re: Will the Chapel Hill academic fraud be the catalyst for the downfall

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Will the Chapel Hill academic fraud be the catalyst for the downfall Oh...I understand ...but the whole "exploitation" and "cheap labor" angle is weak. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement. Personally I think all students should have to meet the same standards. Let them form semi-pro leagues for kids that don't want a degree.

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Kids are certainly exploited. The minute they set up means to pass them instead of educate them the become exploiters. If you get $5m a year to win, do you, as a coach, want them to get a degree or play really good football. Those are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but for many you limit your chances of winning if you recruit only kids you know are smart enough to handle and graduate from college with a real college degree...

You have a valid point Jefferson, but not that many make millions. Sure, every kid who gets in has the chance to do something and improve themselves, but that is a side affect instead of the aim. College is not necessarily meant to make average kids rich. The point is to educate. Creating courses to keep kids within the rules of playing sports as long as they can has little to do with what colleges are about and is where the trend is going.

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I'll try this again: Would anyone reading this that is directly applying their UGA degree directly....IN REAL LIFE .....please stand up??!!?

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I received my undergrad degree in microbiology from UGA, got a Ph.D. in micro from NC State and am doing a micro post-doc (equivalent to a residency for MDs) currently at UNC. While staying in academia is far from the 'real world' I am applying my UGA degree towards an eventual career IN REAL LIFE. So there's that, which is nice. Clearly others don't but that is a personal decision often determined by opportunity/circumstance.

Bottom line for me is that Athletes getting a pass academically isn't anything new but has been brought back into the lime light because of some new 'brave' martyrs. You think this kind of stuff isn't going on at the big time programs across the country? Sure it is, but we love the product and thus accept the discrepancies. Doesn't make it right but the other option is to watch sub-par athletes compete for our university.

Come to think of it I still have 4 years of NCAA eligibility. . .

Funny thing I refuse to ever send any sort of update into UGA magazine, just like you said, self-aggrandizement! I hate reading it. Reason I responded: You asked. Can't deal with it?
Onward . . .

People that support big college football need to accept that they're full of shite if they act appalled at what it's become academically.

Fact is that the concept of a student athlete in its purest form should mean a team of members of the existing student body recruited through open tryouts on campus.

Schools like the Ivy League dominated cfb before it became a money machine. They stuck to the purity of academics more than the 120+ current FBs teams and their football product suffered.

People need to choose between the outcomes rather than pretending you can maintain student athlete purity and have he fast strong football games we have.

Exploitation means the taking advantage of somebody in an unfair fashion (there are other definitions but this is the one I think you're using).

I would argue that providing an all expenses paid audition for a potential NFL position is a pretty significant benefit. Whether that pans out or not is the risk they take. Also, its not like they're forced into these spots or need them to survive.....Chinese workers assembling iPads are exploited.....college football players? I think not.

There are cases where these kids are victims of a really screwed up system. However, for the most part I think they have it better than most regular students who have to pay for the luxury of attending college and receive a degree.

Also, I agree that college degrees aren't what they're cracked up to be but it is something that scholarship athletes have a chance to attain for free that most kids have to pay for...so technically speaking it is a benefit. Whether or not a degree is worth the time and money to attain it is a whole different topic.

I totally disagree with athletes being given a free pass but assert again that right or wrong its mutually beneficial...not exploitive. The players and their families bear the brunt of the responsibility for their academic shortcomings.....the University is just having to work around these shortcomings it to keep them on the team.

LINK

Apparently Jefferson thinks that having to work at the paper mill because his degree in medieval Russian literature is useless means everyone has that problem.

UNC's Chancellor Folt admitted today about all the academic fraud that had been going on.

https://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/23/3557624/unc-chancellor-says-university.html#emlnl=Breaking_News

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Six months into her job as chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill, Carol Folt took her strongest stance yet on the athletics and academics scandals that have plagued the campus for several years.

In public remarks at a Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, Folt said the university accepts responsibility and is “absolutely” accountable for years of bogus African studies courses that were significantly populated by athletes. And, Folt said, the university must “fully acknowledge and accept lessons of our past” before moving toward meaningful athletic and academic reform.

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but she noted that “close to half who did enroll were student-athletes.”

The unsupervised courses were “not reflective of the standards that we expect for our university,” Folt added.

“All of those students who were involved in those courses deserved better from us,” she said. “We also accept the fact that there was a failure in academic oversight for years that permitted this to continue. This, too, was wrong and it has undermined our integrity and our reputation, and created a very unhealthy atmosphere of distrust.

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Investigations also found improperly taught independent studies courses and noted that roughly 500 grade changes were suspected or confirmed to be unauthorized.

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