How shortsighted is the NCAA with their Academic Percentage rate? Almost as much as Sports Illustrated’s Frank Deford.Sports Illustrated’s Frank Deford has a knack for establishing POV in his work. Fitting, then, that his articles appear in a section titled Viewpoint.
And his take on the NCAA’s newest batch of shortsighted rule changes, the Academic Progress Rate, almost makes sense:
In asking the public why we can’t make honest men out of our college athletes, noting that many are simply incapable of matching their on-field production in the classroom, he suggests letting football players major in football. Ditto for their high-flying peers on the hard court.
After all, music majors are allowed to major in music. Art students in art.
And he’s right.
We’d all feel better about ourselves if The Princeton Review had to add “X’s and O’s” to its university grading system curricula.
But here’s where Deford channels his inner Jerramy Stephens and drops the ball:
Music students, and their contemporaries in the art studios are in training for a career in that respective field. Hence, the university-stamped certificate on graduation day.
Now, I don’t want to hear that athletes are in training for a career in their respective sport. Sports Management or Sports Marketing? You betcha. But not sports existing solely as a funnel to a “career” in pro ball.
Try these numbers on for size:
On April 29-30 the NFL Draft will last seven rounds. There aren’t even enough picks in its duration to account for the players in the Atlantic DIVISION of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
And a far more drastic equation presents itself on June 28 when the NBA Draft will usher in TWO rounds of hopefuls; less space than the rosters of the Final Four combatants.
And before quantum calculus is applied to the staggering number of collegiate athletes from D1 to NAIA, remember that even the benchmark programs in football (Miami, USC) churn out single-digit NFL-caliber players annually. Traditional hoops powers like Kentucky and North Carolina are lucky to have more than a single player’s name called.
Yes, college athletics have become laughable through their obvious incongruity.
And there’s no doubt that as eligibility awareness increases in the administration-coach relationship, college athletes will continue to be short-changed academically as they’re steered toward doting faculty from the athletic department to the lecture hall.
But if they want any chance at success in the real world, they still need to do the math.