College isn’t for everyone.
At least that is what you’re told. High schools across the country are pushing a ‘Career and College Ready’ motto. Yet, the entertainment businesses of the National Football League and the National Basketball Association require those to be three years removed from high school and 19 years of age and one year removed from high school respectively. Yet these organizations do not provide a minor-league system like baseball players enter. The only way to ensure you’re going to develop better athletically is to enter college.
But, that isn’t for everyone.
While there is a great debate discussing whether Division 1 athletes should be paid for all the revenue they raise for their institutions and the NCAA itself. Coaches make millions of dollars, players make nothing. While athletes are receiving a free-education that may be the biggest joke of all.
When it comes to the big-time NCAA Division 1 programs students do not attend class. Many classes are online and students are required to complete one paper to receive full-credit. Many players leave early or do not graduate with a degree. Calling this a free education, or even an education would not be correct.
Not every NCAA athlete does this. There are far more athletes that attend class, take rigorous course work and graduate. Yet, you find many of those athletes had the merit to enter the university in the first place.
In the NCAA, if you can play a sport at a high level they will ignore if you cannot read. They will ignore if you cannot write. They will ignore if you cannot accomplish basic math. But, what are these young athletes to do? They cannot jump right into their sport. They cannot make money of their talent and if they have an injury, they may never.
It is time for the NCAA to stop lying. It is time for the NBA and the NFL to stop reinforcing the corrupt behavior. The integrity of many of the institutions inside of the NCAA are already soiled with scandal. Penn State, UNC, Syracuse, SMU, the University of Miami, Duke, Kentucky and those are just the ones reported.
College was designed to educate.
So why are we refusing to educate? The NCAA continues to lie, they continue to pass off this ‘free education’ to the public. This education is anything but. If we’re not going to hold these academic institutions to their own standards, why not create a degree for athletes?
For those athletes that are going to play professionally, or those that should not have gotten into the university based on their academic merits we can create something for their needs since the NBA and NFL continue to rob them and the NCAA continues to take advantage.
These students can take should be taking courses that prepare them for life. For athletes preparing to go professional they can take courses on money-management. Courses that incorporate taxes, budgeting, investment. We can help prepare these athletes that tend to go broke when they get a big paycheck to prepare when their playing days have ended.
Students can take remedial English courses, skills that can improve independent living, courses to prepare for various vocational jobs.
This type of program will not hurt the integrity of the universities. The universities have accomplished this by taking in students that would not meet their minimum requirements, allowing them to skip classes, allowing them to take made-up courses, cheating for them and lying for them. At least this way we wouldn’t sugarcoat a fake, free education. At least we would be preparing those for life outside of college and beyond their professional careers.
Many student-athletes will continue to pursue degrees, as they should. But, we shouldn’t force-feed students into college-level courses when they cannot read past the 5th grade level. Remember, college isn’t for everybody. So why are we trying to make it that way?
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