10:21 PM
12/21/24
12/21/24
March 02, 2006
NCAA: Academic reform effort "firmly taking hold": Ninety-nine teams at 65 schools lost at least a scholarship due to poor academic performance. That's down from about 6% of teams last year, to less than 2% this year. The NCAA sees this as evidence of renewed emphasis on acedemics.
On the other hand, Salon's King Kaufman sees that only one men's basketball or football team from the six major conferences has been penalized, and wonders: "maybe a system that punishes smaller programs while leaving the big cash machines alone ought to raise suspicions that the stated goal, academic excellence top to bottom, isn't the highest priority."
Of the six major conferences, exactly one school lost exactly one scholarship: DePaul men's basketball. It's kind of like when a parent claims their child is perfect. No drinking, no smoking, no sex. And then you see the child, and you think 'no way'. Either the parent is stretching the truth, doesn't want to know the truth, or is clueless. Among those big conferences Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Texas and Tennessee were sanctioned in baseball, West Virginia in men's wrestling and Mississippi in men's indoor track. But football and basketball? Paragons of learning. Heh.