A raw deal for athletes
This week's column.
“We was robbed.”
A number of college sports stars justifiably could make this statement, bad grammar and all.
They are heralded, especially this time of year, as “student-athletes.”
But exactly what are they learning?
And why can so can few of them speak in coherent sentences?
For all the excitement March Madness can bring, it also brings the sound of too many young college basketball players mangling the English language in tortuous post-game interviews.
One with a player from Chattanooga, the champ of UNCG’s league, the Southern Conference, offered this reaction to this year’s NCAA pairings: “When we seen that we got UConn, I mean, we was happy to be up there on the board. Coming here, we believed we can be one of the teams in history, to make history and beat UConn. It’s all about believing in the system, believing in yourself. When you toss up that ball, anybody can win. Ain’t just ’cause they UConn it’s a lock. It’s a basketball game. Both teams we got to play, they just like us.”
The quote came up in a listserv for sports writers. The issue: Should you correct the grammar in such quotes when including them in a published article?
The bigger issue, of course, is why you’d have to consider changing it in the first place. College students should have better command of the language than that.
Of course, manglers of the King’s English are not consigned merely to the college basketball court. Or the football field.
But colleges and universities make significant money off the labors of these students. According to a recently released Forbes magazine ranking of the top-grossing college basketball programs in the nation, “amateur” athletics is big business. For instance, UNC-Chapel Hill placed No. 1 in the nation, worth nearly $25 million in 2008, including $16.4 million in operating income.
With all that money rolling around and these teams representing, after all, institutions of higher learning, something is fundamentally wrong when a “student-athlete” speaks so poorly.
So what? some may counter. These students are hardly typical and will earn their livings on the strength of their jump shots, not their oratorical skills.
That would be a logical argument, if it were true. But the vast majority of these athletes won’t make professional rosters. Less than 1 percent of the Division I football players go on to NFL careers. And only 1 percent of the 3,900 Division I basketball players even qualify as pro prospects.
So, yes, they will need something to fall back on beyond their ability to dunk.
Further, according to an analysis of this year’s NCAA tournament men’s teams, only 48 percent of them graduated three-fifths or more of their players. Ninety-seven percent of the teams in the women’s tournament did. (What do the women know that the men don’t?)
Only 32 percent of African American male players, who comprise the lion’s share of most teams’ rosters, are graduating. By contrast, 70 percent or more of white players are completing their college educations.
The solutions?
• Hold these athletes to higher expectations in the classroom and stricter oversight. If a free education is their compensation for competing in a school’s name, see to it that they get an education.
• Provide pre-college academic preparation for new recruits.
• Provide insurance for collegiate players against major injuries.
• Pull the plug on all this “one-and-done” foolishness, in which players with absolutely no intentions of getting a degree spend one year playing in college, then go pro. Adopt baseball’s approach, which permits players to be drafted from high school but says they must wait three years to turn pro if they go to college.
• End the hypocrisy of schools and coaches making millions of dollars on the backs of athletes without some reasonable compensation for the players.
Some have suggested at least a trust fund for athletes that they could tap upon graduation.
That seems only fair. The NCAA has sold the rights for its basketball tournament to CBS for $11 billion over six years. Football and basketball coaches at major schools now make between $600,000 and $5 million a year. The University of Kentucky just signed its newest coach, John Calipari, to an eight-year, $31.65 million deal, including a country club membership, two cars and a guaranteed $3 million on each remaining year of his contract if he is fired.
Don’t the people who actually dribble and shoot deserve at least a fraction of that kind of consideration?
Comments (12)
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Question?, now who the hell was responsible for lowering academic standards. I remember when a athlete had to have a b average! Now who was that that called it racist? That would be the liberal media. Remember when Louisville was call the University of bell hops?Who raised hell, that would be the liberal media! Remember, when the announcer said Louisville players wore their IQ on the back of their uniforms? Who raised hell? The liberal media! Oklahoma was called a football University? Who was it that raised hell? The liberal media! So use your press to call for higher standards, I help you pick off the tar and feathers.
Posted on April 5, 2009 6:26 AM
Allen asked, "only 48 percent of them graduated three-fifths or more of their players. Ninety-seven percent of the teams in the women’s tournament did. (What do the women know that the men don’t?)"
The women know how much money is NOT involved in pro women's sports and that they better prepare for an alternative career.
The young men grow up believing that if they can dribble or pass a ball, they're going to be rich beyond their wildest dreams (until they get arrested).
What did they write about the "love of money" as the root?
Posted on April 5, 2009 7:35 AM
It's the non-athlete students and taxpayers who are getting the raw deal. The focus of most members of the UNC System Trustee Boards is sports, and not academics. The schools are holding classes in contemned buildings while the schools spend hundreds of millions on sports palaces. The schools are laying off hundreds of teachers while giving coaches multi-million dollar raises. The schools are rejecting hundreds of real students so they can admit unqualified athletes.
The schools should get rid of all the sports teams.
Posted on April 5, 2009 9:51 AM
Good article.
Posted on April 5, 2009 11:17 AM
Great Article Allen. It pains me to agree with you. By the way, where did you play college ball!
Posted on April 5, 2009 2:18 PM
Henry, the students and taxpayers getting a raw deal?
Did you read Mr. Johnson article, millions come in from these jocks.
Adams a wacko liberal, wants to stop instate tuition for these jocks, that bring in millions!
Harrison a wacko liberal wants in state tuition for illegals, that take out millions.
I guess this is what you call liberal logic.
Votes by the illegals are money important than money brought in by jocks.
Allen, how much was the ACC tournament games in Greensboro worth to the city?
I would guess you even sold more papers that week.
Posted on April 6, 2009 5:43 AM
Speech patterns are established way before college.
What was needed was Sister Mary Alice in grade school cracking these guys across the knuckles with the old hickory ruler for talking like this, but then liberals would be howling it's bad for self-esteem and bad for diversity and disrespectful of linguistic heritage and speaking the Kings English is a "white thang" and abusive etc. etc. etc.
You can't have it both ways.
Posted on April 6, 2009 8:57 AM
So who gets paid, Allen, those producing revenue (men's basketball and football), or do we share the wealth?
Posted on April 6, 2009 10:58 AM
Thank you for putting into writting what so many of us are thinking. We no longer watch College sports because we are so disgusted with what has been happening. Why should the tax payer support farm teams for the pro-sports owners
Posted on April 6, 2009 4:30 PM
College sports are a gold mine to a state.Wonder how much income the state will rake in if Carolina, wins tonight.Anonymous, thank you for staying home, I pay enough for tickets as it is. Strange you never hear about the money coming in. Now tell me how much these damn illegals bring in. That the state wants to give instate tuition to.Still wondering how much the ACC tournament brought into Greensboro.
Posted on April 6, 2009 7:32 PM
I completely agree with your solution to hold athletes to higher academic expectations. Inarticulate athletes are nothing new, but the problem is more pronounced as basketball has become big business.
Colleges should not be allowed to recruit basketball players with poor intellectual capabilities and make money off their athletic skills with no concern for their post-college welfare. The colleges and coaches who are exploiting student-athletes should be held accountable.
Posted on April 7, 2009 9:32 AM
If "College sports are a gold mine to a state" then why does the Dean Dome require a 1.3 million state budget subsidy to stay open? Why does the Rams Club not pay the full tuition costs for their scholarships? Why do the taxpayers have to pay over a million in police and State Patrol overtime to direct traffic and millions for lawyers every year? Why do the UNC System schools keep raising student fees to cover the Athletic Dept losses?
College sports, the biggest taxpayer and student rip-off around.
Posted on April 10, 2009 5:08 PM