"Clean" College Athletic Programs

[cincibuck]

Vandy is cleaner, but they suck at everything but baseball.

I've grown tired of baseball. It's been four decades since I paid ANY attention to the NBA. I'm growing tired of the "studio wrestling" aspects of the NFL, but I still love college football.

That being said, I think Robert Hutchison had it right when he pulled Chicago out of the Big 10.

Big time sports corrupt the very colleges they purportedly "support."

There is a place for physical education in the curriculum, but this is not "physical education."

It is a business, pure and simple and I am coming more and more to believe that it has no business on any campus.

And before you leap to tell me how "good football" brings more donations to the endowment funds, let me remind you that some of the biggest endowment funds among universities in the nation are held by schools with little to no athletic achievements, to include the University of Chicago.

 

[Dryden]

I used to think our coaches buying us ice cream after little league games was just them being nice. Now I realize they were cheating sonsofbitches.

Everybody got ice cream? When I was coaching my sons' team we only bought ice cream for the kids we beaned during batting practice.

 

[seed702]

UNLV BABY!

Wait, nvm.

 

[muffler dragon]

The problem that I've run into when thinking about the OP is just how much I'm disturbed with the whole machine (from youth sports to pro). There is an element that I just have a distaste for. It leads me towards the decision of not having my children participate in organized sports.

 

[BUCKYLE]

The problem that I've run into when thinking about the OP is just how much I'm disturbed with the whole machine (from youth sports to pro). There is an element that I just have a distaste for. It leads me towards the decision of not having my children participate in organized sports.

For every example of shit heads in sports, there are hundreds of thousands of examples of great things coming directly from participation in organized sports. It develops teamwork, character, leadership..etc...etc... the benefits could literally take up an entire page.

Especially concerning youth sports.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Could not agree with Kyle more. You always hear about the people doing things wrong, but the overwhelming bulk of people are doing things right (speaking mostly about youth sports)

 

[muffler dragon]

For every example of shit heads in sports, there are hundreds of thousands of examples of great things coming directly from participation in organized sports. It develops teamwork, character, leadership..etc...etc... the benefits could literally take up an entire page.

Especially concerning youth sports.

Could not agree with Kyle more. You always hear about the people doing things wrong, but the overwhelming bulk of people are doing things right (speaking mostly about youth sports)

I don't disagree whatsoever. Just an inherent fear that I have based on personal experience in highschool. It just "feels" as though the politicization has become worse. I could (and probably am) be wrong.

I would say that as it stands today, my wife and I won't push our kids to join. We will support them if they want to, and go from there.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Take charge and be a coach for your kids' youth league teams. Coaching my kids teams has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in life. Not only do I get to spend time with my kids, but there is few feelings in life better than watching a kid's eyes light up as he or she makes a play he or she never thought they'd be able to make.

One of my favorite memories from coaching was when the 6 year old girl who came to our team as the least skilled got her first hit. I hardly remember my own kids' first hits, but that one has stuck with me for 7 years now.

 

[muffler dragon]

Take charge and be a coach for your kids' youth league teams. Coaching my kids teams has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in life. Not only do I get to spend time with my kids, but there is few feelings in life better than watching a kid's eyes light up as he or she makes a play he or she never thought they'd be able to make.

One of my favorite memories from coaching was when the 6 year old girl who came to our team as the least skilled got her first hit. I hardly remember my own kids' first hits, but that one has stuck with me for 7 years now.

That's sage advice. Unfortunately, it's something that I cannot act upon (coaching that is). I travel for my employment and don't have a schedule that would permit coaching.

 

[TooTall]

Could not agree with Kyle more. You always hear about the people doing things wrong, but the overwhelming bulk of people are doing things right (speaking mostly about youth sports)

Were in a day in age where sports media always look to point out all of the wrong doing, which apparently is "good" journalism. To me it's journalism with the agenda to exploit things to draw in people. I hate it. Why always point out the negatives?

 

[calibuck]

Just to add my two cents worth, I'd like to say that whenever you have something 'good', you will have people that are trying to gain an advantage - legal or not. That is where the problems lie, and the overwhelming need to be the 'best'....

Let's think to the many students that NEED the scholarships that college offer (academic, sports, music, and/or ?) to get into and through college. Not everyone can afford what has become to our generation what a high school education is to our parent's generation. It's hard to get a good job without a college degree.

