College Athletes should sit out their first year...

No.

That use to be the rule. Blame the marshall plane crash. Though you'd have to be one heartless individual to do that.

So penalize the 95% of athletes that make good grades in high school by sitting out a year for the other 5% mistakes. That seems to be the way the United States is heading as a country.

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So your saying that hard work shouldn't be rewarded? Whatever the hell your talking about is called age discrimination so it don't really matter.

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you must have played college sports.

There are standards for a reason. The SEC needs some serious reforms. Lots of these guys have no reason to be there in the first place...much less a true desire or appreciation for what they were given for free.

That would mean that we'd have had no team last season. Wouldn't even be able to field one. It would also mean that any school who has a lousy coach like Dooley or Muschamp et al who leave ginormous roster holes/doesn't recruit would be behind for ages. It would advantage teams that are already on top and make it extremely difficult for schools to either rebuild or breakthrough for the first time.

Beyond all that, it's really not that hard to balance sports and academics *if* players are given a way to do so.

Basketball has games during class time and yet the Lady Vols were some of the best students you'd ever want to have - sat in the front, always notified you of absences ahead of time, always checked in for what they missed, and always checked in at various points on their grades (regular students were never that organized). The men's basketball team wasn't nearly as organized but most were ok students. With football it was a mixed bag but I learned that if you reached out to those who were struggling (same as you would with anyone else) most would respond.

I also had cheerleaders, student leaders, and members of other orgs and frats in class but none were as organized as a group as the LV's were. If the Lady Vols and others can do all of that so can men's teams.

Instead of sitting out, all sports at all schools need to adopt the LV/Pat Summitt System when it comes to academics. Quite frankly, it works and works damned well and teaches them how to balance everything -- check her graduation rates. One of the things that makes it so brilliant is that athletes are forced to keep in regular contact with their professors and their respective sport's academic side. Nothing comes as a surprise and if a student is struggling in a class they can and do get help before the worst happens.

And don't underestimate the power of showing up to class. That's often half the battle, especially for football players (as let's admit it they're used to getting their way without much work because of how they were treated in middle school and high school) and again the Summitt System forces them to take responsibility and most only need a nudge to do the right thing. Finally, football players, other athletes and many young people in general thrive under organized use of time much like young people who join the military (when practice is, when to eat to gain weight and how much, when to visit the nutritionist etc.).

No they shouldn't.

This is dumb idea and you should feel bad.

No. That's a broad statement to make. Many athletes are not even on full or any scholarships.