There is no more hollow term in big-time college athletics than the fabled "student-athlete."
From three-point lines and end zones across the country, "students" compete for universities that have increasingly become nothing more than training grounds for professional sports. Aside from a few outstanding individuals, almost everyone in the NCAA appears to have abandoned the core principle that academics trump sports.
The recruitment process has wiped away any remaining meaning from the idea of "student-athlete." Coaches now send letters to eighth graders -- the new sought-after college basketball recruits -- and sometimes offer full scholarships before the young players even reach high school. So what incentive do they have to actually learn anything? Increasingly even playing in March Madness is only a mandated, one-year pit stop on the way to the pros. By knowingly recruiting so-called "one and done" players, reputable universities such as Ohio State, Duke and North Carolina essentially rent 19-year-olds for a year.
Additionally, many universities throw out all academic and behavioral standards that should apply equally to athletes and regular students. For example, University of Florida offensive lineman Ronnie Wilson was arrested on April 5th of last year after attacking a man at a nightclub and then following him, shooting rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle into the air. Any other student would get suspended, maybe expelled. But the 6' 4", 315-pound Wilson is playing with the team again this season. (Big surprise: He has since been arrested again for allegedly assaulting three more people and is no longer practicing with the team.)
The academic violations are particularly disturbing. Recently, a number of top athletic programs at major universities around the country have suffered from huge scandals. Earlier this year, Florida State University revealed that the former assistant director of the Athletic Academic Support Services group provided exam answers to and wrote papers for these "student-athletes." At the University of Georgia in 2001, basketball players enrolled in a "Strategies of Basketball" course taught by the head coach's son, who let them miss class and tests and "fraudulently awarded grades of A," according to an NCAA investigation. These administrators and coaches have clearly lost sight of the greater purpose of the institutions of "higher learning" for which they work.
Furthermore, even in this economic recession,enthusiastic athletic directors spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build new stadiums, lure top coaches and fund recruiting binges -- all while academic budgets have been slashed across the board and students are forced to pay ever more for tuition. Just look at the hiring of college football coaches. The University of Alabama, which just announced a minimum 12 percent tuition hike, gave new head coach Nick Saban a whopping guaranteed $32 million over the next eight years. Meanwhile, the state of New Jersey's $92 million cuts from Rutgers University over the past three fiscal years did not stop the athletic director from giving head coach Greg Schiano a new $2 million contract plus additional incentives including a $800,000 interest-free loan.
Some places in the world of higher education still hold their athletes to the same standards as regular students, including here in the Ivy League. And some sports are simply too unpopular to win special favors. But these facts are not much to take pride in when the larger structure of college athletics has so corrupted the institutions that they serve.
Thankfully hope for a return to the academic priorities of yesterday exists -- in the same unlikely place that recently had its own scandal. Florida State junior Myron Rolle, one of the best safeties in college football, embodies the true "student-athlete." Rolle is a fantastic athlete who some speculate could make millions in next year's NFL draft. But, more importantly, he is also a brilliant student who finished a pre-med degree in two and a half years and wants to eventually build health clinics around the world, according to Sports Illustrated.
And next weekend, Rolle will have the opportunity to teach America what so many have forgotten by not playing with his team against conference rival Maryland because of a scheduling conflict with his Rhodes Scholarship finalist interview. Teammates and fans might not understand in this era of college sports, but Rolle knows what is important in the long run. He told Sports Illustrated, "I try to be a real student-athlete. Hopefully I can be a role model in that way to some of the younger guys."
With any luck, Rolle will be just that: a true "scholar-athlete" who inspires us all and helps the schools of the NCAA re-evaluate their goals.
