The massive commercialisation of college sports in the US has led to the situation where coaches can make $10 million per annum and sometimes have salaries which are 25 times higher than what the college president may earn. The media payments to the colleges for covering these sports is enormous and provides the incentive for colleges to have sports programs attracting the best athletes in spite of any academic shortcomings. Colleges provide the forum and the vehicle for the money-spinning sports enterprises. And since the colleges are supposed primarily to be academic institutions it becomes necessary to have – or seem to have – minimum academic standards that even the athletes must satisfy.
A PRICE TO PLAY ‘Corrupt’ system in danger of collapse
But the academic standards to be fulfilled are merely a cover for the sports-based enterprise. This in turn creates the pressure for colleges to create easy courses especially designed for academically disabled athletes and for academics to go easy on athletes attending their courses. Effectively athlete students are encouraged to cheat and all the different codes of ethics and integrity that are created serve only as a way to define all the loop-holes in the code that can then be used to cheat without being declared a cheat.
“(Stanford) accommodates athletes in the manner that they accommodate students with disabilities.” Prof. Donald Barr, Associate Professor of Sociology and Human Biology
The recent case of Prof. Julius Nyang’oro and his 400 level class in Bioethics in Afro-American Studies is a case in point. An athlete got into the class despite having a score on the written portion of the SAT that was low enough that he needed to take a remedial writing class, which he took in the subsequent fall semester. No student received less than a B-minus on Nyang’oro’s course. The Charlotte Observer writes:
Julia Nichols, the student services manager for UNC’s Academic Advising Program, said it is unusual for any freshman to begin his or her college education with a 400 level course. The exceptions, she said, are freshmen who have demonstrated an aptitude, either through advanced placement classes or other experience and petition the professor to be allowed to take the course.
“As a general, blanketed rule, freshmen are not normally allowed to take 400 or 500 level classes,” she said.
There is little doubt that while inter-collegiate athletes are privileged, others suffer from being stigmatised as academically stunted. It would be unthinkable however for an academic student to be required to satisfy some minimum sports or athletic standard to graduate or to be stigmatised as athletically stunted. No athletically inept student is stigmatised because he cannot catch a ball.
If a professor knows you are an athlete, you are assumed to be stupid until you can prove otherwise. (White male water polo)
In a big, class (400 people). Before test professor said, “It’s an easy test. Even athletes can pass.” (White male swimming)
Professor asked the student athletes to stand on the first day of class and said, “These are the people who will probably drop this class.” (African American female, basketball)
….. They are seen as academically unqualified illegitimate students whose only interest is athletics, who expect and receive special treatment from professors and others. The perception is that in order to remain eligible and participate in sports they put in minimum effort, do little academic work, take easy classes and have others do their work for them. …..
But there is no reason to confine a college to only the so-called academic courses.
Perhaps if every college had a sports or athletic faculty where grades were obtained for performance and where courses at this faculty demanded a minimum level of performance, some of the hypocrisy would be eliminated. Promoting excellence in any discipline – even a sport – is surely a legitimate activity for any University or College. The brain does not have to be separated from the brawn.
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