BLACK
ATHLETE SPORTS NETWORK
SPECIAL REPORT
ENDING NCAA'S ABUSE
OF STUDENT ATHLETES
ONCE AND FOR ALL ....
IT'S SIMPLE
ELUSIVE DIPLOMA FOR TOO MANY STUDENT ATHLETES
No one Suffers more as a distinct
group than do African Americans as a result of the regressive NCAA policies
that apply to college student athletes first and foremost in Division I
men's basketball and football. It is in that part of the college universe
that a true solution can and must first be implemented and then fine tuned.
Make no mistake about it the NCAA and its member colleges have no interest
in real reform just window dressing to improve their image.
Too bad for them. That just won't
do in this age of multi-billion dollar broadcast and sponsorship packages.
It is unconscionable that student athletes who are the heart & soul
of college sports not only benefit the least but worst of all student athletes
are too often road kill for their colleges. The drop out rate among young
men playing college football and even more college basketball, especially
African Americans in both sports, is a scandal of horrendous dimensions
at even the so called 'best' colleges.
If any other category of student
at individual colleges showed such low graduation rates year after year
those colleges would lose their accreditation and be shut down. The one
and only exception applies to student athletes.
At the same time and to make matters
worse and unbelievably it is even worse. These same failing students are
even deprived of any financial benefit for their often outstanding performance
on the field of play. While there is an endless river of hypocrisy out
here in the real World the NCAA and its member colleges may well be responsible
for the Academy Award for Hypocrisy. The system must change and the one
reason it will is that this scandal this sham system is an intolerable
abuse to our wider society undermining any notion of fairness and equity.
It is not just the NCAA on trial America is on trial.
THE SOLUTION
It is as clear as day and staring
us in the face. There is no doubt the NCAA knows well what it is but will
resist as long as they possibly can. The Answer is for all colleges in
unison in cooperation with the NCAA to create a new and official student
category STUDENT ATHLETE which will not be a vague term as it is
now but the definition for "students" who will have a different relationship
to their college than do other matriculated students. And it is proposed
here first as a concept to be limited to only Division I men's basketball
and football. To be expanded as appropriate and as tested and modified
for other college sports both male and female.
The concept is as follows: in reality
colleges recruit athletes in terms of this discussion male football and
basketball players not for their academic credentials but purely for their
athletic skills. Currently we have this convoluted process of recruiting
high school athletes under the facade that their grades are an issue. It
results in a sham and in only the worst cases of academic failure some
talented athletes are unable to get into major universities or college
at all.
The "student athlete" category will
eliminate the problem and the hypocrisy. Any college will have the right
to pursue any high school athlete who does receive a high school diploma
before entering the college as a "student athlete" regardless of that athlete's
academic standing. What each college recruiting athletes ( first just men's
basketball and football ) in the "student athlete" category will be required
to do is file a detailed personalized academic program for each "student
athlete" recruited.
It will be allowed to differ widely
from the normal curriculum at that college and not necessarily produce
a diploma in any specified amount of time, nor will normal class work be
a requirement. The only issue will be that there be an academic program,
a learning component, that meets certain standards.
Then there is a second pivotal component
to the "student athlete" program. "Student athletes" will be paid a salary
for playing their sport. It can vary from one "student athlete" to another
and a maximum of maybe $50,000 per year seems sensible for football and
basketball. Further there will be very few if any restrictions on "student
athletes" gaining additional personal benefit by way of endorsements and
sponsorships except each must be submitted to the college for review within
guidelines that will be established.
This proposal creates something
entirely NEW in college sports. It directly addresses the two underlying
flaws in the current NCAA system while maintaining that system intact if
substantially altered. OF COURSE THE NCAA AND THE COLLEGES WILL REJECT
ANY SUCH PROPOSALS if left to themselves. They don't want to change anything.
It is a wonderful and profitable system just as it is for the NCAA and
the individual universities.
Think of it in comparison to the
Southern Plantation Society before the Civil War. The Southern ruling class,
all descendants "spiritually" of Thomas Jefferson the patriarch of that
system, saw no value in changing. Indeed they wanted to extend this corrupt
inexcusable system into new territories. It ended only when the decision
no longer became theirs to make.
While the NCAA situation will not
lead to armed conflict, just as it was the Federal Government that ended
slavery so it must be government and our elected officials who tell the
NCAA to change or have themselves preempted and ruled over by a National
Regulatory Commission to protect student athletes and the true valid integrity
of college sports. Or else for the NFL and NBA to ultimately abandon the
college "minor league" system for one much more like Major league Baseball
and fully under each League's control.
These Threats as well as general
public pressure will be required for Change. There is reason for Optimism
no matter how unlikely Change seems when the situation is examined superficially.
The NCAA system is " broke & fatally flawed" it cannot endure without
taking down college after college with it and enduring scandal after scandal
after scandal, any more than slavery could endure indefinitely as an institution
no matter how much the Southern aristocracy was committed to it and dependent
on it.
A new category of college attendee
is the answer not wholly student nor athlete but a formal category that
combines the best of both and puts the individual recruited at the center
of the system and their interests paramount. Student Athlete. The
result will be a New Dawn for athletically talented young men and women,
and for our colleges and for the NCAA. Everyone will be a winner except
the "plantation owners."
Whenever you want to reach us
with comments
or better yet an idea for a topic for the Box.......
blackbox@blackathlete.com
Black
Box Series