That said, if you look at the number of infractions versus the number of students helped (and don't cause a ripple), then the decimal is something like .0000000000001% (I know, Buckyle will beat me up for being too specific).....that's not bad odds. Unfortunately, college football makes a tremendous amount of money, and that's what draws the 'sharks' and those who want to make some money theirownselves from one of the athletes involved. Don't think you'd find someone lurking around the School of Music willing to trade an alto sax/oboe reed for a signed symphony program......

Scum (no not those guys, well maybe) gravitates toward the money. If you have big bucks, then there's gonna be people who will try to influence some of the cash flow their way, by whatever means necessary. Add to it the athletes, who have been coddled ever since they started to show promise and excel, who believe that they are 'God's gifted ones', and entitled to special favors, not adhering to the rules, don't need to study (grades will be provided). Unfortunately, these kids are the ones who don't know how to cope when the gravy train stops....that is their punishment.....look, I reread this and it seems I'm saying the same things different ways....but I think I"ve gotten the meaning across.

I believe that more good is done than harm in the big picture. Unfortunately, the 'bad' gets more press than the 'good'.


:gobucks3::gobucks4: Now more than ever

 

[cincibuck]

"Clean" Programs

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/o...ry-prep-school-scam.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

I have a conflict. I love Buckeye football in particular and college football in general. At the same time I can't help but notice the continual debasement of academics at almost ALL universities in the name of athletics and "student athletes."

This article lifts the curtain on some programs we probably all thought were squeaky clean:

"Is there any institution of higher learning that isn't gaming the system to gain athletic advantage? I've come to believe the answer is no.

Harvard? Last year, before announcing that the university had uncovered widespread cheating, a Harvard administrator sent an e-mail to the university's resident deans, saying that potentially culpable athletes might withdraw from school temporarily. That way, the cheating scandal wouldn't cost them eligibility.

On the other side of the country, the University of California, Davis, had long kept athletics in perspective - until 2007, when it inexplicably joined the big boys in Division I. Vowing not to cut any 'minor' sports, it did just that as athletic expenses soared. Promising not to lower standards, it abandoned that vow, too. After the U.C. Davis faculty athletic representative refused to support the application of "a talented basketball player with a questionable academic background," she was removed from that position, according to a report by the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley. The basketball player was admitted. "

 

[eightpointbuck]

Betcha the University of Phoenix runs a clean program.

Maybe Oberlin.

Pretty sure everyone else has some dirt under their fingernails...

 

[Muck]

People tend to view so many things through their own particular filter of how they believe the world operates.

Writers with a different political slant have been railing for a number of years regarding the admission policies of the USNA in regards to white vs minority students. They tend to focus on things like only 13% of white plebes coming from the prep schools while close to 60% of minority midshipmen are products of NAPS.

Whereas Nocera sees those jocks whom he despised so much in high school getting undeserved opportunities those other writers see qualified white students being unfairly denied an opportunity to attend Annapolis while unqualified minority kids are allowed entry in the name of political correctness.

How do those writers feel about white athletes who receive the special treatment? What does Joe & his ilk have to say about the minority students at NAPS who are not athletes but who have the same academic shortcomings?

Of course someone genuinely interested in solutions rather than sharpening an ax might be inclined to ask if NAPS (and it's parallel schools) are doing an effective job of preparing students for it's parent institution. NAPS has around a 2/3 retention rate while 9 out of 10 Midshipmen graduate from Annapolis. Do former NAPS students graduate at a higher or lower rate than the general USNA student population? Does it benefit the US Navy to have a higher number of minority officers? Is there value in having individuals who are gifted athletically sprinkled among the fleet?

I suppose that is why I would make a poor journalist in this day and age. By that I mean I have a distressing tendency to keep asking questions in the hope of finding out how all the pieces fit together rather than starting at the end and working backwards looking only at the bits that best fit my narrative.

While I've noticed that Joe Nocera tends to be connected with some of the more intellectually dishonest articles at the NYT in the end he should get some kudos for getting new mileage out of a story that made the rounds 2-4 years ago. In these tough economic times a fella's got to do something for a paycheck.

 

[ulukinatme]

I did a Google search for Cleanest Athletic Programs to see what the interwebz deemed the best programs. I liked the #3 entry:

http://www.buckeyeplanet.com/forum/college-football/624612-clean-college-athletic-programs.html