|
|
|
|
How Dare The
NCAA?
See any differences here? In all their infinite wisdom, a top the hill on the plains of Kansas, the NCAA is at it yet again. They're attempting to gather information for proposed addition to the BCS system, that rewards teams with high graduation rates. In all their complicated, number crunching, highly confusing mannerisms, the BCS and the NCAA, want to yet again make the BCS the biggest joke in their fabled history. Can someone tell me how a team like Duke, a program that might not beat some of the top tier high school programs in the country, shall be rewarded because they graduate players? Isn't that, in itself, their reward? As an academic institution, aren't you required to graduate players? Isn't that the bain of your existence as an institution for higher learning? Why not just give Michigan more BCS points for highest attendance? How about Miami for the neatest game introduction? Or maybe Boise Statem, for having the only blue field in America? As ridiculous as those comments are, this latest concept is no less ridiculous. You want to reward those that graduate players? Give them some of the money you recieve from network television deals, since they don't get the chance to get on television that often. You want to reward those schools? Create a "GPA Bowl" or something along those lines, rewarding those schools with a television deal, and money for their respective schools. What you shouldn't attempt to do? Legitamize collegiate football as an academic endeavor between two respective institutions. How dare the NCAA attempt to lie to themselves, their members, and us, as fans? Claim that graduation rates matter, get a grip. They've never mattered, all that matters to the NCAA are ratings, ratings, and merchandising. Think that they care if Northwestern produces some of the finest business students in the country? Hell no, and they never will. Northwestern got on the map when they went to the Rose Bowl, and suddenly became "Cinderalla". If the NCAA wants to get serious about this latest pull the rug over reality shame, then they should dissallow merchandising sales, or give the respective student athletes a percentage of those sales. If the NCAA wants to get serious, they should limit this latest trend of PPV games, broadcast by large sporting networks, that give the NCAA a sizeable cut as well. But whatever they do, don't attempt to convince us they're a legitimate, by suddenly rewarding graduation rates, and "student athletes". As you praise the top players for those "vaunted" awards, whatever you do, don't mention their respective GPA's, or their work inside the communities. Instead, lavish them with praise for throwing a forty yard out route, or shaking a linebacker out of his shoes, it's what college football is. Pad your wallets, pad the schools athletic surpluses for recruiting, and continue to hide the scandals that would shake the foundation that makes the NCAA all it's money. Avoid looking into _every_ single major division I and II programs blatant use of academic dishonesty towards college athletes. Avoid looking into mysteriously expensive cars, driven by students that come from low income familes, that can barely afford to put food the table. Do what you've continued to do... Hide the truth, and cover it with athletic greatness. But whatever you do, don't attempt to make yourselves look like a legitmate organization. As you continue to increase revenues, and blast programs on the way down, due to boosters that suddenly "remember" illegal activities, just understand what you're place is. You give athletes a forum. You give individuals that normally wouldn't even step foot on a college campus, a chance to learn, to earn a degree, to graduate. Those are the goals of every school, not of the BCS. The BCS is designed to level the playing field towards bowl games, and bowl bids. It's designed to find a true national champion, and allign the two "best" teams agianst each other. It's done a crappy enough job as is...don't complicate the issue.
|