Student-athletes sometimes forget there is a first part to their status on campus — student. There are obvious exceptions to this statement, many whose GPAs would kick mine in the butt, however, there are many that are not so pleasing to talk about.
With an abundance of academic NCAA violations swarming around college athletics and the SEC, many students can’t afford to forget how important academics are.
Right now Georgia is under investigation because former coach Jim Harrick’s son allegedly gave grades to players who he taught in a class, and Harrick, Sr. was fired for the incident — not something to take lightly.
New NCAA Chief Executive Myles Brand might have the right idea for a solution to academic problems. He is proposing an incentives/disincentives plan where teams would be evaluated to see if athletes are making progress academically. The penalties for not improving academics could result in the loss of scholarships, bans from postseason competition and/or loss of NCAA revenue.
Brand wants college presidents to be responsible for the policing, but many think the coaches should be responsible for enforcing academics.
But don’t the coaches have enough to worry about during the season? This is why places like LSU have academic centers for athletes. As nice as that building is and as many services as it offers, I do not understand how people can still be academically ineligible.
My real beef with this issue lies in academic dishonesty and fraud, like the incidents that occurred at LSU last year and that currently are being heard by the NCAA for possible violations. Why is it that academic violations usually are ruled only secondary violations, punishable but not on a severe level? The NCAA describes a secondary violation as “inadvertent” or providing “minimal” recruiting or other advantages. Violations dealing directly with the sport such as recruiting fraud and payments are major violations, which are defined as violations that are not secondary and that provide “extensive recruiting or competitive advantage.”
I just do not understand how a person having papers written for them, therefore helping them get a good grade and keeping them eligible to play, is not an advantage. If they did not get the paper written, they may not be academically eligible and then could not play.
I don’t ever remember a time when I typed a paper “inadvertently.”
LSU’s NCAA compliance officer, Bo Bahnsen, said after evaluation, the violations would probably be considered secondary. This is not definite because the NCAA infractions committee can decide otherwise, but based on his assumption and other cases, it looks as if that will be the case. However, the NCAA manual does say numerous secondary violations could result in a major violation. LSU is not off the hook yet, since the ruling has not been handed down.
Athletes should be taking advantage of the situation they are in — getting a free education along with experience to push them to the next level of competition. Some people cannot even afford to receive a college education. Many athletes get a free education or at least partially paid scholarships. If they don’t make it to professional status, they get off with a great deal — a degree. And unless they want to perform a menial job the rest of their lives, they need one of those. Not a bad deal for them to have to study a little while they play their sport to get that degree. Yes, it is all time consuming, but it was not a clause put in small type at the end of some contract — they knew coming in. So why do some athletes forget about the schoolwork and just focus on the field? I really can’t tell you since the class work is what keeps them eligible and will lead most of them to their future.
So congrats to those that figured it out and have excelled on and off the field. For the rest, take heed of the examples around you.