salaries, and the players would be protected if they are injured. As I said above,last fall I saw a young man injured on the field who will, in all likelihood, remain a quadraplegic for life; sure, now there are rallies and donations to help pay for his medical care, but what happens 10 or 15 years from now when it all is less fresh; a good employment contract could provide for lifetime disability and care, the university doesn't.

Blame the NFL and NBA. Baseball and Hockey both have minor league systems and recruit from college players who very rarely get a scholorship (at least not near the amount given out to football and basketball players).
You know why the NFL and NBA don't have a minor league system? it would cost the professional teams money. Why pay when the colleges are ready and willing to serve as a minor league system.