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Ralph Nader: Get rid of scholarships

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by KYSportsWriter, Mar 25, 2011.

  1. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Actually, it's a great, necessary idea.

    Those who don't read far enough down the page, miss this:


    Nader said that colleges should either integrate athletics into the educational mission by eliminating college scholarships, or, "openly acknowledge the professionalism in big-time college sports, remove the tax-exempt status currently given to athletic departments, and make universities operate them as unrelated businesses."
     
  2. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Pretty good.
     
  3. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    I think the problem most people will have is that it's Nader saying anything. His credibility over the years has dwindled at the same rate he's tried to make headlines and keep his name in the news.

    That said, I don't think there is ANYONE who thinks college sports aren't professional in their own way, and that the idea the NCAA is a non-profit institution isn't anything short of lunacy. In an ideal world, all college athletes would also be regular students who don't need special exceptions and lowered standards to get into school to begin with. But too much money is made, and colleges in all academic areas thrive on money. On the academic side, it's a rush for grant money. On the athletics side, it's TV and ticket revenue.

    Substantial changes need to be made, but it starts with the culture of universities and their thirst for cash in all areas.
     
  4. ringer

    ringer Active Member

    The idea is spot-on. It's about time someone fought for this.
     
  5. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    The courses are all there at most colleges. Combining them into a major is the hard part.
    Some schools already offer degrees in things like sports management. Why not athletics? There's more ways to go with that than just playing ball.
    It'd be interesting to see what percentage of former college athletes end up in an athletics-related career, whether it's playing in the NFL or coaching a high-caliber youth swim team.
     
  6. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    At many universities there's a catch-all major called "University Studies" or some such thing that's quite common for student-athletes in the marquee sports. At my institution, it's for folks who accumulate lots of credit hours toward a particular degree but can never quite make the minimum GPA required for that degree. For example, in our business school (where I teach), I think there's a requirement of a 2.5 cumulative GPA AND a 3.0 GPA in certain core classes before one can be formally admitted to the business school. Now you can take all the classes in the business school you want without being admitted, but once you start accumulating some serious credit hours, if your GPA's below 2.5, likely as not you're never going to get it over that hurdle. So you wind up with 130 credit hours and a 2.4 GPA but no way to make that work fit into an official degree plan. Enter the University Studies major.

    As I understand it, the California higher-ed systems a couple of years ago conducted a systemwide sweep of seriously professional students -- i.e., 10 years of full-time coursework with lots of strategically timed major changes so as to avoid completing particular degrees but stay on the financial aid dole -- and simply said, "Congratulations on the completion of your University Studies degree!"
     
  7. dkphxf

    dkphxf Member

    Athletes already have their majors. It's the easy ones they take to stay eligible. And most universities will allow you to create your own major -- called an interdisciplinary major -- if you show enough initiative and have a good enough GPA. Not that hard that schools need to do something special.

    And Nader's idea is a good one. He would want the money put toward need-based aid, as in the students who need money to get to and through college. Great idea. A better one would be giving everything to merit-based scholarships, but that's too radical of an idea.

    We all know that the majority of athletes don't value their education. They don't see a scholarship as worthwhile. Look at college basketball players who don't go to school the second semester because they're one-and-done. Look at the joke majors most of these kids have to stay eligible. Athletes, despite having tutoring for any class they want and a dedicated facility and time to study, still fail, even with their joke majors (for the bigger sports).
     
  8. derwood

    derwood Active Member

    Ivy League has no scholarships, student athletes receive need based financial aid.
     
  9. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Exactly.

    I know a lot of people will complain that it would deprive poor kids of getting to college. If it's need-based, that should take care of it anyways, and maybe it'll force these kids to the books in high school instead of working on their jump shots. And then coaches won't be able to hold the scholarships over the kids' heads each year if they don't perform.

    As I've said many times, the NCAA system is a house of cards waiting to tumble. Maybe Congress sees some low-hanging fruit and gets involved, or maybe the athletes themselves finally get pissed off and do something about it.
     
  10. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    It's unsafe at any speed.
     
  11. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    You just keep on believing it's all "need-based."
     
  12. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Only Ralph Nader could make a bunch of folks rally in mindless support of the NCAA.
     
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