Who Goes to Class Anyways?

Recently, star running back Adrian Peterson of the University of Oklahoma Sooners was suspended from practice for two days because he failed to go to class.  Should fans care if athletes from big-time schools do not go to class?     University of Oklahoma star running back Adrian Peterson was recently suspended for two days of football practice due to the University’s new class attendance policy.  The new policy calls for a mandatory "penalty" of being held out of two practices if any member of an athletic team misses four or more classes.  If a player misses one-fifth of scheduled class meetings he or she must be held out of one athletic contest.  

     Apparently, Peterson must have gotten mixed up at registration, because he missed the first four class meeting for VCR programming.  All jokes aside, do you really care if college athletes at big-time programs go to class?

     Consider the facts, nationwide only 57 percent of college football players entering school in 1997 graduated within six years.  Over this same time span only 43 percent of Oklahoma players graduated.  Obviously Adrian Peterson is not alone among football players choosing not to go class.  

     However, this column would not be complete without highlighting the excellent academic tradition the University of Texas football program evidenced during the applicable time in question.  A whopping 27 percent of Longhorns managed to graduate in six years.  Way to go Mack!  Aggies you can finally have a reason to celebrate, you beat OU and UT.  Texas A&M managed to graduate 50 percent of its students.  

     From these statistics it is clear that football coaches and university presidents surely do not care whether athletes attend class.  The real question is why should they?  

     Do not be misled by the propaganda produced by university public relations offices and media outlets that try to make college athletics out to be "a part of the educational experience."  The bottom line is college athletics is all about the dinero.  These kids are not on-campus to learn about Aristotle, GAAP Accounting rules, or how to effectively communicate.  

     If you don’t believe me take your television off mute the next time a college athlete attempts to string together a complete sentence during an interview.  Why do you think Mack Brown has closed off his team to the media in the past?  Not because of the pressure getting to the team, but because he knows if he allows his players to talk it will be revealed that they had a hard enough time finding the UT media center much less a classroom.

     Back to my point, if college athletes are not going to go to class why even bother calling them college students.  Why don’t we call them what they really are, mercenaries to arrogant alumni.  A University’s best marketing tool.  Professional athletes who occasionally sit through some boring lecture.  

     In essence these athletes receive roughly $25,000-$50,000 pay a year in the form of tuition, room and board.  This does not even consider the under the table money that is prevalent at many football factories.  The pay may not be much, but not too many 18-22 year-olds would turn it down.  Let’s stop with the charade and simply stop making class attendance mandatory.  It surely would make the athletes happier, for who wants to be distracted by this little thing called learning.  Additionally, fans would likely be more satisfied as less distracted athletes will produce more victories.  Thus, everyone would be happy – more winning and less learning.

     However, until the NCAA adopts this new policy the least college athletes could do is show up to class.  At least your typical OU student has a good excuse for missing class, they were too hung over from a night of partying after celebrating a victory from their favorite professional team, the University of Oklahoma Sooners.  

     Oh yeah, I forgot about the TCU and UCLA games – now it looks like everybody has to go to class.  Way to go Adrian!