"The worst thing that's happened to college basketball since I've been coaching"
Good debate...found this forum from link to my blog. Couple things: 1) I did not mean to suggest that bringing in one-year players is cheating. The NCAA and its members put out feel-good PSAs that paint athletes as real students (among the 380k most are)...but many schools want to win far more than uphold any lofted stated educational ideals. 2) I don't buy the argument that athletes are getting a "free education." There's nothing free about a scholarship...not only must they stay eligible, avoid legal trouble, they also must perform athletically. Otherwise, they can be cut after one year. 3)I have largely stayed away from the pay-for-play argument, although I am beginning to think that the athletic demands placed on athletes by coaches is so great that athletes have little opportunity to work at all. I wrote something on this after I heard Dan Hawking's rant... http://moneyplayers.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/a_cry_by_dan_ha.html 4)Re comment about one-year players...Oden and Durant are only in college because of an artificial barrier to entry to NBA. You don't think these players "mean shit" as far as making a deep tourny run? Lastly, the new NCAA reform that ties scholarships to grad rates goes into effect next academic year...if a player leaves after one year, it could impact the school's GSR score (it's too late to look up exactly what that stands for)...if the GSR score is too low, the programs will lose scholarships.
posted by MarcIsenberg at 02:28 AM on February 23, 2007
"The worst thing that's happened to college basketball since I've been coaching"
Good debate...found this forum from link to my blog. Couple things: 1) I did not mean to suggest that bringing in one-year players is cheating. The NCAA and its members put out feel-good PSAs that paint athletes as real students (among the 380k most are)...but many schools want to win far more than uphold any lofted stated educational ideals. 2) I don't buy the argument that athletes are getting a "free education." There's nothing free about a scholarship...not only must they stay eligible, avoid legal trouble, they also must perform athletically. Otherwise, they can be cut after one year. 3)I have largely stayed away from the pay-for-play argument, although I am beginning to think that the athletic demands placed on athletes by coaches is so great that athletes have little opportunity to work at all. I wrote something on this after I heard Dan Hawking's rant... http://moneyplayers.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/a_cry_by_dan_ha.html 4)Re comment about one-year players...Oden and Durant are only in college because of an artificial barrier to entry to NBA. You don't think these players "mean shit" as far as making a deep tourny run? Lastly, the new NCAA reform that ties scholarships to grad rates goes into effect next academic year...if a player leaves after one year, it could impact the school's GSR score (it's too late to look up exactly what that stands for)...if the GSR score is too low, the programs will lose scholarships.