4 ms·

Confessions of a fixer: a scheme that benefited hundreds of college athletes

11 points by diodorus 12y ago

Retra 12y ago
"I want to coach Division 1, so I'm going to cheat my students through the system so that I can get the job." Yeah, that benefits hundreds of college athletes. It also screws over anyone that is trying to honestly do well and competing for the same positions. If you think it benefits college athletes to not get an education, then maybe don't give them degrees.
- LanceH 12y ago
  NCAA athletics is a zero sum game for the athlete. If you keep one bad apple, you necessarily don't get a new student in. When they talk about requiring a 900 SAT and how that would deny some people, it is true in a sense. But it also opens the door for someone 900+ who doesn't run the ball quite as well. The same number of people get scholarships either way, but the quality of the game may go down a smidge.
  - jessaustin 12y ago
    NCAA is rotten from the head to the tail. It's bad for athletics, bad for athletes, bad for students, bad for colleges. We can be sure that crap like this goes on at every NCAA institution.
  - Retra 12y ago
    I don't see the advantage in letting people run around thinking "If I'm really really good at basketball, it doesn't matter if I'm dumb as a rock." It does matter. Giving people hope isn't worth it if you don't actually make them better people in the process.
hyperliner 12y ago
It would be better to recognize the scam that is going on and start from scratch by lettig two businesses continue: The business of education and the business of sports. To enter the education business, you only need to have good grades. To enter the sports business, all you need to do is to play well. Make it independent decisions. Let people who enter the sports business earn a living through salaries not unlike professional sports. Let the sports business be a money making enterprise, with each "sports side" organization (team) making money through TV, radio and apparel, and clearly funneling the money earned to a foundation controlled by the university. Basically, make the teams be the money making aspect of colleges, with the requirement that each team gets rights to use the college's names, colors and symbols. A given person can be a college sports player, a college student, or both. Simple rules can be enacted to let players graduate to professional sports such as NBA or NFL. This would eliminate the need to continue to keep this fake cover of legitimacy. We will then acknowledge what we want as a society: good students and good entertainment. I feel sometimes our Puritan background prevents us from making such moves and keeps us "pure" when we know the current arrangement is prostituted.

11 points by diodorus 12y ago

Retra 12y ago

"I want to coach Division 1, so I'm going to cheat my students through the system so that I can get the job." Yeah, that benefits hundreds of college athletes. It also screws over anyone that is trying to honestly do well and competing for the same positions. If you think it benefits college athletes to not get an education, then maybe don't give them degrees.

LanceH 12y ago
NCAA athletics is a zero sum game for the athlete. If you keep one bad apple, you necessarily don't get a new student in. When they talk about requiring a 900 SAT and how that would deny some people, it is true in a sense. But it also opens the door for someone 900+ who doesn't run the ball quite as well. The same number of people get scholarships either way, but the quality of the game may go down a smidge.
- jessaustin 12y ago
  NCAA is rotten from the head to the tail. It's bad for athletics, bad for athletes, bad for students, bad for colleges. We can be sure that crap like this goes on at every NCAA institution.
- Retra 12y ago
  I don't see the advantage in letting people run around thinking "If I'm really really good at basketball, it doesn't matter if I'm dumb as a rock." It does matter. Giving people hope isn't worth it if you don't actually make them better people in the process.

hyperliner 12y ago

It would be better to recognize the scam that is going on and start from scratch by lettig two businesses continue: The business of education and the business of sports. To enter the education business, you only need to have good grades. To enter the sports business, all you need to do is to play well. Make it independent decisions. Let people who enter the sports business earn a living through salaries not unlike professional sports. Let the sports business be a money making enterprise, with each "sports side" organization (team) making money through TV, radio and apparel, and clearly funneling the money earned to a foundation controlled by the university. Basically, make the teams be the money making aspect of colleges, with the requirement that each team gets rights to use the college's names, colors and symbols. A given person can be a college sports player, a college student, or both. Simple rules can be enacted to let players graduate to professional sports such as NBA or NFL. This would eliminate the need to continue to keep this fake cover of legitimacy. We will then acknowledge what we want as a society: good students and good entertainment. I feel sometimes our Puritan background prevents us from making such moves and keeps us "pure" when we know the current arrangement is prostituted.