Quote:
Originally Posted by WhiteTiger
Yeah, that's tough for me, too. But, these guys basically get a free higher education, something no one else does.
|
I'm not sure what you mean by this, since basically every college in the US hands out free-rides to several students based on various factors (race, economic background, academic merit, etc).
The only real difference between an academic free-ride and an athletic free-ride is that the latter requires the recipient to perform physical exertion and keep a barely-passing GPA, while the former (typically) requires the recipient to keep a higher-than-average GPA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WhiteTiger
One could possibly claim that they are doing it to themselves, working for free since they choose 'basketweaving 101' to 'major' in.
|
Few D-1 (now called FBS) schools truly desire their student-athletes to pick economically rewarding majors. Stanford, Vanderbilt, Rice, the service academies, and a few other schools do, but they are clearly the exceptions.
I tend to believe that the powerhouse football/basketball schools have such a grinding athletic schedule (both training and playing) that allowing the students time for academics is way down on their list of priorities. And the students know it.
Look at the list of students' majors on any given big-time football program; obviously, not all of them have what it takes mentally to be engineers or pre-med students (nor should it be expected that a majority of them even want to be an engineer or a doctor). But at the same time, why do you think so many of them are majoring in sociology, psychology, kinesiology, or other "soft" subjects?